Former President Donald Trump's first hearing in his criminal case will be on July 18, according to a new court order.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will be about the handling of classified information, marking the first of likely many proceedings on this matter, and may be obscured to the public due to the sensitivity surrounding the classified materials.
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The date was established after a dispute on Monday in which special counsel Jack Smith implied Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta were attempting to impose an "unnecessary" delay by moving the date back from this coming Friday.
Nauta submitted a filing request to delay the hearing, citing that his main lawyer, Stanley Woodward, had prior obligations at a bench trial in Washington, D.C., this week.
Smith disputed Nauta's request, asking why his Florida-based lawyer, Sasha Dadan, couldn't handle the hearing instead.
“An indefinite continuance is unnecessary, will inject additional delay in this case, and is contrary to the public interest,” the special counsel team wrote in their filing.
A subsequent filing was uploaded to the docket later on Monday showing that the Trump team and the special counsel team agreed that July 18 would become the date of the first appearance.
Nauta said he had "little notice" that prosecutors would bring charges in the Southern District of Florida, where he would be required to have an attorney licensed in the state, and said his District of Columbia-based attorney's initial inability to get notices from the docket until then hindered his efforts to raise notice about the scheduling conflict.
The co-defendant also raised concerns about his defense team's lack of security clearances, writing that it was not reasonable to expect his Florida-based attorney to assume a lead role on matters that were initially slated for discussion Friday.
The July 18 hearing will underscore guidelines under what is known as the Classified Information Procedures Act to decide how sensitive materials involved in legal proceedings can be protected, as well as decide how they can be revealed or discussed in a trial setting.
Because Trump's case involves classified materials, which are barred from those without necessary clearances, the CIPA process could further delay the road to a trial as prosecutors must find a way to use these materials as evidence without disclosing their sensitive contents.
Amid the conflicting filings between the Trump team and the government about the CIPA hearing date, Trump has been seeking to delay his actual trial date until after the 2024 election, arguing that holding it beforehand would be unfair to his reelection prospects.
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Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 federal charges in connection to the classified documents case, including 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents under the Espionage Act.
Nauta, who was previously a former White House valet and now works as a Trump aide, is facing six counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements, and withholding and concealing documents. He pleaded not guilty to all the counts on Thursday.