ATLANTA – A trial involving former president Donald Trump and 18 others accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia will probably take four months, once a jury is selected, and feature testimony from more than 150 witnesses, prosecutors said in court Wednesday.
Such a timeline would force Trump to spend a third of a year sitting in an Atlanta courtroom with his co-defendants, possibly while running for president and juggling three other criminal cases, including federal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election to stay in power.
The estimate came during a hearing over motions by two of the defendants – former Trump campaign attorneys Kenneth J. Chesebro and Sidney Powell – who have invoked their rights to a speedy trial. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the matter, granted those motions Wednesday, setting a joint trial date of Oct. 23 for Chesebro and Powell.
But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), whose office is leading the case, wants all 19 defendants to be tried at the same time starting on that date. Prosecutors on Wednesday reaffirmed that argument, insisting that separating the cases would mean months-long trials for each of the defendants involving the same witnesses and the same evidence – which they said would be burdensome to the court and parties involved.
“One trial or 19 trials, the evidence is exactly the same,” said Will Wooten, a deputy Fulton County district attorney. “The witnesses are exactly the same.”
McAfee did not reject a joint trial of Trump and his 18 co-defendants, but he peppered prosecutors with questions and appeared deeply skeptical that proceedings for all 19 could begin next month. He noted efforts by some of the defendants to move their cases to federal court and existing motions from Trump and others who have said they will not be ready for trial by late October.
“It just seems a bit unrealistic to think that we can handle all 19 in 40-something days. That’s my initial reaction,” McAfee said.
It was the first major hearing since a Fulton County grand jury last month approved a 41-count indictment charging Trump and 18 associates in what prosecutors allege was a vast criminal conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. It was the first time prosecutors had appeared before McAfee since he was assigned to oversee the case, and at times, they appeared unprepared for his intense questioning about scheduling issues in a sprawling case that is facing legal tests in both state and federal court.
McAfee has assumed the role of legal traffic cop in the sprawling racketeering case, tackling the logistical challenge of setting deadlines and trial dates for the 19 defendants who are already at odds over how and when they should be tried. McAfee, who was nominated to the bench this year, previously worked as a state inspector general and a federal and state prosecutor, including under Willis when she ran Fulton County’s complex trial division. He plans to hold a hearing every week to work through the mountain of motions that have already been filed or soon will be.
All the defendants were initially scheduled to appear in arraignment hearings throughout the day Wednesday. But all waived their right to appear and entered not-guilty pleas in motions filed by their attorneys with the court.
Chesebro and Powell each filed demands for a speedy trial, meaning jury selection in their cases would have to begin no later than Nov. 3. Both also asked to sever their cases from the other co-defendants and to be tried individually.
On Friday, Chesebro filed a second request specifically asking not to be tried with Powell. In that motion, Chesebro, through his attorneys, repeatedly claimed he never met or talked to Powell in person or on the phone or exchanged emails, texts or social media messages with her. His attorneys reiterated those arguments Wednesday.
Scott Grubman, an attorney for Chesebro, argued that his client is only implicated in one aspect of the conspiracy charged in the racketeering indictment: the alleged scheme to create slates of alternate electors to undermine the legitimate electoral college vote. He told McAfee that his client not only should be separated from Powell, but also from the others, including Trump, because a jury would not be able to separate the alleged crimes.
“The state wants to make this case about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is one of 19 defendants. Ken Chesebro is another one,” Grubman said. “Ken Chesebro is not a politician. Before six, seven months ago, he was probably unknown to 99.99.99 percent of the population . . . So now to force him to sit here in a trial where there’s evidence of all these other things is just not fair.”
Wooten strongly pushed back on that claim, telling McAfee that because the 19 defendants are charged under a racketeering case alleging a conspiracy to subvert the election, “evidence against one is evidence against all.”
Five defendants have petitioned to have their cases moved from state to federal court, claiming that they were acting as federal agents – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark; and three Georgia Republicans who served as alternate Trump electors and signed documents falsely claiming Trump won in the state: David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathleen Latham.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones is considering Meadows’s motion. In nearly four hours of testimony last week, Meadows defended his post-election actions, saying he was merely carrying out his federal duties as Trump’s top White House adviser. Meadows has signaled that if his case is removed, he will immediately file to dismiss the charges. On Wednesday, he filed a motion to sever his case from the other defendants and to stay state proceedings until a “final determination” is made on his request to move his case, including appeals. Jones told Meadows in court last week that he had to continue to participate in state proceedings, even as he challenges the venue in federal court.
Jones has scheduled hearings this month on the other removal requests. If Meadows successfully moves his case, attorneys for some of the defendants have wondered if everyone else will follow.
On Wednesday, McAfee asked prosecutors how the federal removal requests could complicate their request to try all 19 defendants beginning next month. The judge suggested that even if the state were to win its federal motion to keep Meadows and others in state court, the matter is likely to be appealed for an unknown period of time, further complicating state proceedings.
McAfee questioned prosecutors on what might happen if a federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s decision to keep Meadows and others in state court.
“Where does that leave us? In the middle of a jury trial with double jeopardy attached? Have you now risked your entire prosecution because this case has now been removed in federal court, and we’ve sworn in a jury and been presenting evidence against all these other co-defendants?” McAfee asked. “We’ve got, again, less than two months to figure this out. So I think to kind of charge ahead without coming to some thoughts on this very soon might be risky.”
The hearing came as several defendants have filed to sever their cases in the matter – requests that are likely to increase in the coming days given the Oct. 23 trial date for Chesebro and Powell.
Trump’s lawyer filed a motion Thursday asking that the former president be tried separately from any co-defendant who seeks a speedy trial date.
Former Trump attorney John Eastman also asked to sever his case. In that motion, Eastman’s attorney cited scheduling conflicts, including an ongoing hearing in California over whether Eastman should be disbarred for his role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The filing also questioned the logistics of going to trial so quickly.
“Proceeding to trial in a major RICO case six weeks after indictment obviously does not give sufficient time to prepare for trial,” wrote Wilmer Parker, Eastman’s Georgia-based attorney. “Such a conclusion should be apparent on the fact of it without the need for sophisticated legal analysis.”
In the courtroom Wednesday, attorneys representing several other defendants sat in the gallery observing the hearing. When special prosecutor Nathan Wade told McAfee their estimate of four months to try the case, several attorneys appeared incredulous, whispering to one another.
McAfee said he plans to decide by next Thursday whether all the defendants must be tried at the same time beginning next month.
“I remain very skeptical,” McAfee told prosecutors. “But I’m willing to hear what you have to say on it.”
(c) 2023, The Washington Post · Holly Bailey
It won’t take more than a few days.
This nutcase can’t keep his mouth shut and he will get into a fight with the prosecutor and the judge on Day 1.
He will be held in contempt of court and he will be put into the slammer.
Yes! ‘GET READY FOR A CIRCUS!