Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday proposed an Aug. 5, 2024, start date for the trial of Donald Trump and his remaining 14 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case.
In the filing, prosecutors noted that Trump is set to stand trial for his federal election case in Washington, D.C., in March and for his federal classified documents case in Florida in May.
“A start date of August 5, 2024, is therefore unlikely to be subject to delay,” the filing argues.
Trump’s other criminal case — related to alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign — is scheduled to go to trial in Manhattan in March 2024. But the judge overseeing the case has signaled his willingness to move that date to avoid conflict with Trump’s federal election interference trial, which is set to begin earlier that month.
Four of the original 19 co-defendants in the Georgia election case — Scott Hall, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis — have accepted plea deals. Trump and his remaining co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.
In the Friday filing, Willis asked Judge Scott McAfee to set a June 21, 2024, deadline for the co-defendants to negotiate guilty pleas. After that date, “the State intends to recommend maximum sentences at any remaining sentencing hearing,” according to the filing.
Trump, the GOP presidential primary front-runner, has sought to delay his criminal trials until after the general election in November 2024. Prosecutors have said their case could take five months to present in court. If McAfee agrees to the August start date, the trial would likely overlap with the presidential election and could potentially spill into 2025. (Remember: If Trump is elected, it’s possible he could make federal charges against him go away — but he wouldn’t be able to do that with state charges, like the Georgia election case.)
Trump’s legal team opposed the proposed August start date in a response filed Friday evening, and his campaign fired off an absurd yet predictable statement accusing Willis of taking a “corrupt step” by proposing the August start date. The campaign also falsely suggested President Joe Biden is pulling the strings in Trump’s prosecution in an effort to torpedo his presidential bid.
MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, responding to news of Willis’ proposed start date, floated an interesting theory related to proceedings in Trump’s Florida prosecution. Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee overseeing the classified documents case in the Sunshine State, has so far kept the May trial date — though she has indicated she’s open to delaying it.
“This shows the pernicious nature of what FLA Judge Cannon is up to,” Weissmann tweeted, adding that Cannon is “blocking an earlier GA date … but all evidence suggests she has zero intention of holding the FLA trial then.”
Hayley Meissner is the senior producer for MS NOW’s Breaking News and Blogs team.