JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There are almost daily developments in the Georgia election interference case against Former President Donald Trump and 18 other co-conspirators.
Now, a Georgia court is trying to wade through 900 prospective jurors next month because two of the defendants — Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro — chose to exercise their right to a speedy trial.
The trial for the two is expected to begin on Oct. 23.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had been pushing to try all 19 together but that won’t happen now that Powell and Chesebro will be tried quickly several months before Trump’s trial is slated.
And other defendants are trying to have sever their trials from Trump as well.
This could benefit the Trump team, said News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney.
“It’s a tremendous win for Donald Trump and the other defendants to have this severance,” said Mullaney. “For Donald Trump and the other defendants, it means they get to watch the other witnesses, they get to hear the prosecution. They get to see jury selection. There’s going to be an obvious delay with jury selection as the trial goes forward. It’s an advantage for them. But it’s also an advantage for Chesebro and Powell who are both lawyers. They are going to have unique defenses and didn’t want to be lumped in with the others.”
This comes as Trump is continuing to speak out on his actions following the 2020 election. In an interview with NBC News, Trump defended his choice of which attorneys to listen to following the election.
“You hire them. You never met these people. You get a recommendation and they turn out to be RINOS or they turn out to be not so good. In many cases, I didn’t respect them as lawyers. But I did respect others. I respected many others that said the election was rigged,” said Trump. “I was listening to different people and when I added it all up, the election was rigged.”
While facing felony charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the former president has continued flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.