Special counsel Jack Smith declared that he would press for a quick court date. It turns out he wasn’t bluffing. According to a new order posted to Judge Aileen Cannon’s court docket, the criminal trial of Donald Trump will begin on August 14.

For now, anyway:

🚨BREAKING: Judge sets an August 14th trial date for Donald Trump in the classified documents case.

pic.twitter.com/tYTKIo1kEd

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 20, 2023

ABC News also picked up on the docket entry:

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has set a tentative date of Aug. 14 for the start of former President Donald Trump’s trial on charges of obstruction and mishandling classified documents, per a new scheduling order posted to her court docket Tuesday morning.

The procedural order sets forth various filing deadlines for the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers leading up to the trial, which Cannon has ruled will take place at the Fort Pierce, Florida, courthouse — not in Miami where Trump’s initial appearance and arraignment took place.

But don’t mark your own calendars in ink yet:

The Aug. 14 start is not set in stone, however, and is likely to shift based on negotiations between Trump’s team, the Justice Department and Cannon as they navigate what is likely to be a very complex and contentious discovery process.

Smith undoubtedly wants to press forward quickly for a couple of reasons. First, Department of Justice policy has him on something of a clock. Their policy on prosecuting politicians is to avoid any action within 90 days of an election in order to minimize any real or perceived political impact. The general election is still 16 months and some change out, but the Republican primaries start after the first of the year. Depending on how one reads that guideline, Smith needs to get this going ASAP or wait a very long time.

Second, Smith probably feels that he has the goods on Trump already and doesn’t need more time to prepare. It doesn’t hurt to have Trump admitting to key elements of the charged crimes on national television, but at this point it might just be gilding the lily. A faster trial gives Trump less time to settle on a defense — if he’s even able to do that at all while continuing to talk publicly about the case and eliminating possible defenses — and rips the Band-Aid more quickly off the political nightmare for the DoJ.

But those are reasons why this court date is unlikely to last. Trump’s attorneys — once he gets them in place — will understandably ask for and almost certainly receive a continuance in order to get themselves ready for a courtroom defense. They will have to get clearances to review the documents, familiarize themselves with the nuances of 18 USC 793 and successful defenses against charges on that statute, and so on. The Constitution requires that prosecutors provide a speedy trial for defendants, but defendants can and often do waive that for a variety of reasons, especially when cases are this complex.

How long will the trial start be delayed? Judge Aileen Cannon seems determined to get this show on the road, but it would seem impossible for Trump and his attorneys to get properly prepared in less than two months, especially since it’s not clear that Trump has trial counsel in place yet. Perhaps mid-fall would be more realistic, but that starts bumping up against the 90-day guideline and the Iowa caucuses, too. That’s not the DoJ’s decision, of course, but it still creates the politicized environment that these guidelines intend to avoid. If the stumbling continues for much longer — and if Trump keeps damaging his own defense by discussing the case publicly — he may not find attorneys willing to self-immolate in time for a trial this year.

That brings me to a question I’ve been mulling since Trump’s interview with Bret Baier: would Smith sever the 793 charges for the moment and just try the obstruction and conspiracy counts separately? Not only are those more straightforward, they would simplify preparation for both sides, eliminating the need for continuances. It would not be necessary to deal with clearances and messiness over the specific contents of the material Trump withheld. One has to imagine that a court would look at such a move with some skepticism, especially if Smith moved to amend the indictment without prejudice, which would allow him to re-indict Trump on the 793 charges later. But that would give Smith the best chance of getting a faster trial date — and thanks to Trump, that case perhaps is already a slam-dunk.

Stay tuned. And only pencil in the August 14 date.