Donald Trump's classified documents trial is set to become a "hotbed of activity in the coming days, a legal expert has said.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance suggested a series of major updates is in the pipeline, after Judge Aileen Cannon set a May 9 deadline for Trump and his two co-defendants to submit court filings related to Section 5(a) of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA).
Vance explained the filings will be crucial as they will disclose any expert witnesses and sensitive materials intended for use at the trial by the former president, aide Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges in relation to allegations he illegally retained classified materials after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.
Nauta and De Oliveira have also pleaded not guilty to obstruction charges after being accused of moving boxes of sensitive materials around Mar-a-Lago so they could not be found by the FBI, as well conspiring to delete security footage at the resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Writing in her Civil Discourse blog, Vance said: "Section 5(a) is important because it requires defendants who plan to disclose classified information to provide written notice far enough in advance of trial to permit the government to obtain rulings from the court and appeal if necessary to avoid a 'graymail' situation where defendants force the government to dismiss charges against them to avoid disclosure of classified information that would damage national security.
"Expect this to be a hotbed of activity," Vance added.
Vance also noted that Cannon has not extended the May 9 deadline despite one of Trump's lawyers in the classified documents case, Chris Kise, confirming he will be unavailable until May 19 while he recovers from surgery.
Another one of Trump's legal team in the Mar-a-Lago case, Todd Blanche, is also currently representing the former president during his hush money trial in New York.
"It's not clear how Kise's unavailability applies to defendants who are represented separately," Vance wrote. "But it's clear that Judge Cannon needs to get on with setting a new trial date. This case is still set for May 20, and that's not going to happen."
Trump's legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office filed the federal charges against Trump, recently wrote to Cannon urging her to reject Nauta's request to extend the May 9 CIPA filing deadline.
Nauta had asked for a delay while claiming his lawyers were struggling to determine precisely where certain documents were retrieved from specific boxes following the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
In response, Smith suggested the move was an unnecessary delay bid.
"Originally, Nauta had counted on leveraging his counsel's vacation and trial schedule to delay the proceedings," Smith wrote.
"But when his counsel's trial schedule excuse evaporated, Nauta was forced to devise a new basis—that the Government's discovery is insufficient for him to identify the classified evidence he wants to disclose at trial and to notice any expert testimony.
"Nauta's latest basis for delay is both factually wrong—the Government has afforded Nauta technical support, indexing, and material not required by the Federal Rules or provided in most criminal cases—and legally baseless: the shortfalls Nauta alleges do not impact preparing a CIPA Section 5 notice or a Rule 16 expert notice."
In the same filings, Smith's office admitted that some of the materials may not be in the original sequence as when FBI agents retrieved them from Mar-a-Lago, and that this is "inconsistent" with what the government previously told the court when they said that the only changes were some classified documents had been removed and placeholders put in the documents.
Smith's office suggested that "size and shape of certain items in the boxes" possibly lead to them moving around, but it should not affect the case or the CIPA process.
"For example, the boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full," Smith's team wrote.
In response, Trump accused Smith of "blatant evidence tampering" by mishandling the boxes of evidence and called for him to be arrested.
A spokesperson for the Special Counsel declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
