Because of the involvement of classified documents, the federal criminal case against Donald Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents will not reach trial for approximately 1.5–2 years after indictment (i.e., until around late 2024 to mid‑2025).
“I would have indicted him for sure on the, uh, documents case. But I will tell you... by indicting on the documents, you just made it a much more complicated case that may not get to trial for a year and a half or two because of the classified documents involved.”
Trump's federal classified-documents case did become bogged down in extensive pretrial litigation over classified evidence and was ultimately dismissed by Judge Cannon in July 2024, never reaching trial, well within the predicted delay window.