It’s a tactic that has worked for Donald Trump in the past. Facing federal charges that he allegedly hoarded classified documents and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the former president resorted to a familiar strategy: try to delay his legal woes into oblivion.
On Monday night, Trump’s attorneys requested an indefinite delay in the Mar-a-Lago boxes case after Special Counsel Jack Smith requested the trial start in December. The matter will now be decided by the Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. Her ruling will have implications far beyond this one case. With another trial in New York looming, and other potential indictments against him in the works, the outcome of Trump’s bid to postpone the trial until after the 2024 election could impact the campaign and possibly the fate of multiple prosecutions against the former President.
If Trump can push the trial until after the election and win back the presidency, he could attempt to pardon himself or have the Department of Justice squash the case against him—a move that would galvanize a fierce backlash and legal challenges from across the political spectrum.
“Delay is what he does. That’s one of his main legal strategies,” Noah Bookbinder, a former Justice Department attorney, tells TIME. “The fact that they’re pushing for an extensive delay is not surprising. This particular way of doing it seems unusual.”
In a 12-page filing, Trump’s lawyers cited several reasons behind the...
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