Donald Trump’s legal team is outlining how he intends to fight the classified documents case against him in Florida, including by claiming presidential immunity, despite a significant defeat on that issue in the election subversion case in Washington, DC.
In a filing Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys asked Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the Florida case, for more time to follow certain pretrial motions they’re considering, including to suppress discovery and allege prosecutorial misconduct.
The attorneys also say they expect to file arguments on presidential immunity in the case, a defense that was decidedly tossed out by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, the same day as Trump’s filing in Florida.
The election subversion and classified documents cases are markedly different – with the 2020 election case focusing on Trump’s time as president and the other on Trump’s retention of classified material after he left office – and a new argument of presidential immunity in Florida could be examined by Cannon and the appeals court above her separately from the DC case.
Trump has said he intends to appeal the DC Circuit Court’s ruling.
The former president’s attorneys indicated in the filing they may argue special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution in Florida has been selective and vindictive, that prosecutors violated Trump’s due process rights and are misusing information gathered during the investigation.
The Florida case is currently scheduled for trial in May, though the number of disputes over discovery and how classified material in the case should be treated could push that date back. Trump’s lawyers have tried to delay his federal criminal trials until after the 2024 presidential election.