Important hearings over evidence availability on Monday could determine whether or not the former president is prosecuted before the November election in the criminal case involving sensitive papers against Donald Trump and others.

Without the presence of prosecutors, Trump showed up at the federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Monday morning for a meeting behind closed doors with Judge Aileen Cannon to go over the issue “in detail.” Trump waved to the crowd from his car as he departed the courtroom just after 2:00 p.m. ET.

Cannon is expected to meet with the staff of special counsel Jack Smith on Monday afternoon. There is no public access to either hearing.

According to the court record, the defense attorneys will argue for access to classified evidence in the case that neither they nor their clients have seen yet. This is evidence that the prosecutors and intelligence agencies want to withhold from them and may only give them summaries due to the information’s sensitivity.

Prosecutors and defense teams have been gearing themselves for trial, even though many Mar-a-Lago court proceedings and papers have been kept secret in recent weeks.
According to several sources close to the defense teams, they have been working nonstop over the past few days—including Super Bowl Sunday—to get ready for the hearing on Monday. They have been drafting motions and going over evidence in a secure information facility in Florida known as a SCIF.

Apart from the hearing, they have a significant court filing deadline in less than two weeks, and they are still planning how to push back the trial. Additionally, they are at odds with the prosecution over the release of witness names before of the trial.

In circumstances like these when the court has classified material, the judge must exercise great care to ensure that defense teams have access to the information they need to prepare for trial without jeopardizing the federal government’s national security secrets.

Delays in Trump’s Case

This occasionally leads to drawn-out court hearings to decide whether classified evidence defense attorneys and even defendants can view. There could be delays in Trump’s case due to the complexity of the case, the number of defendants, and the quantity of secret data that are included in the evidence.

It is anticipated that Cannon will hold a hearing on March 1 to discuss whether the May 1 trial may proceed as planned.

Previously, the Justice Department stated that it is attempting to withhold at least 5,500 pages from Trump’s co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, some of which their attorneys, Trump, and his defense team can already go through in a SCIF.

According to court pleadings, the majority of the materials being withheld from the co-defendants are those that had classified markings on them that the FBI discovered in boxes at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. In order to “meaningfully discuss the viability” of their defenses, Nauta and De Oliveira’s attorneys have claimed that they should have more access. This is a topic that is expected to be covered in the closed session on Monday.

Due to national security concerns, a smaller set of documents is also being withheld from Trump and his legal representatives by the federal government. Cannon has already witnessed sworn declarations from intelligence agencies regarding the necessity of keeping some records secret, even from the defense teams, and has personally heard arguments from the special counsel’s office once.

Later, Cannon will have to determine which evidence pieces are required to be used in a public trial and how that evidence can be presented.
The availability to material by the defense teams is not the only source of conflict in the Mar-a-Lago case. The identities of potential witnesses who may be asked to testify against Trump in court are being withheld from the public by the special counsel’s office, citing concerns about witness harassment.

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