Former President Donald Trump issued a statement Friday to hail a Florida federal judge's decision to schedule his trial date in the seized documents case for next May, The Post Millennial reported.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday scheduled trial proceedings to begin on May 20, 2024, with a pretrial hearing in the case set for May 14. Cannon's decision is a compromise between the Department of Justice's request to set the trial for December and the Trump defense team's request to schedule proceedings after the 2024 presidential election. Trump is the GOP front-runner.
"Today's order by Judge Cannon is a major setback to the DOJ's [Department of Justice's] crusade to deny President Trump a fair legal process," a Trump spokesperson said, according to The Post Millennial.
"The extensive schedule allows President Trump and his legal team to continue fighting this empty hoax. Crooked Joe Biden is losing and attempting to use his weaponized DOJ against his top political rival — a disgraceful and un-American abuse of power. Crooked Joe will fail and President Trump will win back the White House for the American people."
If the May dates hold, the trial will follow closely after Trump's New York trial on state criminal charges of falsifying business records. That trial is scheduled for March 25.
The Guardian reported on Friday that Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis is preparing to oversee a potential grand jury indictment of Trump on racketeering charges for his efforts to contest the 2020 election results.
Earlier this week, the former president revealed on his Truth Social platform that he had received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith indicating that he is the target of a separate DOJ probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It is not yet known when or if the former president will be charged.