High-stakes closed door hearings over evidence in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents case set for Monday

CNN —

The classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump and others isheating up again Monday with crucial hearings over access to evidence that could impact whether the former president is tried before the November election.

Trump arrived at the federal courthouse Monday morning in Fort Pierce, Florida, for a closed-door hearing with Judge Aileen Cannon without prosecutors present to discuss the case “in detail.” Trump left the courthouse shortly after 2 p.m. ET, waving to a crowd from his car.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team is scheduled to meet with Cannon Monday afternoon.

Neither hearing is open to the public.

The defense lawyers will argue for access to classified evidence in the case they or their clients haven’t yet seen – and that prosecutors and intelligence agencies seek to keep from them, potentially giving them only summaries of the information because of how sensitive it is, according to the court record.

While many of the Mar-a-Lago documents case proceedings and filings have been kept out of the public’s view in recent weeks, the prosecutors and defense teams have been preparing for trial.

The defense teams have been furiously at work over the past several days – including on Super Bowl Sunday – preparing for the hearing Monday, writing motions and reviewing evidence in a sensitive compartmented information facility, called a SCIF, in Florida, according to multiple sources familiar with the team.

In addition to the hearing, they face a major deadline for court filings in less than two weeks, as they continue to strategize for ways to delay the trial. They are also fighting with prosecutors over making witness names public now, well before the trial.

Court cases with classified