A date for the trial has not yet been set, although prosecutors hope to begin on 23 October.
In court on Wednesday, state prosecutor Nathan Wade said that the expected timeline does not account for jury selection, which could potentially add months to the process.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he hopes to decide questions regarding the trial’s schedule by “either the end of this week or early next week”.
During Wednesday’s court session, Judge McAfee also heard arguments on whether some of the defendants could sever their cases from the wider racketeering, or Rico, case.
Attorneys for Kenneth Chesebro sought to sever the counts against him, as did attorneys for Sidney Powell, a former Trump lawyer, who has also asked for a speedy trial - a constitutional right in the US.
Both will now go on trial together on 23 October after Judge McAfee denied a motion to sever their cases from one another.
In total, six of the defendants in the case have sought to sever their cases, including Mr Trump and ex-Georgia Republican chair David Shafer.
Other defendants are seeking to have their cases moved to federal court. A federal judge has yet to decide on the issue, known by the legal term of “removal”.
Jenna Ellis – the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 – says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a “malignant narcissist” who cannot admit mistakes.
“I simply can’t support him for elected office again,” Ellis said. “Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”
Ellis, 38, was speaking on her show on American Family Radio, a right-wing evangelical network run by the American Family Association, a non-profit that by its own description has been “on the frontlines of America’s culture war” since 1977.
Former Republican bail bondsman Scott Hall, one of the 19 people charged alongside Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, entered into a plea agreement on Friday, becoming the first defendant to plead guilty in the sprawling criminal case.
The surprise move from Hall came after he gave a recorded statement, it was revealed in court, to prosecutors who are almost certain to use that testimony against the former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell when she goes to trial in October accused of several of the same crimes.
A live video of the court proceeding showed Hall pleading guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties, a misdemeanor charge.
Hall was sentenced to five years’ probation, a $5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and to write an apology letter to the state.
The description of the plea agreement suggested prosecutors were interested in having Hall flip against Trump and the other co-defendants in the wider Rico case, but especially against people like Powell who had similar legal exposure to him and also had direct links to Trump.
Hall was indicted by an Atlanta-area grand jury last month on charges, brought by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, that he had played a role in trying to reverse Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election in a brazen plot to access voting machines in Coffee county, Georgia.
The scheme involved several Trump allies hiring a team of forensics experts that gained unauthorized access to the voting machines and copied virtually every part of the elections systems, before uploading them to a password-protected website that could be accessed by 2020 election deniers.
The exact nature of the recorded statement that Hall gave prosecutors remains unclear because it took place before he revealed he had taken the plea agreement and was not available on the case docket.
Powell will also pay a $6,000 fine and write an apology to citizens of Georgia after agreement reached just days before jury selection was due to begin
This lady is clearly deranged but not quite so deranged as to realise when the game is up.
More interesting is how this guilty plea will affect Trump’s various court cases regarding election fraud claims and 6 Jan insurrection. This is his lawyer, at least for a while, clearly stating that she is guilty of making up election fraud claims. There will be consequences from this.
Powell was set to go on trial alongside lawyer Kenneth Chesebro who faces seven counts after allegedly participating in a widespread attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
With Powell pleading guilty, Chesebro is set to go on trial by himself. On Thursday, ABC reported that Chesebro rejected a plea deal from prosecutors, according to sources with familiar knowledge.
Cheseboro fancied his chances then but does he now …
Apparently, Powell will have to testify against any of the 18 co-defendants in the case, including Trump …
Kenneth Chesebro is the third of 19 co-defendants to plead guilty in a deal with Fulton County prosecutors. He is accused of putting forward a slate of fake pro-Trump electors in Georgia and other states to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents. His deal with prosecutors on Friday came as jury selection began in his case. The trial will no longer go forward.
Chesebro faces five years of probation, a $5,000 (£4,109) fine and community service. He also must provide documents and evidence related to the case and write an apology letter to citizens of Georgia. He will have to testify under oath in forthcoming trials.
He had faced a total of seven charges in the Georgia election interference case, including conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer.
His guilty plea can be seen as a victory for Fulton County prosecutors as they continue to build their case against Mr Trump, said Atlanta lawyer Rachel Kaufman.
“The chips are falling and falling on Trump,” Ms Kaufman told the BBC. “Chesebro pleading guilty and agreeing to testify truthfully against his co-defendants is the biggest blow yet to any defence they’ve been building. Chesebro was like the captain of Trump’s legal team - and was often the only link between Trump and the other co-conspirators,” she said.
This is going to be interesting. The defendants who flipped appear to have made the calculation that, as they are guilty, they can’t be exonerated by a future president because this is a state trial. Were he re-elected, Trump could only pardon from a federal trial (I think this is right). And now the remaining 16 defendants have the issue that 3 insiders will be testifying for the prosecution. They will be giving details of the planning and the instructions given, and by whom.
By all accounts, one flip always leads to more flips as people work out they are likely to be found guilty. So who next?
Giuliani - he is accused of pressuring legislatures in multiple states, including Georgia, to name electors that would award the election to Trump even though multiple recounts had confirmed his loss.
Eastman - nine, including racketeering, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, and filing false documents
Ellis - allegedly coordinated Georgia hearings that helped perpetuate unfounded claims of election fraud and is said to have participated in meetings and hearings related to overturning the vote
Smith - named for testifying at a Georgia state Senate hearing and perpetuating election lies there, as well as participating in an election challenge in Georgia state court. Additionally, he is accused of pressuring Georgia House members to appoint alternative electors.
Meadows - allegedly helping coordinate communications between Trump and Georgia election officials, coordinating legal strategies, and spreading false theories about election fraud.
Clark - said to have tried to use the chaos unfolding at the end of the Trump administration to catapult himself into the role of acting attorney general, and then, to use the power of that office to force key states to acknowledge Trump’s false electors, handing the election to Trump.
Roman - used contacts made during the election campaign to help coordinate the plan to set up a slate of fake electors and alleges that he provided organizational support for that plan in Georgia, including setting up meetings
Hampton - improperly accessing and sharing the Coffee County machine’s data and of aiding Trump supporters who were trying to get data
Cheeley - making false allegations of miscounting and election fraud, including under oath
Hall - alleges he illegally accessed data from a voting machine in Coffee county
Shafer - allegedly helped coordinate the false elector scheme in the state and signed documents suggesting that he was one of 16 qualified electors declaring Trump’s victory
Still & Latham - were among 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely claiming that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors for the state and that Trump had won the election
So far, the “flippers” have had “soft” deals - the longer the others leave the “flip” the more chance of getting “hard”. No doubt negotiations will be taking place over the weekend …
Jenna Ellis is the fourth of 19 co-defendants to plead guilty in a deal with Fulton County prosecutors.
She is accused of drafting a letter intended for top Georgia officials declaring that the state’s election results were illegitimate.
Ms Ellis pleaded guilty to one felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She agreed to prosecutors’ recommendations that she face five years of probation, pay a fine of $5,000 (£4,108) in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. The 38-year-old also wrote an apology letter to the state of Georgia and will have to testify in all other proceedings related to those charged in the case. In exchange prosecutors dropped Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) charges she had been facing.
A former senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign, Ms Ellis was censured by the Colorado Bar Association in March for making “reckless, knowing, or intentional misrepresentations” while working as an attorney to Mr Trump. She has been a lawyer since 2011, according to records held by the Colorado state bar.
Ms Ellis’ and other’s early pleas - which end in probation rather than jail - are potentially the beginning of a scary pattern for Mr Trump, as the list of potential witnesses against him grows.
Rapper Young Thug’s racketeering trial has begun with Georgia prosecutors accusing him of being a gang leader in charge of a “wolf pack”. The Atlanta rapper, born Jeffery Lamar Williams, is accused of co-founding a violent street gang in his hometown. Prosecutors are using the critically-acclaimed performer’s own lyrics as evidence of the gang’s existence.
Legal experts are watching for the parallels to the local case developing against former President Donald Trump.
Mr Williams, 32, has been in jail since his May 2022 arrest on charges that include participating in criminal street gang activity and conspiring to violate a federal law aimed at combatting organised crime.
Prosecutors in Fulton County argue that the rapper’s music label YSL is not a true business, despite its success at producing Grammy-winning talent. Instead, they allege, it is a street gang affiliated with the US-based Bloods gang enterprise. In an indictment in May, the district attorney’s office tied the YSL men charged to a series of felony offences, including murder, armed robbery and carjacking.
Georgia prosecutors used the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act - famously used in mafia prosecutions - to charge the rapper and 27 associates who were allegedly involved in the criminal enterprise at various levels.
Neama Rahmani, a trial lawyer who is closely watching both cases in Fulton County, says that if prosecutors can win in their case against YSL, they are more likely to succeed in prosecuting Mr Trump and his alleged co-conspirators
Gangbusters v Young Thug - a trial and a try-out …
A US Appeals Court has ruled that the Georgia case of former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows must remain in state court.
Mr Meadows had hoped to move his election interference case to federal court in the hope that it would benefit his case.
Chief Judge William Pryor of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wrote in a ruling that “After a Fulton County grand jury indicted Meadows for conspiring to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, Meadows filed a notice to remove the action to the Northern District of Georgia. The district court held an evidentiary hearing and then remanded because Meadows’s charged conduct was not performed under color of his federal office. Because federal-officer removal … does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties, we affirm”.
Did a romantic relationship between District Attorney Fani Willis and the special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade, compromises the integrity of the case? The two acknowledged their relationship in court filings on 2 February, but they denied that they violated conflict of interest laws or misused funds.
Ms Willis and Mr Wade have been issued with subpoenas by lawyers for one of Mr Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman. The summonses call on them to appear at a hearing on 15 February to face questions about their alleged romantic relationship.
On Friday, Ms Willis was also subpoenaed separately by the US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee over allegations that she had fired a whistleblower who tried to stop a campaign aide from misusing federal funds. It is part of a larger inquiry by congressional Republicans on whether the prosecutor used federal funds as part of her investigation into Mr Trump.
In early January, Mr Roman filed a motion accusing Ms Willis of engaging in an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Mr Wade. He claimed Mr Wade would not typically have been hired for the special prosecutor role due to his lack of experience.
Documents filed in January in Mr Wade’s divorce case suggest he paid for Ms Willis to join him on lavish trips while the case was under way. Receipts provided by his ex-wife, Joycelyn Wade, appear to show the two took trips to Miami, San Francisco and Aruba. It is unclear whether he was reimbursed by Ms Willis.
In an affidavit, Mr Wade wrote that he and the district attorney used personal funds on the trips and that expenses “were roughly divided equally between us”. He also denied that he shared his compensation for working on the case with Ms Willis, adding that he never cohabitated, shared household expenses, or shared a joint account with Ms Willis.
Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, will hold a hearing on Mr Roman’s claims on 15 February.
The challenge could set back the proceedings, but there is so far no indication the case itself will collapse.
Given the facts that a sexual relationship existed between the two and Mr Wade is only a family dispute lawyer alongside evidence of large sums of money being spent on Ms Wallis by Mr Wade, I’d say that both will have to be replaced on the case. No doubt Ms Willis’ career as DA will come to a sudden end, too.
Not just sex but money, Wade’s and the state’s, is involved and his meteoric rise from family lawyer to “gang-buster” (1):
Who is Nathan Wade?
Once a municipal court judge, Mr Wade is a trial attorney who has “decades of experience helping clients facing divorce, separation, and child-custody issues”, according to his firm’s website.
Hs website and career show little experience with complex criminal cases like Mr Trump’s.
The first count in the Georgia indictment charges Donald Trump and 18 others with racketeering for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
Announcing the charges, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis implicated the former president in a sprawling election subversion conspiracy, with him as the ringleader.
The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal, racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results," she said.
(1) These are the fourth set of criminal charges brought against Mr Trump in recent months, but it is the first time a former American president faces charges once used to convict mob bosses like John Gotti and Vincent Gigante.
Organised criminal activity in the US is routinely prosecuted under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act.
Rico laws help prosecutors connect the dots between underlings who broke laws and those who gave them marching orders.
Willis and Wade, a special prosecutor working on the case against Trump and 14 other defendants, confirmed for the first time on Friday they had a romantic relationship. Previously, evidence had emerged in Wade’s divorce proceedings that he had used some of the more than $650,000 he earned from his work for her to pay for vacations for the two of them. Bank records showed Wade had paid for tickets for the pair to go to California in 2023 and Miami in 2022.
So, Willis used state funds to pay Wade to take her on vacation.
