Fulton County Update: Judge ‘Skeptical’ of October Trial Date, Fani Willis Accuses Jim Jordan of Obstructing Prosecution Jordan Dixon-Hamilton 7 Sep 2023
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Wednesday he is “very skeptical” of District Attorney Fani Willis’s plan to put former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants on trial in October.
In August, Willis proposed a trial date of October 23, 2023, for all 19 defendants. However, McAfee said he’s skeptical and called the schedule “a bit unrealistic.”
“It seems a bit unrealistic that we could handle all 19 in 40-something days. That’s my initial reaction,” McAfee said.
Georgia prosecutors estimated a trial for all 19 defendants would include testimony from 150 witnesses and take four months to complete. McAffee ordered Georgia prosecutors to respond to his concerns about the October trial date by Tuesday, after which he will decide on the trial date for the other 17 defendants.
On Wednesday, Judge McAfee set former Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell’s trials for October 23 after those two expressed their rights to a speedy trial.
“We’re certainly here, ready and willing to provide both defendants that right, and we’re planning to make that October 23 trial date stick,” McAfee said during Wednesday’s hearing.
However, McAfee denied Chesebro and Powell’s request for their cases to be severed from one another.
On Thursday, Willis sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), accusing him of attempting “to interfere with” her case against Trump after he demanded she turn over all documents related to the prosecution of the former president and 18 of his allies.
“Turning first to the question of motivation, it is noteworthy that just four days before this indictment, you launched a new campaign fundraising website that highlighted your investigation into President Trump,” Jordan wrote in his late-August letter to Willis.
Willis said Jordan’s letter made clear he lacks “a basic understanding of the law, its practice, and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically.”
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/07/fulton-county-update-judge-skeptical-of-october-trial-date-fani-willis-accuses-jim-jordan-of-obstructing-prosecution/
