Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested an August 2024 start date for the trial in her racketeering case related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Willis asked the judge in a six-page filing Friday to set an Aug. 5, 2024 trial start date for former President Donald Trump and the remaining co-defendants who have not already taken plea deals. The proposed date would be nearly one year after the 19 co-defendants were indicted Aug. 14.
“This proposed trial date balances potential delays from Defendant Trump’s other criminal trials in sister sovereigns and the other Defendants’ constitutional speedy trial rights,” Willis wrote.
A previously scheduled October trial for two defendants who requested a speedy trial, Attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, was canceled after they accepted last-minute plea deals. Willis requested that the judge set a deadline for accepting pleas for June 21, 2024.
She also asked the court to cease any requests from defendants to sever their case from the others made after the proposed final plea date. (RELATED: Trump Might Just Enter 2024 Election Unscathed As Court Dates Are Delayed, Legal Attacks Falter)
NEW: Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis asks Judge McAfee to set Trump’s trial date for Aug. 5, 2024. pic.twitter.com/RsTX9yOF3W
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) November 17, 2023
“The RICO conspiracy charge ensures any trial would share the same evidence and witnesses,” Willis wrote. “In a case where the same witnesses, the same evidence, and the same charges would be used against all defendants—thus affecting judicial economy in the use of physical facilities and the time of witnesses, jurors, and court personnel—the trial court must consider these efficiencies against the possible conflicting interests of joint or multiple defendants.”
Willis said Tuesday during an interview at the Washington Post Live’s Global Women’s Summit that she believed the trial would “take many months.”
“And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” she said.
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