FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling top secret documents will begin in May of next year, the judge presiding over the case said Friday.

US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the jury trial of the former president, the first ever to face criminal charges, to begin on 20 May 2024.

Last month, the same judge set a trial date for August of this year however it was reported that Trump’s legal team were likely to get that preliminary date pushed back by months.

Prosecutors had asked for the trial to begin in December while Trump’s defense attorneys had requested that it be held after the November 2024 presidential election.

The 77-year-old Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination and the trial will be held at the height of the primary campaign to select the party’s flag-bearer for the election.

Trump pleaded not-guilty to all charges to violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to obstruct justice by concealing documents and misleading investigators.

The former US president gave himself up to US Marshals in Miami in June for a brief hearing that set up the unprecedented scenario of a White House race litigated from the courtroom as well as at the ballot box.

Trump later appeared before a magistrate judge to be formally presented with 37 charges brought by a special counsel probe that opened after an FBI raid of his Florida mansion.

“We are certainly entering a plea of not guilty,” Todd Blanche, his attorney, told the hearing last month.

The US government is accusing Trump of violating the Espionage Act and other laws when he removed classified documents upon leaving office in 2021 and failed to give them up to the National Archives.

Authorities say he conspired to thwart investigators and knowingly shared national security secrets with people who did not have the requisite clearance.

Trump is charged with 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information,” each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

He also faces charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and other offenses.

On Tuesday, the former US president announced that he expects to be arrested over and indicted over the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

The twice-impeached Trump was also charged in New York with making election-eve hush money payments to a porn star. This is one of a number of cases involving the one-term president.

Additional reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill