Special counsel Jack Smith is reportedly set to have a private meeting with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump.

Smith has filed two indictments against Trump, and the meeting with Cannon is scheduled for January 31, with neither Trump nor his legal team in attendance.

“In Florida, Trump faces 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and eight other charges that include making false statements and a conspiracy to conceal them,” Newsweek reported on Monday.

The outlet added: “The ‘ex parte’ hearing on January 31 pertains to objections filed by Trump lawyers in which they have asked for access to documents that are off-limits because of sensitive information. In a motion filed in December last year, Trump’s lawyers said they ‘seek attorneys’-eyes-only access to these filings so that we can challenge [Smith’s] assertions in adversarial proceedings.’ An ex parte meeting is conducted without parties affected by the proceeding and without a transcript, meaning details of Cannon and special counsel’s conversations will not be made public.”

The outcome of the hearing carries significant weight for the trial; should Cannon rule in favor of Trump, whether entirely or partially, it is likely that the Justice Department (DOJ) would seek to file an appeal.

The appeal would be regarded as interlocutory, indicating that further steps or decisions would be necessary before the trial begins. This could potentially result in a delay of the existing trial date, which is scheduled for May 20th of this year.

Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance mentioned that if Cannon were to dismiss the prosecution’s argument, any appeal initiated by Smith’s office would be conducted swiftly.

“While we won’t learn much if anything about what happens when the Special Counsel’s team sits down with Judge Cannon, we’ll find out if they object to anything that happened fairly quickly, in the form of a notice of appeal to the 11th Circuit,” Vance said.