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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been praised for asking a judge to allow 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, to be granted a speedy trial and be tried together in her 2020 election interference case.
The request arrives after Judge McAfee previously granted a request from defendant Kenneth Chesebro to schedule a speedy trial and have the proceedings begin on October 23. Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell is another one of the defendants charged in Willis' probe who has requested a fast-tracked trial, which sees proceedings begin no less than 70 days after an indictment was brought against them.
With Chesebro's trial date set for late October, Willis' request, if it succeeds, would mean the other 18 defendants would also face trial on that date, whether or not they had asked for their cases to be fast-tracked.
Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary, is one of the defendants who is unlikely to request a speedy trial and will more likely try to delay it until after the next election at least. Trump's attorneys have recently failed in their move to have his federal trial into the events leading up to the January 6 attack take place in April 2026.
Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann said that Willis had made the right move in requesting that all 19 defendants be put on trial together.
"Smart move and amps pressure up on all. Shows she is ready to go," Weismann posted on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing Politico reporter Kyle Cheney's post detailing how the Georgia prosecutor has asked a judge to fast-track all 19 defendants.
"The state maintains its position that severance is improper at this juncture and that all defendants should be tried together, but at an absolute minimum, the court should set defendant Powell's trial and that of any other defendant who may file a speedy trial demand on the same date as defendant Chesebro's," Willis wrote in the court filings.
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg also described the step from Willis as "very smart," with attorney Andrew Fleishman adding: "She very much does not want to give the other defendants a preview of this case. But on the other hand, I think it's a pretty strong motion to sever."
Trump's legal team has been contacted for comment.
Willis had sought that her 2020 election interference trial begin on March 4, 2024. However, the judge overseeing the federal trial into the events leading up to the January 6 attack, where Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges, has now scheduled that same date for those proceedings to begin.
Willis has previously indicated that she intends to bring all 19 to trial at the same time in her case in which every defendant has been charged with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, potentially resulting in mammoth proceedings lasting several months.
Willis also previously suggested that all the other 18 defendants have their trial alongside Chesebro on October 23, a move which was rejected by Trump's legal team.
"President Trump also alerts the court that he will be filing a timely motion to sever his case from that of co-defendant Chesebro, who has filed a demand for speedy trial, or any other co-defendant who files such a demand," Trump's attorney Steven Sadow wrote in response to Willis.
Melissa Redmon, a law professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, told Reuters that prosecutors will want to try as many of the 19 defendants in the election interference case together as possible, since the "whole point of RICO is to be able to tell the full story of what everyone did and how their actions were interrelated."
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more