There Are Games Afoot In The Scheduling of Trump's Two Federal Cases - Has One Court Blinked First?

Special Counsel Smith Is At A Real Disadvantage in How This Might Play Out -- But He Brought It On Himself.

First Commandment of federal criminal trial practice:

Thou shalt not take deliberate steps to disrupt a federal judge’s calendar.

There is almost nothing that will bring a federal prosecutor or defense attorney grief and vituperation more quickly or in greater volume than to deliberately do something that forces a federal judge to alter his or her schedule to accommodate something an attorney has done.

At the top of that list for prosecutors there is probably a new entry now — indicting the highest profile defendant possible in two different courts and then seeking a schedule in the second case that makes it impossible for the earlier-indicted case to proceed as scheduled.

What’s happening now with scheduling in the Florida and D.C. cases is that each Judge is playing a game of “chicken” with the other court’s calendar. The D.C. case, although filed second, is set to begin trial with jury selection starting March 4. Some preliminary jury matters involving a lengthy juror questionnaire will occupy much time for each side starting in early February.

In Florida, consistent with the local practice, and as done by many other federal district courts across the country — but not the District of Columbia court — an original trial date was set for August 14, 2023, which was within 70 days of Trump’s Arraignment on the original indictment as required by law.

On June 23, 2023 — before the D.C. case was filed — SCO Smith made a motion to continue the August trial date in light of the numerous factors that can justify such a move. On July 21, 2023, Judge Cannon granted that motion, and established the following key dates for various pretrial matters and the trial in the Florida case:

Sept. 7 — Initial review of classified discovery

Nov. 8 — Government disclosure of expert witnesses

Nov. 15 — Defense disclosure of expert witnesses

Nov. 21 — Government Discovery Status Memorandum

Feb. 5 — Defense reciprocal discovery to be completed

Feb. 26 — Hearing on pretrial motions

Mar. 20 — Deadline for filing trial-related motions in limine

Apr. 17 — Hearing on remaining trial-related motions

May 14 — Hearing on any remaining CIPA (classified materials) issues

May 20 — Jury selection and trial.

Again, that schedule was set in response to a motion by SCO Smith to continue the original trial date. He proposed an earlier trial date in Dec. 2023, ridiculous on its face for a case with millions of pages in discovery and issues involving classified records that may be part of the evidence introduced.