Politics

Georgia DA asks court to set March 4 trial date for Trump, co-defendants

By
Victor Nava
Published Aug. 16, 2023
Updated Aug. 16, 2023, 6:13 p.m. ET

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday requested a trial date of March 4, 2024, for former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election case. 

If Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee agrees with Willis’ proposal, Trump’s trial would commence one day after Super Tuesday, when Republican voters in 15 states and American Samoa will head to the polls to choose their preference for the party’s 2024 presidential nominee.

The proposed trial start date also falls on the same day as the North Dakota caucuses.

A court filing submitted by prosecutors also proposed arraignments for the defendants beginning the week of Sept. 5, with Willis claiming her requested dates “do not conflict” with the 77-year-old former president’s three other criminal cases. 

Trump, the GOP front-runner, faces 13 felony counts in Georgia, including charges that he violated the Peach State’s anti-racketeering law, engaged in a conspiracy, made false statements and asked a public official to violate their oath of office. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday requested a trial date of March 4, 2024, for former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants. Getty Images

Willis asserts in the filing that the former president and his co-defendants, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, John Eastman and Jenna Ellis will have “until 10 days after arraignment to opt into reciprocal discovery” and if they opt in, “all parties shall serve discovery materials then in its possession upon opposing counsel no later than September 29, 2023.”

“Any additional discovery shall be provided to opposing counsel on a rolling basis and as soon as practicable once available,” she adds. 

What we know about Trump and the 18 others charged in the Georgia 2020 election probe

Donald Trump

  • Former president of the United States
  • Faces 13 charges related to allegedly lying about election tampering involving the 2020 presidential race in Georgia and repeatedly trying to get state officials to violate their oaths and claim there was voter fraud.
Former President Donald Trump faces 13 charges involving the 2020 election. EPA/Alex Edelman

Rudy Giuliani

  • Ex-New York City mayor and former federal prosecutor-turned-Trump lawyer
  • Faces 13 charges for leading Trump’s election challenges while allegedly conspiring to commit crimes while impersonating a public officer and filing false documents.

Mark Meadows

  • Ex-White House chief of staff
  • Faces two charges over arranging a Jan. 2 call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to try to reverse the state’s election results, after a Dec. 23 call by Trump to Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, to do the same thing.

John Eastman

  • Trump lawyer
  • Faces nine charges for urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden electors, claiming in a court filing that about 72,000 people illegally voted in Georgia and speaking at a rally before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt certification of the election.
Attorney John Eastman, the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump in power, talks to reporters after a hearing in Los Angeles, June 20, 2023. AP/ Jae C. Hong

Jeffrey Clark

  • Ex-acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division
  • Faces two charges over writing a late December document allegedly falsely claiming the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.”

Kenneth Chesebro

  • Trump lawyer
  • Faces seven charges including for planning for alternate electors to allegedly try to thwart the election results.

Sidney Powell

  • Trump lawyer
  • Faces seven charges including computer theft, invasion of privacy and efforts to defraud the state after making voter-machine fraud claims and trying to access voter files.
Sidney Powell faces two charges including for allegedly soliciting a public officer. AP/ Balce Ceneta

Jenna Ellis

  • Trump lawyer
  • Faces two charges including for allegedly soliciting a public officer to violate their oath by pressuring state senators to support alternate electors for Trump while falsely claiming election fraud.

Ray Smith

  • Trump lawyer
  • Faces 12 charges including for allegedly conspiring to supporter the alternate slate of electors and pressuring officials while helping to lead Trump’s Georgia election challenges.

Mike Roman

  • Trump campaign aide
  • Faces seven charges including for allegedly conspiring to support the alternate electors and committing fraud while working on the plan.

Trevian Kutti

  • Ex-Kanye West publicist
  • Faces three charges including for allegedly soliciting false statements by meeting with election worker Ruby Freeman for one hour to pressure her to admit to ballot-stuffing at a vote-counting center.

Harrison Floyd

  • Ex-executive director of Black Voices for Trump
  • Faces three charges including for alleged conspiracy to solicit false statements by helping Kutti to pressure Freeman, including by allegedly saying her safety was at risk and offering protection.
Rep. Mark Meadows, the ex-White House chief of staff, faces two charges over arranging a Jan. 2 call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Stephen Lee

  • Illinois pastor
  • Faces five charges including for allegedly attempting to influence witnesses and solicit false statements by pressuring Freeman, including traveling to her home and speaking with a neighbor.

Robert Cheeley

  • Georgia lawyer
  • Faces 10 charges including perjury and conspiring to impersonate a public officer when presenting alleged fraud evidence to legislators.

Misty Hampton

  • Ex-official in Coffee County, Georgia
  • Faces seven charges including conspiring to commit election fraud, computer theft and invasion of privacy after falsely alleging voter-machine fraud.

Scott Hall

  • Bail bondsman
  • Faces seven charges for being involved in the Coffee County voter-machine fraud claims.

Cathy Latham

  • One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
  • Faces 11 charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying in a deposition about her role in pressing voter-fraud claims in Coffee County.
David Shafer faces eight charges, one of them being impersonating a public officer. AP/John Bazemore

David Shafer

  • One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
  • Faces eight charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying about his role in convening the alternate electors for a meeting Dec. 14.

Shawn Still

  • One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
  • Faces seven charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying to state senators to falsely claim that two state officials confided there was widespread fraud.

The district attorney also suggests that the final pre-trial conference be held on Feb. 20, 2024.

On Tuesday, Trump slammed the four criminal indictments leveled against him since leaving office and announcing his 2024 White House bid as political persecution and “election interference,” demanding that no trials take place until after the 2024 election. 

“All of these Biden Administration bogus trials and cases, including the locals, should be brought after the 2024 Presidential Election. What they have done is already Election Interference, but if the trials are held before the Election, then it would be Interference on a scale never seen in our Country before,” the former president wrote in a Truth Social post. 

Willis claimed her requested dates “do not conflict” with the 77-year-old former president’s three other criminal cases.  REUTERS

Willis stated during a press conference on Monday that she doesn’t “have any desire to be first or last” when it comes to trying Trump in a court of law. 

“I want to try him and be respectful for our sovereign states. We do want to move this case along and so we will be asking for a proposed order that occurs a trial date within the next six months,” she added. 

Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan on charges of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels is set for March 25, 2024. 

Meanwhile, in Miami, a federal judge has set a May 20, 2024, trial date in special counsel Jack Smith’s case accusing Trump of mishandling national security documents.

Smith’s office has also proposed a Jan. 2, 2024, trial date for Trump in the case involving “knowingly false” claims made by the former president in an attempt to stay in power after the 2020 election. 

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