Georgia prosecutors say Trump trial could last 4 months and rely on 150 witnesses

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  For the first time, we are seeing inside the courtroom for a hearing about one of the indictments of Donald Trump.

  The former president was not in the Georgia courthouse today. He and his 18 co-defendants pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges last week. Prosecutors laid out a timeline for a potential trial, one they say could last four months and rely on more than 150 witnesses.

  And the judge ruled at least two defendants, Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, will be tried together, likely in October.

  Stephen Fowler is a reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting. He was following today's hearing. He joins us now from Atlanta.

  Stephen, good to see.

  So, attorneys for Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro wanted to separate their cases from each other and also from the 17 other defendants. Why did they want that? And how did that request go over with Judge McAfee in court today?

• Stephen Fowler, Georgia Public Broadcasting:

  Well, first and foremost, the two of them wanted to request speedy trials. Under Georgia state law, they're allowed to request to have a trial start within a certain amount of time after they were indicted.

  And so their request was granted, and they will head to trial October 23. Now, each one of them made the arguments that they should be tried separately, arguing that the things that they were charged with under the sweeping 98-page indictment were part of separate buckets of alleged crimes that didn't overlap with each other.

  The judge was not convinced, and he did rule today at the end of the hearing that the two of them will stand trial together. We still don't have an answer if that also means the other 17 will join them next month as well.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, when you take a look at the timeline, as you mentioned, the judge did seem to stick to that October 23 trial start date for Kenneth Chesebro and likely for Sidney Powell as well.

  We know the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, would like to try all 19 defendants together. But the calendar ahead is getting very, very crowded when it comes to cases Mr. Trump and his associates are facing.

  I just want to take a look at the calendar, as we have mapped out some of those cases.

  There's a trial, a civil fraud trial before that Georgia trial for Mr. Chesebro. And then moving into the new year, of course, there's a civil trial in the E. Jean Carroll case, and then, two months later, a federal trial related to January 6, the hush money trial in New York, and, of course, the trial Mr. Trump's facing in his handling of classified documents.

  Stephen, I guess the real question here is, how likely is it that this Georgia trial for all 19 defendants actually goes through and starts in 47 days?

• Stephen Fowler:

  Well, it is potentially likely for the two that requested a speedy trial.

  Many of the rest of the defendants have argued that they should be separate because they don't want a speedy trial. And there are several different things playing out across two different courtrooms that could delay this even further.

  You have several of the defendants, including Trump's former Chief Of staff Mark Meadows, arguing that their case should be moved to federal court and heard at the federal level and ultimately dismissed. At the same time, you have the Fulton County DA's office arguing that it would take at least four months, not counting jury selection.

  And, Amna, it's important to note that just a couple of floors down in the Fulton County courthouse is another racketeering case going on, where jury selection in the Young Thug-YSL case has been going on for eight months without a single juror being selected.

  So it's possible that this case could be heard some point next year and could overlap with the time that people have to go to the ballot box and decide who the next president will be.

• Amna Nawaz:

  There is also the fact that, unlike Mr. Trump's federal trials, this trial in Georgia is being livestreamed. The Fulton County major cases always are.

  So it is truly historic in that way. But are people in Georgia, are they actually tuning in? Are they paying attention to this?

• Stephen Fowler:

  Well, it's still very early on in the process. Of course, there was the spectacle of the indictments being handed down and also the spectacle of Trump and his giant motorcade turning himself into the Fulton County Jail.

  But all of these legal wranglings happening right now guarantee that, when the trial actually does come that could be some time in 2024, could come in the summer or even the fall, that you could have the televised trial of a former president and the Republican nominee for president, if he wins the primary, coming at the same time that voters in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and the rest of the country are deciding whether or not they should send him back to the White House.

  So this historic, unprecedented access is certainly going to dominate the 2024 discussion, no matter who is sent the trial when.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We mentioned also that, of course, some of the defendants are trying to move the trial to a federal court. There's also additional severance motions to be considered by this court filed not only by former President Trump, also by John Eastman, Ray Smith, and David Shafer.

  Does today's hearing and the judge's decision on these two cases, does that have any bearing on those other motions to sever?

• Stephen Fowler:

  Well, certainly.

  The judge did mention today that he's very sensitive to the fact that there are 19 different defendants, 19 different defense strategies, and all of these different motions coming into play. It's going to be on an expedited timeline.

  So, next week, there should be another hearing going through, another batch of motions. Most of the motions to sever were for defendants saying, we don't want a speedy trial. Don't lump us into October 23. But the Fulton County district attorney argues that all 19 need to be tried together because this is a massive conspiracy, and instead of having a jury hear the same defendants and the same witnesses and the same presentation multiple times over multiple months, to knock it out all at once.

  And so it's a very tight timeline, a very complicated case, and one that we should have more answers by the end of next week at what pace this will go for all 19 defendants, including former President Trump.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Stephen Fowler of Georgia Public Broadcasting joining us tonight from Atlanta.

  Stephen, great to see. Thank you.

• Stephen Fowler:

  Thank you.