Prosecutors had already asked district judge Aileen Cannon for a delay until Dec 11, from an initial date of Aug 14, so as to give both sides more time to prepare.

But Trump’s lawyers said a December trial date would deny them reasonable time to prepare, and described the government’s requested schedule as “unrealistic.”

“The court should therefore withdraw the current order setting trial and postpone any consideration of a new trial date,” the lawyers said, adding that a continuance was both necessary and appropriate.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty in federal court on June 13 in Miami to charges that he had unlawfully kept classified national security documents when he left office in 2021 and lied to officials who sought to recover them.

Nauta, his aide, pleaded not guilty last week in a Miami federal courthouse to charges that he had helped Trump hide top-secret documents taken when he left the White House.

The US Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment outside regular hours.