The criminal trial over the alleged attempt by Donald Trump and 18 others to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia should start Oct. 23, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told a judge, about five months earlier than her first proposal.
(Bloomberg) — The criminal trial over the alleged attempt by Donald Trump and 18 others to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia should start Oct. 23, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told a judge, about five months earlier than her first proposal.
Willis made the request in a filing Thursday in Atlanta, the same day Trump is expected to turn himself in for booking in the case. He’s already agreed to a $200,000 bond.
Willis, who indicted the group on Aug. 14, earlier this month asked the court to have the trial start March 4, but she has now moved up the date in response to a request by another defendant in the case, Kenneth Chesebro, for a speedier trial.
Trump on Thursday said he’s opposing the October trial date and said he’d seek to separate his case from Chesebro and any other codefendant who wants a quicker trial. Trump also asked the court to schedule a conference to hear his request and Willis’s on setting a trial date.
Just after Trump made his request, Fulton Judge Scott McAfee granted Chesebro’s bid for an October 23 trial, and set his arraignment for Sept. 6.Â
McAfee hasn’t yet ruled on any of the requests. For now, the judge said the Oct. 23 trial date would apply only to Chesebro.
Chesebro is one of 19 individuals — including Trump — who were charged last week with conspiracy to overturn Trump’s election loss in 2020, in violation of Georgia’s racketeering law.Â
The trial would determine the fate of Trump and others who were charged in a 41-count indictment last week for allegedly conspiring to overturn the election results. Trump, now facing his fourth set of criminal charges, will need to juggle a busy trial schedule as he ramps up his latest presidential bid in 2024.
Trump is set to stand trial in New York on March 25 on state charges that he falsified business records in connection with hush money payments to a porn film star before the 2016 election. And on May 20, he is to face federal charges in Florida that he mishandled state secrets after he left the White House and tried to obstruct government efforts to retrieve classified material. A federal trial over the election hasn’t yet been set.
(Updates with Trump’s objection to Oct. trial date in fourth paragraph, Fulton judge granting Chesebro’s request in fifth paragraph.)
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