Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a judge on Friday to schedule the trial in the case against Donald Trump in Georgia for Aug. 5, which would temporarily sideline the former president and leading GOP presidential candidate from the campaign trail at the height of election season.
Willis, who is prosecuting Trump and 18 co-defendants over allegations they illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, said in a court filing that her requested trial date “balances potential delays from other pending criminal trials with the Defendants’ speedy trial rights.”
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Trump, leading the Republican presidential primary field in every poll, is expected to be tied up in legal proceedings throughout much of 2024.
The former president has other trials scheduled in federal criminal cases in Washington, D.C., and Florida for March 4 and May 20, respectively, but the schedule for the Florida trial on classified documents is likely to see delays.
Trump has a criminal trial in New York over hush money allegations tentatively scheduled for March 25, but that could be pushed back if the Washington trial for election-related allegations cuts into it.
His civil trial related to a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll is set to begin on Jan. 17.
Trump’s campaign responded to Willis’s proposed trial date in a statement on Friday, condemning her for wanting it in the “most vital time” of the election year.
“Radical Democrat Fani Willis has again proven that her case is purely political, designed to interfere with President Trump’s re-election by demanding a trial date in the most vital time in President Trump’s winning campaign,” spokesman Steven Cheung said. “Crooked Joe Biden knows he can’t beat President Trump and this corrupt step by Fani Willis is just further proof of that fact.”
Willis also asked that Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the Georgia case, set a final date for defendants to arrange plea deals with Willis for June 21, meaning after that date, defendants would only be able to enter nonnegotiated pleas.
Four of the 19 defendants in the case — lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro and bail bondsman Scott Hall — have already struck plea deals, allowing them to avoid jail time.
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They each pleaded guilty to lesser charges than the initial felonies they faced and agreed as part of the deals to testify as witnesses in the trial if called upon.
Trump’s defense team filed a brief motion Friday evening opposing Willis’s proposed trial date and requesting McAfee schedule a hearing over it.
