US District Judge Aileen Cannon signaled she is open to pushing back the start of a trial in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case past the mid-December date proposed by federal prosecutors – but appeared deeply skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s lawyers that he couldn’t get a fair trial while running for president.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team and lawyers for Trump appeared Tuesday for the first time in front of Cannon, who will preside over the criminal case Smith has brought against the former president.

Cannon did not decide on a trial date but said she plans to “promptly” issue an order on the matter.

[This also includes the prosecutors’ request to push the trial to December as well as Trump’s request for an indefinite delay until after the election. Cannon would probably have no problem with a December date; the “skeptical” response came to the claims that Trump can’t get a fair trial until after the election, in Florida. Even if she agreed with that assessment, though, Smith may end up with a trial date in DC sooner if he issues an indictment against Trump on the J6/stop the steal investigation. — Ed]