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Judge set to consider when to hold trial as questions mount over whether any cases facing former president will reach a verdict before November election
- Trump expected to attend key Mar-a-Lago case hearing
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Good morning, US politics blog readers. It’s another big day of legal wrangling for Donald Trump, who is expected in Florida for a major hearing in the case against him for allegedly hoarding classified government documents. Among the issues federal judge Aileen Cannon is set to consider is when to hold the trial, with prosecutors proposing a July start date and Trump’s lawyers suggesting August. The bigger question is whether a jury will hand down a verdict in any of the former president’s four criminal cases before the November election. The odds of that happening grew longer earlier this week, when the supreme court further delayed Trump’s trial for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election when it agreed to consider whether he was immune from prosecution. While it’s not clear when she will rule, we may get a sense of how Cannon is leaning on the trial date after the hearing opens at 10am ET.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, closing arguments will take place this afternoon in a bid by Trump and his co-defendants to boot Atlanta-area district attorney Fani Willis from the case she brought against him and 18 others for alleged conflicts of interest. We’ll let you know how that one is looking, too.
Congress is busy negotiating behind closed doors on government spending, after yesterday passing short-term funding legislation to prevent a shutdown that would have started at midnight today.
A transcript of Hunter Biden’s interview with Congress was released, which mostly showed the president’s son denying that his father had anything to do with his business dealings.
The White House press briefing happens at 1.30pm.
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