- Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed to start Trump’s Georgia trial on March 4.
- Trump’s lawyers are expected to propose to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.
Donald Trump’s Georgia trial should start March 4, in the heart of the presidential primary season, a little more than a week before the state’s Republican primary, under a request Wednesday from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
March 4 is the day before the Super Tuesday primaries in a dozen states and a little more than a week before Georgia’s primary. Trump and Willis are each campaigning during 2024.
Willis’ schedule also anticipates arraignments for the 19 defendants the week of Sept. 5. Sheriff Pat Labat had said the defendants would be booked at the Fulton County jail, where defendants could show up any day at any time.
Trump was indicted Monday on racketeering and other charges for trying to steal the 2020 election. He has blasted the case – the fourth criminal case he faces while campaigning for president – as the result of a political prosecution.
Trump is expected to ask to delay the trial until after the election, as he has in other cases.
“All of these Biden Administration bogus trials and cases, including the locals, should be brought after the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump said on his Truth Social website. “What they have done is already Election Interference, but if the trials are held before the Election, then it would be Interference on a scale never seen in our Country before.”
At this point, Trump has criminal trials scheduled:
- March 25 in New York on state charges of falsifying business records to make hush payments to a woman who claimed to have had sex with him before the 2016 election.
- May 20 in Fort Pierce, Florida, on federal charges of mishandling classified documents removed from the White House and stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith proposed a Jan. 2 start to his trial on conspiracy to defraud the country over 2020 election results. Trump’s lawyers haven’t formally responded to that proposal yet. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will set the date.
In addition, Trump faces two pending civil trials:
- New York Attorney General Letitia James has a $250 million civil trial scheduled to start Oct. 2 against Trump’s namesake company on allegations of fraud for lying for a decade about the value of properties.
- E. Jean Carroll won a $5 million defamation case against Trump, which he is appealing. She has another trial scheduled to begin in New York on Jan. 15 – the day of Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.
“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,” Willis wrote in her filing.