A federal judge in Florida denied a key deadline request on Thursday from special counsel Jack Smith in the case against Donald Trump, alleging the former president unlawfully retained classified documents.

United States District Judge Aileen Cannon's decision, in which she rejected Smith's request that Trump notify him by mid-December of any classified evidence he plans to use for his defense, is yet another indicator that she is likely to postpone the trial's start date.

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The trial is currently set to begin on May 20, 2024, but Cannon said last week she would evaluate numerous outstanding deadlines at a scheduling conference on March 1, 2024.

The deadlines include requirements parties in the case need to meet under the Classified Information Procedures Act. Cannon's decision on Thursday, related to Section 5 of CIPA, confirmed that anything in the CIPA process beginning with Section 5 will not occur until after the scheduling conference, leaving what is expected to be months of back-and-forth filings that would run into the trial if the date of it remained intact.

CIPA is used in cases that involve classified material and governs how that material is managed in legal proceedings. Section 5 requires defendants to give notice to prosecutors about what classified material they plan to use during trial.

Prosecutors for Smith had asked Cannon to order Trump to notify them by Dec. 18 of which material he planned to disclose at trial from the 5,500 pages of classified discovery that prosecutors had provided to him.

"Providing such notice by a set, near-term date will facilitate the completion of CIPA litigation before the May 20, 2024 trial date," prosecutors argued.

Cannon said in her brief order Thursday that "CIPA Section 5 deadlines, and all other pre-trial deadlines not included in the first batch of pre-trial deadlines" will be addressed at the scheduling conference in March.

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The decision is a blow to prosecutors, who have little recourse to fight Cannon's scheduling orders and who have aggressively attempted to keep the trial on track. The decision is, by contrast, a win for Trump, who is the leading 2024 Republican presidential contender and has repeatedly pushed for the trial to take place after the election.

Smith's office declined to comment.