Two of the 19 people charged with scheming to subvert Georgias 2020 election results are set to go on trial next month, but former President Donald Trump says he doesn’t want to join them, as hes waiving his right to a speedy trial.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she wants to try Trump and his 18 co-defendants at the same time, starting in late October.
Trump filed the speedy trial waiver first, with Willis’ office later filing a brief arguing for a joint trial due to efficiency and fairness concerns. She says multiple, drawn-out trials would “create an enormous strain” on the courts and her office and give defendants who wait an advantage.
Several other defendants filed similar waivers of their speedy trial rights on Wednesday, with some of them saying they won’t be ready by next month.
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Two of Trump’s former lawyers, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, will have their trials start on Oct. 23 because they requested speedy trials.
There’s no set date for the rest of the trials yet, but under Georgia law, a defendant who requests a speedy trial is entitled to have it start in either the same or the next two-month court term. Fulton County’s court terms start on the first Mondays of January, March, May, July, September and November.
Meanwhile, the judge in Trump’s classified documents case out of Florida is putting limits on how and where the former president can talk about classified evidence in the case.
Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order Wednesday granting a request from the prosecution to set rules on how the evidence would be handled and discussed.
That includes appointing a classified information officer who would monitor Trump’s lawyer’s access to the documents.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to charges of mishandling classified records after leaving the White House and working with two employees to interfere with government efforts to recover the documents.
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