Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that President Trump must, by May 9, disclose which secret documents he intends to incorporate into his defense during the Mar-a-Lago trial is another dollop of doleful news for Special Counsel Jack Smith. 

The special counsel had asked for that deadline to be March 18, which has come and gone. He has suggested a trial date of July 8 for Mr. Trump, whom he accuses of stashing classified materials at his Palm Beach manse in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. The 45th president contends that the documents were “personal” under the terms of the Presidential Records Act.

Judge Cannon’s order, which was paperless, meaning that there is no accompanying reasoning, orders that Mr. Trump’s submission “shall be sufficiently detailed and cover both documentary exhibits and anticipated oral testimony. Standard rules regarding classified filings with the Court apply.” It gives Mr. Trump just less than a month to formulate the contours of his case. 

The May 9 deadline for Mr. Trump’s submission is not as far off as he had hoped, though. Lawyers for the 45th president requested a date of June 17, but Judge Cannon declined to push the cutoff that far into the future. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have requested an “indefinite delay” in the case until after the election. The judge originally set May 20 as the date for trial, but has since resisted the special counsel’s efforts to attain a brisk pace to meet that aspiration.

The Rules of Criminal Procedure mandate that “the court, by order or local rule, must set a time for the defendant to make the defendant’s disclosures. The time must be sufficiently before trial to provide a fair opportunity for the government to meet the defendant’s evidence.” This step is an early one in the runway to trial, meaning that even once it is completed, opening arguments will still be months in the future.

By splitting the distance between the suggested dates of Messrs. Trump and Smith, Judge Cannon could be ruling with one eye on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the tribunal that oversees her courtroom. Mr. Smith’s filings have increasingly referenced the possibility of appeal in general, and a petition for a writ of mandamus in particular.

Judge Cannon could reckon that if she delays the trial too drastically, such a writ — where a higher court compels a lower one — could come down from the appeals court ordering her to schedule a trial date, or even setting one for her. Such an aversion to appeal could be behind her this week overruling her own order with respect to witness secrecy.        

Mr. Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to declare that Mr. Smith’s office wants Judge Cannon to “act like the dishonest, politically biased and conflicted judges in New York and not like the fair and impartial judge that she is.” The former president’s efforts to delay his hush money trial at Manhattan have been unavailing. Jury selection there begins Monday.