Judge Aileen Cannon, who is leading the trial of former US President Donald Trump for his withholding of secret documents after leaving office, has set a trial date between May 20 and June 3, 2024. The decision is Solomonic. It will not be in December, as the prosecution had requested; but neither will it be left for after the December 5 elections, which is what Trump’s defense had claimed.
Cannon, who was appointed to the position by Trump and performed in favor of the former president during the investigation that led to the trial, has thus set the oral hearing just at the end of the primaries for the election of the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for the White House. At the end of May or the beginning of June, it is usually known who will be the winner, with the sole exception of years in which the campaign is extremely close. The Republican primaries conclude on June 11.
In 2008, when an epic battle took place between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, the latter only reached the number of delegates necessary to be mathematically elected, precisely on June 3, which was also the last day of the primaries. In 2016, May 27 was the day that Donald Trump achieved the magic figure that would allow him to be a candidate.
The big difference is that in 2024, Donald Trump starts as the clear favourite, with an advantage of more than 30 points in relation to his most immediate rival, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. Therefore, it seems very likely that when the trial begins the campaign will be more than determined. This is a point in favor of the former president, since the sessions can be negative for his image, since he has not been able to explain why he refused to return those documents, including several top-secret classifieds related to atomic bomb systems of allied countries and, also, to the personal lives of other world leaders.
Even if he were sentenced to jail, Trump could still run for office and be president. In that case, he would have two options: run the country from a cell or, which is taken for granted, pardon himself, which would not only go free, but the crime would be expunged from his criminal record, as if it had never existed. In any case, it is assumed that the former president’s legal team will continue to battle for the postponement of the trial.
For now, Trump has been charged with two crimes: violation of the law that regulates electoral campaigns, and the theft of White House documents. It is likely that next week it will be for a third party: his alleged participation in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when his followers tried to interrupt the ratification of the electoral result of the elections that Joe Biden won.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
