A former federal prosecutor is calling it “perplexing” that Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors want to put former President Donald Trump on trial just months before the critical 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s trial would most likely continue beyond Election Day, November 5, 2024, according to District Attorney Fani Willis’s proposed August 5 start date. Several legal experts have questioned this move and expressed serious concerns about the timing and its impact on the presidential election.
Indictments were filed against nineteen individuals. It is possible that Trump will be sworn in as president on January 20, 2025, while the trial is ongoing, due to the anticipated length of the trial.
Grand jurors in August indicted 18 individuals, including Trump, for allegedly trying to rescind the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. All of the defendants, including the former president, are charged with violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. As a result of plea deals, four of the nineteen defendants have consented to testify.
The president has entered not-guilty pleas on all thirteen charges.
Many legal avenues will be open to Trump in his pursuit of presidential immunity or in his argument before the United States Supreme Court that the trial is impeding upon his presidential duties, should he be elected president.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, told Newsweek that the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to postpone the trial until he leaves office.
“Of course, as with many things Trump does, we lack a precedent,” Gillers said. “But I believe that the Supreme Court would order a delay of any state criminal prosecution of a sitting president until the end of his term, regardless of when the alleged crime occurred.”
The planned August 5 start date of Willis’s case is “a little perplexing,” according to Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, because there may be a chance to prosecute Trump earlier in the year.
Vance said “not happening” when she was asked about the idea of the Georgia trial beginning and ending before the November 2024 election.
This is particularly true because Judge Aileen Cannon may decide to postpone Trump’s trial for allegedly keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Prosecutors claimed that Trump persistently refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information.
In June, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential race pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts connected to his handling of classified materials. Trump entered his not-guilty plea to three more felony counts in August.
Vance mentioned that she will be closely observing Judge Scott McAfee’s decision regarding Willis’ August 2024 request.
“With Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida showing signs of being less than committed to her May trial schedule, there might be some room for an earlier date in Georgia, which makes the timing of Willis’ request a little perplexing,” Vance wrote on her blog. “The Mar-a-Lago case is straightforward, and it’s hard to imagine it taking more than several weeks, on the outside, to try. We may gain some insight Friday on when Judge McAfee wants to try his case.”
Willis stated that the trial might still be ongoing on Election Day 2024 and possibly even into Inauguration Day at the Global Women’s Summit that The Washington Post Live hosted on November 13.
“I believe the trial will take many months. And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” Willis said at the event in early November. “I don’t, when making decisions about cases to bring, consider any election cycle or an election season.”
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