The Daily Fuckup

On June 26, 2023, the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified-documents case set the next notable date on the calendar: a July 14 pretrial hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida. The order also dealt with a separate fight over secrecy, giving the government only part of what it asked for. The court declined, without prejudice, to let prosecutors file the entire witness list under seal.

Judge Aileen Cannon did allow the names of witnesses to be protected or redacted. But she did not accept the broader request to hide the full substance of the filing from public view. The ruling left the government with a narrower form of protection than it sought and kept the dispute over pretrial disclosure alive.

The June 26 order was procedural, not a ruling on the merits of the case. It did not decide guilt, innocence, or any evidentiary question for trial. It did, however, set up another round of pretrial litigation, with the July 14 hearing expected to address how classified material would be handled going forward.

The case’s trial schedule was already in flux by that point, and the order added another layer of court management to an already crowded docket. For now, the result was limited but concrete: a hearing date, partial sealing relief for the government, and one more contested issue heading back before the court.