In this morning’s hearing in the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon did not set a trial date for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case brought against Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Judge Cannon did tell prosecutors that their proposed 8 July trial date is “unrealistic”.

Special counsel prosecutor Jay Bratt told Judge Aileen Cannon that they are in compliance with Justice Department policy that discourages investigations in the 60 days before an election.

Mr Bratt said the policy did not apply to setting a trial date and because it does not apply to cases that have already been charged, CNN reports.

“We are in full compliance” with that policy, he said.

Rival Texas campaign stops highlighted the extreme contrasts between the president and his predecessor — one offers solutions and the other hurls insults.

According to reporting from the courthouse, Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s lawyer, has argued at today’s hearing before Judge Aileen Cannon that the prosecution’s proposed trial date for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case is “unfair” to both the former president and the American people.

Describing it as an “impossibility for the defendant”, Mr Blanche pushed for the trial to take place after the election and said that the defence had proposed a 12 August start date because any nearer the November election would be “more damaging” and “more harmful”.

He said that the New York criminal hush money trial, scheduled to begin on 25 March, would also get in the way of trial preparation should the prosecution’s proposed date of an 8 July start be accepted.

Mr Blanche called it “completely unfair” to have to prepare for the federal trial in Florida while the state trial in New York was underway (he is representing the former president in both cases).

The attorney for Mr Trump instead proposed evidentiary hearings in the documents case should begin in August after the six-week New York trial concludes.

Jay Pratt, a prosecutor with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office, told Judge Cannon that from both sides’ proposed schedules it looked as if they agreed the case could be tried this summer.

Judge Cannon called some aspects of the proposed schedule from the prosecution “unrealistic”.

She also noted that the New York case has to be factored in as Mr Trump has a right to appear for hearings. Mr Blanche told her that the New York trial date was “firm”.

Section Three of the amendment prohibits those who take part in insurrections or who aided enemies of the United States government from taking office.

Judges and justices in New Hampshire, Minnesota, Michigan and Arizona have already dismissed or rejected the attempt to disrupt Mr Trump’s ballot access. But Colorado, Maine and Illinois have disqualified the former president from appearing on the states’ presidential primary ballot.

Will Greenlee of USA Today spoke with an entrepreneurial supporter of the former president who had set up shop outside the courthouse in Fort Pierce.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump’s last remaining opponent for the Republican Party nomination, says Americans need to know the outcome of the former president’s many legal cases before the 2024 election.

“We need to know what’s going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard.”