Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis stated that the Georgia racketeering case involving Donald Trump and fourteen other defendants, who are charged with plotting to rig the 2020 election, could go on until the first part of 2025.
During an interview at the Washington Post-hosted international women’s summit, Willis said that although she anticipated the case to go to appeal for many years, the trial itself would probably take place over a few months, with a possible conclusion in early 2025 or in the winter of the same year.
According to this scenario, there’s a chance that Trump will be in court until the very end of the next presidential campaign, which will take place on November 5, 2024. Trump is currently seen as the front-runner in the Republican primary despite these legal concerns.
Moreover, there’s a risk that Trump will still be in court on January 20, 2025, his inauguration day, if he wins the Republican nomination and the election. According to state rules, the former president may receive a term of up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of racketeering.
Willis made it clear that when she pursues cases and makes decisions, she does not take election time into account. She underlined that it would be absurd to stop an inquiry just because the subject of the probe chooses to run for public office.
Willis’s comments drew criticism from a representative for Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s co-defendant in the Georgia case. He suggested the protracted trial is a component of a bigger scheme by the Democratic Party and the establishment political class in Washington, D.C., to keep Trump out of the White House.
Trump’s Presidential Campaign:
The numerous trial schedules present serious obstacles for Trump’s presidential campaign. A civil fraud action pertaining to the financial accounts of his company, the Trump Organization, is presently pending against him in New York. In addition, he faces 91 felony charges in four different criminal cases. These cases include the Fulton County election subversion case, a criminal indictment in New York regarding an alleged payment of hush money, and two federal cases concerning his attempts to rig the 2020 election and improper handling of classified documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
The start of the federal trials is scheduled for March and May, respectively, right in the middle of the Republican primary election season. To every charge, Trump has entered a not guilty plea. The large-scale racketeering prosecution in Georgia started with 19 defendants, but that number dropped after four of them accepted plea agreements. Among them were Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell, three of Trump’s attorneys from his 2020 campaign.
Defending her office, Willis said that she had no knowledge of the source of the secret tapes of the defendants’ interviews that were released before the plea deal. She denounced the disclosures, asserting that the goal was to scare and threaten witnesses before the trial to frighten them.
Willis stated that although she was horrified by the over 100 threats she received, she had expected threats when she started the investigation. She recounted how frequently she had been called racial slurs during the previous three years and expressed amazement at the level of bigotry aimed at her as a Black woman.
Willis said she would keep doing her job despite the difficulties she confronts. She did, however, note that she could no longer just go out for drinks with pals on the casual front because of the increased security procedures.
Willis remained silent when questioned about any substantive communication between her office and Jack Smith, the special prosecutor designated by the Justice Department and in charge of two other criminal cases involving Trump. Willis, an elected Democrat, claimed that, in contrast to what Trump and some conservatives have said, she is not motivated by partisanship. She identified as a district attorney focused on law and order.
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