A federal judge in Florida has set a trial date for the former president in May

Donald

Trump in a case that accused him of illegally withholding hundreds of classified documents.

The trial date of May 20, 2024, set Friday by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, is a compromise between a request by prosecutors to set the trial for December and an effort by attorneys to schedule it after the 2024 presidential election.

If the date is correct, it would follow closely a separate trial in New York against Trump on dozens of state charges for falsifying business records. It also means that the process won’t begin until well into the presidential nomination calendar and likely well after the Republican nominee is clear, before that person is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention.

Trump could face even more trials in the coming year. He revealed this week that he received a letter informing him that he was the target of a separate Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and prosecutors in Georgia plan to issue indictment decisions within weeks in an investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to undermine the vote there.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.