Trump and Co-Defendants Request Separate Trial Dates in Georgia Election Subversion Case
Former President Donald Trump, along with 16 co-defendants, will not be going to trial in October with two other defendants in the Georgia election subversion case. Instead, they will have their own separate trial date, which has yet to be determined, announced Fulton County Supreme Court Judge Scott McAfee.
The remaining co-defendants, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have requested speedy trials and are scheduled to begin in October. A hearing on their case will be held this Thursday.
This order from Judge McAfee puts a halt to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ efforts to have all 19 defendants tried together in October.
A spokesperson for Trump said, “Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis’s politically motivated and unfair attempt to deny President Trump due process of law by arguing that severances should not be granted has been summarily crushed by the court. Willis’s unfair rush to judgment in order to please her radical political base simply backfired.”
Although a trial date has not been set for Trump and his 16 co-defendants, the schedule outlined by Judge McAfee suggests that their trial would not begin before December at the earliest.
The judge’s new schedule aims to resolve pretrial disputes with the group of 17 defendants by the end of the year, with the presentation of evidence set to begin on October 6. However, no timetable has been set for the trial or for resolving disputes over the admissibility of evidence. McAfee has ordered other pretrial motions to be filed by December 1 but has not scheduled a hearing on those motions.
The pace set by McAfee allows federal courts some time to address the defendants’ attempts to move their proceedings to federal courts.
The Georgia election subversion case is one of four criminal cases facing Trump, who is also involved in several civil matters, making his legal calendar increasingly complicated as the 2024 election cycle approaches.
The federal election subversion case brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith in Washington is scheduled to go to trial in early March. The trial date for the Manhattan prosecutors’ indictment of Trump over an alleged hush money scheme in his 2016 campaign is currently uncertain.
Trump’s case regarding mishandling classified documents is set for a trial in federal court in Florida in late May.
While dealing with these criminal cases and a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general against his company and family, Trump is also preparing for the 2024 presidential elections, where he is the leading contender for the Republican Party nomination.
Trump has claimed that the attempts to put him on trial in the coming months are politically motivated to interfere with the 2024 election. Prosecutors argue that the public has a vested interest in seeing the trials proceed quickly and there are no legitimate legal reasons to delay them until after the election.
Prosecutor Willis had argued against splitting the case into multiple trials, citing the strain it would place on the judicial resources of Fulton County Supreme Court. McAfee’s order did not indicate whether he is considering further dividing the 17 defendants to create smaller trial groups, but some defendants have already raised this proposal.
Several defendants in the Georgia case also have parallel proceedings in federal courts, with some seeking to move the proceedings to a federal court where they can seek immunity. The outcome of these petitions could impact the rest of Willis’s case.
Former White House Secretary of State Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and three defendants allegedly involved in the fake electors scheme are among those seeking to move Fulton County’s proceedings against them to a federal court.
Despite Meadows withdrawing his request for an emergency appellate injunction to halt state prosecution in the case, he will continue to fight to move the case to federal court.
As the legal challenges mount, Trump remains focused on his political aspirations for the 2024 elections.