In an apparent effort to jumpstart the government’s classified documents trial against former President Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith has asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of Fort Pierce to start the process of developing a questionnaire for potential jurors.
“Because the pre-trial publicity surrounding this case is substantial, the Government recommends a thorough jury selection process, including a written questionnaire completed by potential jurors before in-person voir dire,” the government wrote in a nine-page request filed with the court late Tuesday.
The prosecutors acknowledged that the defense teams representing Trump and co-defendants Waltine Nauta, the former president’s personal valet, and Carlos De Oliveira, an employee at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, oppose the government motion, saying it is “premature.”
Jury questionnaires are now “a common complement to oral examination when selecting an effective and impartial jury,” the government noted. They help to streamline jury selections by allowing both sides as well as the court “to identify uncontested strikes for cause and hardship before in-person voir dire begins, and to conduct informed individual questioning of a winnowed venire.”
But it takes time for the opposing sides to agree on the wording of questionnaires. Moreover, the prosecutors acknowledged in their filing that the defense believes it “would not be an economical use of the parties’ time before the Court has ruled on discovery demands or other motions.”
As of late Wednesday, none of the defense teams had filed a response to the government’s request.
Trial still set for May
For now, Cannon has set May 20, 2024, as the date to start a trial. But that could easily change as the defense previously has urged the court to delay the proceedings until after the presidential election in November.
And early last month, Cannon indicated that she could well delay the trial’s start. She cited a voluminous stack of evidence — both classified and unclassified — that must be reviewed by the lawyers. And she pointed to the other criminal cases confronting the former president.
Trump faces 40 charges alleging he hid classified documents at his Palm Beach estate and obstructed government efforts to retrieve them. He and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in the indictment.
Besides the documents case, Smith is bringing a case in Washington that alleges Trump schemed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case is scheduled for trial on March 4, but has been placed on hold pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A trial in Georgia on state charges that Trump tried to subvert the election could start next year as well. And he also faces a New York trial on charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor ahead of the 2016 election. Finally, he is a defendant in a civil case brought by New York’s attorney general alleging business fraud. A decision by a judge is pending in the New York civil case.
Government cites short lead time
The prosecutors in the documents case said they are “mindful” of a previous court order that pushed back a number of deadlines of various motions and responses, and that “any further deadlines will be set after a scheduling conference on March 1, 2024.”
“However, given the lead time that the Clerk’s Office will need to implement a jury questionnaire, beginning the process after March 1 will likely not provide the Court with sufficient time prior to trial,” the prosecutors wrote.
Robert Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said “it makes a lot of sense that Smith would want to start work on this.
“It’s going to be very hard to seat an impartial jury, and the jury form is going to have to be very long and very detailed to root out any hidden biases,” he said.
But Jarvis noted that “Trump’s whole plan is to delay the trial as much as possible, so it’s not surprising that his lawyers are opposed to starting work on this.”
In the end, he predicted, Cannon will decide “there is plenty of time to work on this later and therefore will not grant Smith’s request.”