ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants a March 2024 trial date for former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in her sprawling 2020 election interference case.
Willis filed the motion Wednesday, proposing a trial start date of March 4. The defendants would be arraigned the week of Sept. 5, according to court documents. The order would need to be approved by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case.
Willis said in a news conference Monday night that those indicted have until Aug. 25 at noon to surrender themselves.
"In light of Defendant Donald John 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," the filing reads. "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."
Trump and the 18 co-defendants were indicted Monday in a 98-page document that included a total of 41 charges. The defendants include people in the former president's orbit like Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows.
Others indicted were involved in the Trump elector scheme as well as the Coffee County data breach. Charges vary for each defendant.
Trump's 13 charges include:
- Violation of the Georgia RICO Act
- Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
- Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree (2 counts)
- Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings (2 counts)
- Conspiracy to commit filing false documents
- Filing false documents
- Solicitation of violations of oath by public officer (3 counts)
- False statements and writings (2 counts)
Trump's charges stem from his alleged efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results and the larger, multi-state scheme to keep his hold on the presidency.
In addition to the 19 named defendants, there are 30 unindicted co-conspirators who were not identified in court documents.
This is the first time a former president has faced criminal charges in Georgia, and the indictment comes roughly three years after Trump's nearly 12,000 vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden here.
"A March trial date is extremely ambitious for any complex trial," said Georgia State University law professor Anthony Kreis, who has followed the investigation closely. "The earnest scheduling aside, that date could get more complicated by the fact that Trump has a trial date of March 25 for pending charges in New York. It's probably better to see this date as the jumping off point for negotiations more than anything else."
This is a breaking story and will be updated.