Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis delivered a speech during a press conference at the Fulton County Government building in Atlanta on August 14, 2023.
Joshua Lott | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The Atlanta district attorney, Fani Willis, who is prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others, has filed a request with Judge Scott McAfee to consolidate the trials of the defendants who have been granted speedy trials.
Willis has also requested that McAfee set a deadline for defendants in the case to submit requests to sever their cases. The final decision on whether to sever the cases for separate trials lies with McAfee.
Currently, only two defendants, attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have requested a quick trial on the charges of racketeering and six other charges they are facing. Chesebro’s trial is scheduled for late October.
However, other defendants may also request speedy trials, which would require their trials to begin by November 3.
It is expected that Trump and several other co-defendants would be less inclined to seek a quick trial on the charges related to their efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in Georgia’s 2020 election.
In her court filing on Tuesday, Willis argued against severing the cases at this stage and stated, “All Defendants should be tried together, but at the very least, the Court should schedule Defendant Powell’s trial and any other defendant who may demand a speedy trial on the same date as Defendant Chesebro’s trial.”
Chesebro, who was the first to request a speedy trial, has been granted one starting on October 23 in Fulton County Superior Court.
Powell filed her own request for a speedy trial the following day, but no trial start date has been set for her yet.
Under Georgia law, defendants who are facing criminal charges have the right to a speedy trial if they request one.
If the request is not granted before the court’s next regular term, the defendants are acquitted of the charges.
Last week, Willis asked McAfee to schedule trials for all defendants, including Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Mark Meadows, on the same date as Chesebro’s trial, October 23.
Trump’s legal team quickly opposed this request in their own court filing.
McAfee, when setting the trial start date for Chesebro and other deadlines for pre-trial motions, stated that “at this time, these deadlines [for Chesebro’s case] do not apply to any co-defendant.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
