Jack Smith, the particular counsel, has requested a federal decide to maneuver again the beginning of the trial of former President Donald J. Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, within the categorized paperwork case from August to Dec. 11, in response to a Justice Department submitting made public late Friday.

The Justice Department proposal nonetheless requires a comparatively speedy timetable; Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s earlier ruling set the preliminary trial date at Aug. 14, nevertheless it was thought-about one thing of an administrative place holder, with either side anticipating vital procedural delays.

In their submitting, prosecutors stated the extra time could be wanted to acquire safety clearances for protection legal professionals and cope with the procedures round categorized proof. It would additionally give protection legal professionals extra time to evaluation the volumes of supplies prosecutors have turned over to them, the submitting stated.

Mr. Smith and his staff argued within the submitting that the trial ought to nonetheless be fast-tracked regardless of its huge political implications, as a result of it “involves straightforward theories of liability, and does not present novel questions of fact or law,” neither is it notably “unusual or complex” from a authorized perspective.

Mr. Smith’s staff additionally supplied the protection legal professionals with its first estimate of the variety of witnesses — 84 — who may be known as to testify. The decide presiding over Mr. Trump’s preliminary listening to requested the listing to impose a restriction in opposition to the previous president discussing the case with them, to stop witness tampering.

Prosecutors requested that the names be stored beneath seal, cautioned that the tally “does not comprise all of the witnesses the government might call at trial,” and stated the protection had reserved the proper to problem these on the listing.

The particular counsel additionally set into movement a set of mandated procedures beneath the Classified Information Procedures Act that may give legal professionals for Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta, Mr. Trump’s valet and private aide, entry to categorized proof the federal government plans to current at trial. The categorized paperwork are a key element of the case in opposition to Mr. Trump, by which he faces fees of risking nationwide protection secrets and techniques and obstruction over his retention of the fabric after he left the White House and his refusal to return it.

The protection might not share the prosecution’s urgency, and prosecutors stated of their submitting that protection legal professionals deliberate to object to the particular counsel’s timeline. Mr. Trump’s strategy in legal matters has lengthy been to delay. If a trial drags previous the 2024 election and Mr. Trump wins the race, he might, in principle, attempt to pardon himself, or he might direct his legal professional basic to drop the fees and wipe out the case.

The extent to which the 2 sides conflict on scheduling and process poses an early take a look at for Judge Cannon, a relatively inexperienced jurist appointed by Mr. Trump in 2020. She disrupted the paperwork investigation final yr with a number of rulings favorable to the previous president earlier than a conservative appeals court docket overturned her, saying that she never had legal authority to intervene.

The submitting comes simply earlier than the formal arraignment in Miami federal court docket of Mr. Nauta, scheduled for Tuesday. He couldn’t be formally arraigned with Mr. Trump on June 13 as a result of his Washington-based legal professional had not but been given standing by the court docket.

Earlier this week, the federal government started handing over unclassified discovery supplies to the protection, together with paperwork obtained by way of warrants and subpoenas, transcripts of grand jury testimony and witness interviews, and copies of closed-circuit tv footage the federal government obtained throughout its investigation, in response to the submitting.