Matt Whitaker to Newsmax: Trump Trial Will Be After ’24 Election If GOP Nominee

Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general in the Trump administration, told Newsmax on Monday that it will take some time before the Department of Justice’s case against former President Donald Trump regarding his handling of classified documents is definitively resolved.

Whitaker explained on “American Agenda” that he believes the trial likely would not begin until after the 2024 general election, should Trump win the Republican presidential nomination.

“The government even says this is going to be a three-week trial, [and] that’s a long trial that takes a lot of preparation from both the lawyers and the client,” Whitaker said. “There’s no way that Donald Trump, while he runs for president, is going to be able to prepare for this trial in a meaningful way.

“I’m sure the judge is going to be very sympathetic to his requests to extend it beyond the political campaign that he currently finds himself in.”

The judge assigned to the case, Aileen Cannon, was appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020. She was randomly picked to oversee the case, but many on the left believe she should recuse herself. Cannon previously ruled in September that a special master be appointed to the case to review the classified documents seized by the DOJ at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and that the DOJ cease its investigation until the special master completed its review of the material. The DOJ appealed Cannon’s ruling and it was overturned by the 11th Circuit.

“Contrary to what the left wants you to believe, Judge Cannon is a very capable judge,” Whitaker said. “She did appoint a special master, as you remember, that was overturned by the 11th Circuit, and the Supreme Court didn’t touch that. At the same time, she is going to make a lot of rulings in this case, both what’s admissible into the court during the trial, but also what can be heard by the jury even before it goes to trial.

“Judge Cannon certainly is going to have a lot of influence, as these trial court judges often do, as to what the case is and what the case isn’t,” Whitaker added. “But she’s going to have some dispositive motions on the front end, which you know include this presidential records issue, that I think is also going to be very interesting.”

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