Donald Trump's Lawyers Are Struggling To Manage Their Workload

Donald Trump's lawyers requested Judge Aileen Cannon to extend deadlines in the former president's classified documents case, citing their need to focus on another legal case.

Cannon is overseeing the trial of Special Counsel Jack Smith's case alleging that Trump mishandled classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The Department of Justice last year charged Trump with 31 counts connected to Smith's investigation. Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused federal prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.

On Monday, Trump's attorneys wrote a letter to Cannon asking her to extend deadlines for some reply submissions ahead of a hearing slated for Thursday, March 14. The current deadline to file these reply submissions is March 14, but his attorneys asked if they could have until March 24 to submit.

In the letter, they outlined several reasons for the request, including that they could use more time to work on these submissions because they also need to prepare for Trump's upcoming trial in New York, surrounding allegations that he falsified business documents during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

"President Trump and counsel are currently preparing for a trial in New York, New York that is scheduled to begin on March 25, 2024, and the need to simultaneously devote attention to that case and this matter has been necessitated in part by the discovery violations and strategic scheduling demands of the Special Counsel's Office that have prejudiced President Trump in multiple respects," the request reads.

Trump's New York trial stems from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's probe into hush money payments allegedly made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Daniels has claimed to have had an affair with Trump. The former president has denied having an affair with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to all charges in the New York case, maintaining that he did not engage in any wrongdoing.

His attorneys also pointed to the upcoming hearing, arguing the time they will spend traveling to Florida and preparing oral arguments for it would take away from time they would otherwise use to prepare their replies.

"The Defendants and counsel need to travel to Fort Pierce prior to March 14 in order to participate in the hearing, which is time we would otherwise use to prepare the other reply submissions," the filing reads.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek that Cannon has not been "particularly aggressive in pushing this case forward."

"The parties are still engaged in disputes over discovery and the disclosure of witness names. Having to prepare for two trials is not the best argument in support of an extension, but Judge Cannon has appeared receptive to the defense's procedural tactics to delay the case, so I wouldn't be surprised if she granted the request," he said.

Trump's attorneys also wrote that pending motions from Cannon about whether to compel discovery "are relevant to several of the pretrial motions for which additional
time is being sought," sparking a response from some legal experts.

"Cannon really needs to get on with issuing her rulings on the two main pending motions and set a trial date while she is at it. The 3/14 hearing will be helpful in resolving some of the other preliminary legal fights" wrote attorney Bradley P. Moss in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"Most judges have one omnibus brief that contains many motions. Judge issues orders on some as needed and then omnibus ruling on many at one time. But here, Cannon instructed Trump's team to file ten separate motions, which get ten separate replies, potential hearings, etc. Weird," lawyer Robert DeNault posted.