Trump indictment in Georgia: DA seeks October trial date

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday asked a judge to set an October trial date for former President Donald Trump and 18 others charged in an investigation into election interference in Georgia, according to WSB-TV and court documents.

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Willis asked a judge to set the trial to begin on Oct. 23 one day after attorney Kenneth Chesebro filed a motion seeking a speedy trial, records show. An attorney for Trump on Thursday opposed the prospective trial date and said in a court filing that he planned to try to sever Trump’s case from Chesebro’s, WSB reported.

Chesebro, the architect behind the fake electors plot that aimed to seat Trump in the White House despite his election loss, turned himself in to the Fulton County Jail on Wednesday to face charges in connection with Willis’ investigation.

Previously, Willis said she would aim to try the case in March 2024, WSB reported.

Trump is expected to surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday after a grand jury last week handed down indictments related to a yearslong investigation into interference in the 2020 presidential election. As of Thursday afternoon, nine of the 19 people charged have turned themselves in to be booked and processed at Fulton County Jail.

Authorities said Trump and his co-conspirators — who include attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and others — of racketeering to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Trump’s favor. The former president lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by 11,779 votes, WSB reported.

Trump has denied the allegations, calling the investigations and others examining his conduct in New York, Florida and Washington “A CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION TO CROOKED JOE BIDEN AND HIS RADICAL LEFT THUGS.”

Last year, the former president launched a bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Several polls have identified him as the frontrunner.

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