ATLANTA (CN) — The Georgia prosecutor who indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies earlier this week filed a motion Wednesday that seeks to begin the high-profile trial in March.
The proposed scheduling order sets March 4, 2024 as the commencing trial date. If approved, the trial would begin eight days before Georgia’s presidential primary on March 12, and just one day before Super Tuesday, when the greatest number of states hold its primary elections and caucuses.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is the prosecutor leading the case, also requested an arraignment date of September 5, 2023. Legal counsel for Trump and his co-defendants would then have until September 29 to submit any discovery materials. Willis has already set a deadline of noon on Aug. 25 for all 19 defendants to turn themselves in at the Fulton County Jail for booking.
The case has been assigned to newly-appointed Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who was nominated to fill a vacancy on the bench earlier this year by Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
“In light of defendant Donald Trump’s other criminal and civil matters pending in the courts of our sister sovereigns, the state of Georgia proposes certain deadlines that do not conflict with these other courts’ already scheduled hearings and trial dates,” Willis’s motion states.
"Further, the proposed dates are requested so as to allow the Defendants’ needs to review discovery and prepare for trial but also to protect the State of Georgia’s and the public’s interest in a prompt resolution of the charges for which the Defendants have been indicted."
As legal challenges from the defendants are likely to arise over the coming months, the proposed dates could potentially change even if approved by the judge. One of the defendants, Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, already filed a motion on Tuesday seeking to transfer the case from state to federal court. Meadows argued that because the alleged actions he took were during his time as a government official, he should be granted immunity from prosecution.
During a press conference on Monday, Willis said she’s aiming for a trial date to be within the next six months and intends to try all 19 defendants together, which could cause for a lengthy and challenging trial. In another unrelated high-profile RICO case brought by Willis against several defendants including hip-hop artist "Young Thug," a single juror has yet to be seated since jury selection began in January.
If the requested trial date is approved, the federal trial for Trump's alleged criminal attempt to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election will have already begun. Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, has sought for Trump to stand trial in Washington on Jan. 2, 2024, which would mark the first of Trump's four criminal trials expected next year.
The proposed trial kickoff in Georgia also runs closely behind Trump's already scheduled trial date of March 25, 2024 in Manhattan, where he is accused of falsifying of business records to conceal payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Aside from continuing his re-election campaign, Trump will be spending most of 2024 in court. He has another trial date set for May 20, in Miami for his alleged mishandling of classified documents and concealing of evidence at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Despite Trump's mounting legal peril, he currently leads as the Republican party's front runner according to recent polls.
Instead of letting the indictments detract from his bid for a third presidential nomination, Trump has attempted to use them as political assets to draw sympathy and boost a campaign built on frustration with what he claims to be a politically motivated justice system.
Monday's indictment out of Fulton County, Georgia marked the fourth brought against Trump since March, when he became the first former or sitting U.S. president to be criminally charged. Unlike the others, Willis's indictment utilizes Georgia's expansive racketeering statutes to charge Trump and several of his allies with participating in a criminal enterprise to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 election in his favor.
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