(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia may not conclude until the winter of 2024 or early 2025 – during the final run-up to or perhaps even after the next election – the prosecutor leading the case said on Tuesday.
“I believe the trial will take many months and I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a Washington Post Live event.
Voters will begin casting their ballots in the fall in the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden.
Willis dismissed concerns about the campaign, saying she does not “consider an election cycle or an election season” when bringing criminal cases.
The judge presiding over the case has not yet set a trial date and has previously indicated the case may need to split into separate trials.
Trump and 18 others were initially charged with racketeering and other offenses for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results in Georgia, where Biden narrowly defeated Trump in 2020.
Four co-defendants, including three lawyers who worked for Trump or his 2020 campaign, have so far pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Trump and the remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Willis also called it “disappointing” that video clips of statements some co-defendants provided to prosecutors as part of their guilty pleas were leaked to news outlets.
In one clip, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty last month, said she was told by a top Trump aide in December 2020 that “the boss” did not plan to leave the White House “under any circumstances,” according to media reports.
Willis filed an emergency motion on Tuesday to prevent people involved in the case from making evidence public. A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
“I’m not happy it was released,” Wills said of the footage.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles and Andrew Goudsward in WashingtonEditing by Nick Zieminski)
