An exhaustive search for government records assessing the impact of the WikiLeaks disclosures could delay the court-martial of the Army private charged with causing the biggest intelligence leak in U.S. history, a military judge said Wednesday.

With the defense accusing prosecutors of sitting on evidence potentially favorable to Pfc. Bradley Manning, the judge indicated she would consider his lawyers' request for a stay of proceedings. The trial is set to begin Sept. 21.

"The court is certainly willing to entertain any good-cause motions for continuance," Col. Denise Lind said from the bench during a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade that is scheduled to continue through Friday.

Lind didn't say when she would rule on the defense motion.

Manning, a 24-year-old Crescent, Okla., native, is charged with knowingly aiding al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula by allegedly causing hundreds of thousands of classified war logs, video clips and diplomatic cables to be published on the secret-sharing website WikiLeaks. Authorities say he downloaded the files from a Defense Department network while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010.