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Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis is aiming for a trial date in early March 2024 in her case against Donald Trump and 18 of his allies.
On Monday, Willis said Trump and the other defendants had been indicted on 41 counts in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Each defendant is accused of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, which makes it a crime to participate in a "pattern of racketeering activity" or conspiring to do so. Trump is facing 13 counts in the indictment.
On Wednesday, Willis, Fulton County's district attorney, issued a proposed scheduling order that revealed she wants the trial to start on March 4, 2024, only eight days before Georgia's presidential preference primary. Trump is the leading contender for the Republican nomination in a crowded field of candidates.
The scheduling order also proposed that arraignments for Trump and the other 18 defendants would be the week of September 5.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's presidential campaign by email for comment.
This is the former president's fourth indictment and the second involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election's results. (The other came after an investigation by Jack Smith, the U.S. Department of Justice's special counsel.) Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases. He pleaded not guilty in his first three arraignments and says that state and federal investigations of him are a politically motivated witch hunt.
Georgia's presidential preference primary will take place March 12, 2024. The primary is "not a direct election," according to Ballotpedia. Instead, voters choose delegates "who will then vote for the preferred candidate at the party's national convention, where the presidential nominee is formally selected."
In May, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger set the presidential primary's date. Georgia Democrats had wanted it to occur earlier, as one of the nation's first primaries. So far, 17 states have a presidential primary that will occur earlier than Georgia's.
Georgia's election interference investigation was launched following a call that Trump made to Raffensperger shortly after the 2020 election's results came in. During the call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a Republican, to "find me 11,780 votes" so he could be declared the winner in Georgia.
But Raffensperger insisted that Biden won the state fairly. Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump's legal team has attempted to delay all his criminal trials until after the election. Despite these efforts, trial dates have already been set for the spring for some of the cases against him. These include the Manhattan district attorney's case regarding an alleged hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 and Smith's case concerning Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
However, if Willis' request is granted, the Georgia election interference trial will occur in 2024 before the Daniels and classified documents trials, which are set to begin March 25 and May 20, respectively.
Willis' request has already gotten criticism from conservatives.
"This is the definition of election interference," CJ Pearson, host of podcast The Wrap Up, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday afternoon.
Update 8/16/23, 4:20 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.
About the writer
Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather ... Read more