Trump’s trial could come sooner than if he were indicted elsewhere—but his case may also be overseen by a more sympathetic judge and jury.
Topline
Former President Donald Trump is expected to surrender to authorities Tuesday in Miami after being indicted on federal charges stemming from him retaining White House documents at Mar-A-Lago, as the DOJ decided to bring charges against Trump in Florida rather than Washington, D.C.—a decision that could speed up the legal proceedings, but also be a friendlier venue for the ex-president.Key Facts
Prosecutors decided to bring Trump’s case in the Southern District of Florida because much of the conduct at issue—Trump storing documents at his Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach and his various dealings with keeping them and turning them over to federal authorities—happened there, according to sources cited by the .
A grand jury had initially been convened in Washington, D.C., to hear evidence in the documents case, so the longstanding assumption was that any charges would be brought there, but reports emerged this week that a second grand jury had been convened in Florida, ahead of Trump’s announcement Thursday he had been asked to surrender in Miami.
Bringing the charges immediately in Florida could help speed up the legal process, as if the case had initially been brought in D.C., it was broadly expected Trump and his lawyers would have tried to move the case to Florida, slowing down proceedings as the court ruled on that issue.
The Southern District of Florida is also known for moving cases to trial more quickly than other federal courts, former federal prosecutor Franklin Monsour told Bloomberg, saying, “If the prosecution team feels like it has a strong case and can move quickly, there’s no better place to charge a case than the southern district of Florida.
