A federal judge on Friday delayed the start of the trial to May 20 of next year, after Florida’s March 19 presidential preference voting.
Florida GOP presidential primary voters, as well as those in other states, will not have a trial on Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents to distract them as they cast votes their ballots for their party’s nominee next year.
A federal judge on Friday delayed the start of the trial to May 20 of next year, after Florida’s March 19 presidential preference voting and well after the vast majority of other states’ GOP primaries and caucuses — a move that essentially benefits the former president’s 2024 White House comeback.
« The longer it waits, the better off it is (for Trump), » said University of North Florida pollster Michael Binder. « Obviously clearing the primary calendar is a benefit. There are arguments to be had, if in the throes of a presidential election, if Trump were to get the nomination, there might be arguments to delay it even further. »
Up until Friday, the trial date on 37 felonies related to his possession, mishandling and attempts to conceal government records, including files containing some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, loomed over the 2024 election calendar like a hurricane yellow cone.
Iowa Republicans have already set Jan. 15 as the date for their primary season kickoff caucus. Super Tuesday follows on March 5. All but few states will have concluded there nomination balloting before jury selection begins. However, it’s not clear whether trial will have concluded by the time Republicans gather in Milwaukee for their convention in mid-July.
That’s a thorny possibility, Binder added.
« The question would be if you were to get a decision leading up to the throes of a presidential election, if he were to the be the nominee, what would that do not just for the left or the right, but really to some of those moderates who might look at this and say ‘You know, we can’t have this,’ and maybe they vote the other because of it, » said Binder, who remains skeptical the case will be heard before the November general election.
