Georgia election prosecutors are citing fairness by demanding a trial against Trump and 18 other defendants

ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors who have accused former President Donald Trump and 18 others of participating in an illegal plot to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia argue that all of the defendants should be tried together, citing Efficiency and fairness.

The case was tried under the state’s anti-crime law, meaning the same witnesses and evidence are used in each trial, they wrote in a brief they said was filed Tuesday. Instead, conducting multiple lengthy hearings would place “an enormous drain on the judicial resources” of the district high court and arbitrarily favor defendants who go to trial later because they have the advantage of seeing the state’s evidence and arguments in advance, they wrote Prosecutors.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in announcing the charges last month that she wanted to try all 19 defendants together. Two of the defendants have filed requests for a speedy trial, and Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled the trial for October 23. At a hearing last week, he said it was “somewhat unrealistic” to imagine that all the defendants could be brought to trial so soon and asked Willis’ team to briefly explain why they thought that was necessary.

Attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell are the two who have called for a speedy trial. They also requested to be tried separately, but McAfee denied that request. Chesebro is accused of working to coordinate and implement a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate falsely declaring that Trump won and that they themselves were among the “duly elected and qualified” Explain to voters in the state. Powell is accused of being involved in a theft of voting machines in rural Coffee County.

Most other defendants have filed requests to be tried individually or in smaller groups, but prosecutors noted that those defendants have not waived their right to make their own requests for a speedy trial. The deadline to do so is Nov. 5, and if such claims were filed, it would trigger one or more trials beginning within the two-month trial period that begins Nov. 6, with the trial of Chesebro and Powell likely still ongoing. This could result in multiple trials taking place simultaneously in the high-profile case, causing security issues and “unavoidable distress” for witnesses and victims, prosecutors argued.

Several prominent figures were ultimately not charged. (CNN, WHNS, WGCL, WSB, WMTV, POOL, FOX NEWS, SENATE TV, FULTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, GETTY IMAGES)

Requiring defendants to waive their right to a speedy trial as a condition of separating their cases “would prevent the logistical quagmire described above, the inevitable harm to victims and witnesses, and the risk of fraud,” prosecutors wrote . Additionally, they argued that defendants who indicate they want to be tried separately because they will not be ready by Oct. 23 must inform the court when they expect to be ready for trial.

Five of the defendants are seeking to take their cases to federal court, and lawyers for Trump have said he may do the same. McAfee expressed concern last week about continuing the trial in state court while those attempts are ongoing, because the law that allows federal officials to transfer state charges to federal court in some cases states that “no conviction shall be made.” , unless the case is first sent back to the state court. But prosecutors noted that the law expressly allows a case to continue to be heard in state court while the question of transferring it to federal court is still pending.

Federal Judge Steve Jones last week rejected an attempt by Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his case to federal court and sent it back to state court, but Meadows is appealing that ruling. The four others who have already asked to have their cases moved are scheduled to have hearings before Jones next week.

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