No -- There Will Not Be A May 2024 Trial In The Trump Documents Case

The Scheduling Order Entered By Judge Cannon Is Just The Starting Point

I get the impression that much of the online legal punditry regarding the trial schedule entered in the Trump documents case is coming from attorneys whose primary — maybe only — experience is in federal civil litigation where the “Scheduling Order” rules the day and deviations are allowed only upon a finding of “good cause.'“ A trial date, as well as a host of pretrial filing deadlines, are established right at the very beginning. The trial date is set off as far as the parties think the need, and then they are — for the most part — stuck with that date.

That is done pursuant to Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of CIVIL Procedure.

There is no equivalent rule in the Federal Rules of CRIMINAL Procedure.

Yes Virginia, there are different rules in civil and criminal cases.

While it is not uncommon for federal judges to impose a scheduling order such as the one entered by Judge Cannon last week, because criminal cases are very unpredictable at the start, an early scheduling order is really just a guide — its the schedule that the case will follow until there is a reason to not follow the schedule any longer. At that point the schedule will be changed to accommodate the reason why the original no longer can be followed.

Ya fallow?

At this point in the case, the defense really has no idea what the Government’s evidence is or how the Government will present its case at trial.

Yes, there is an indictment that provides a road map.

Yes, the Smith SCO has provided a million or more pages of discovery, and has a large volume of “classified” discovery still to come.

Yes, the Smith SCO has provided the grand jury transcript of testimony of approximately 75 people.

So what? The fact that the Government has produced that material is irrelevant to the more important issue of how long it will take the defense to review, digest, and dissect the material. Only at that point will the defense begin to consider the nature of any factual defenses it might have available, and begin to construct the defense case.

Such a factual defense is completely different from the nature of the legal defenses that might be available to prevent a trial altogether.