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A federal judge overseeing the sex-trafficking case against Jeffrey E. Epstein set a tentative trial date for mid-2020 during the financier’s first court appearance since he was discovered unconscious in his jail cell in what prison officials were investigating as a possible suicide attempt.

The brief hearing on Wednesday morning ended without mention of the July 23 incident at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Mr. Epstein was found passed out in his jail cell with marks on his neck.

The authorities have yet to explain what happened to Mr. Epstein. It remains unclear whether he attempted suicide or was attacked by another inmate.

Martin G. Weinberg, one of Mr. Epstein’s attorneys, asked the judge for 13 months to review the more than one million discovery documents that are expected to surface. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan suggested that a trial could start as early as June. But he stressed that it could change, depending on the speed of pretrial hearings.