Trump Classified Docs Trial Set for May 2024—Smack in the Middle of Primary Season
This election is going to be a bumpy one.
Donald Trump is going to trial. All the way in May of 2024.
The twice-impeached, twice-indicted, and liable for sexual abuse presidential candidate faces 37 criminal counts trial for allegedly seizing and mishandling top secret government documents. The counts make him the first former president to now also be federally indicted.
And Friday, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, announced that Trump will face trial on May 20, 2024 in the classified documents case.
The trial will likely take two weeks, meaning it will overlap with the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. Several primaries will also take place immediately after the trial, in Washington, D.C., Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. The Republican National Convention is set for July 15, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Trump is reportedly already prepping for the convention, in case his nomination is blocked.)
While Trump had gone to efforts to push his trial till after the election, the date set by Cannon still lands at a time when Trump may very well have clinched the GOP nomination.
Though his opponents could use the looming trial as campaign fodder, most of his opponents have hesitated to attack the former president directly on any number of weak points: being impeached twice, losing the popular vote twice, potentially racking up to four indictments, being held liable for sexual abuse and defamation—or any of his previous criminality related to swindling Trump University attendees or evading taxes.
This story has been updated.