Georgia prosecutors seek August 2024 trial date for Donald Trump

If approved by judge, the trial of the former US president would take place during the start of the general election.

Former US president Donald Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Picture composite: AFP

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has requested an August 5, 2024, trial date for her criminal racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his 14 remaining co-defendants.

The proposed timeline, which will now be considered by the judge, would distract Trump from the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 5, 2024, presidential election if he secures the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.

Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said in a court filing that he opposes the trial date and asked for an oral argument on the matter. Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused prosecutors of pursuing the case to undermine his campaign to retake the White House.

In a six-page motion filed on Friday afternoon, Willis’s office said the August date makes sense given Trump’s trial dates in other jurisdictions, including a March 4 trial date in Washington, D.C. on similar charges relating to his effort to stay in power after his November 2020 election defeat to President Biden.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal racketeering and accused prosecutors of pursuing the case to undermine his White House campaign. Picture: AFP

Willis said a long delay in trying the Georgia case could deprive Trump’s co-defendants – who include his former advisers Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani – of their right to a speedy trial.

Speaking at a Washington Post event on Tuesday, Willis said a trial “will take many months” and may not conclude “until the winter or the very early part of 2025.”

In Friday’s court filing, Willis also proposed a June 21 deadline for plea bargains. Up until that day, Willis said, her office will consider “negotiated” guilty pleas – agreements in which the prosecution and defence concur on a recommended sentence.

After June 21, “the defendants will only have the option of non-negotiated pleas, and the State intends to recommend maximum sentences at any remaining sentencing hearings,” the filing proposed.

It is unclear when Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will rule on the request. In finding a trial date, he must consider Trump’s court criminal cases in his three other jurisdictions.

In addition to the March 4 date in Washington, Trump has a March 25, 2024, trial date in New York, where he faces state charges relating to hush money payments to a porn star. He also has a May 20, 2024, trial date in Florida, where he faces federal charges relating to his handling of classified documents after he left office.

All of those trial dates could still move. The May trial date in Florida seems unlikely because U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has already postponed some pre-trial deadlines by months. Cannon has said she would address the trial schedule at a hearing scheduled for March 1.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of those cases, calling them all part of a “witch hunt.” McAfee could still sort the remaining defendants into smaller groups for trial. Some of the defendants, including Meadows and former Justice Department lawyer Jeff Clark, have argued their cases should be moved to federal court. An appeals court is weighing those requests.

Earlier this week, McAfee put new limits on how evidence should be handled in the case, after a defence lawyer admitted to disclosing video clips of witness interviews to a media outlet.

In August, Willis announced an indictment against Trump and 18 other defendants, arguing they participated in a “criminal enterprise” to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Four people have since reached negotiated plea deals – Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Scott Hall and Kenneth Chesebro. Those people agreed to co-operate with the prosecution in exchange to plead guilty to lesser changes.

Trump lost to Biden in Georgia in 2020 by about 12,000 votes out of some five million cast. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to lose in Georgia since 1992. Trump and his supporters claimed the results were fraudulent, without providing any evidence and pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, to take measures to reverse the defeat. But state investigations found no evidence of widespread fraud and determined that Biden had won the state.

Trump made calls to top Georgia officials pressing his case, including to Raffensperger and others. When a recording of a Trump call to Raffensperger was made public in early 2021, Willis launched her investigation. That probe, which included a special grand jury with authority to subpoena witnesses, eventually led to the indictments last summer.

Dow Jones Newswires