In Huge Blow to Fani Willis, Judge Rejects Request to Try All Trump Georgia RICO Defendants Together
By Cristina Laila Sep. 14, 2023
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Last month Fani Willis hit President Trump and 18 others with RICO and conspiracy charges for daring to challenge the 2020 election.
Fani Willis wanted to try all 19 defendants together. Of course, this would deny Trump’s Constitutional right to a fair trial. She simply isn’t prepared for trial so putting all 18 co-defendants in the meat grinder at once – with Trump – would be the easiest route for Fani Willis.
Willis was so desperate to try all defendants together that she actually threatened to violate their rights.
Citing four cases that have nothing to do with Trump’s RICO case, Fani Willis threatened all of the defendants after Chesebro and Powell requested speedy trials.
“By filing a statutory speedy trial demand, the Defendants elected to proceed to trial without the benefit of the type of prior notice of the State’s discovery and similar transaction evidence that would have otherwise been afforded to them,” Fani Willis said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday ruled that Trump and 16 of the defendants will be tried separately from two of the other defendants – lawyers Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell – after they requested speedy trials and formally asked the judge to separate their cases.
Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro will go on trial on October 23rd in the Georgia RICO and conspiracy case.
Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell will be tried together.
Judge McAfee said he is severing the cases to safeguard each defendant’s due process rights.
“The precarious ability of the Court to safeguard each defendant’s due process rights and ensure adequate pretrial preparation on the current accelerated track weighs heavily, if not decisively, in favor of severance,” Judge Scott McAfee wrote.
The judge also signaled he was in favor of separating the other defendants’ cases as well.
Trump’s lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was charged with count 1 (RICO), 9 (Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer), 11 (Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree), 13 (Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings), 15 (Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents), 17 (Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree), and 19 (Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings).
Sidney Powell was charged with counts 1, and 32-37: RICO, Conspiracy to Commit Election Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Computer Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Computer Trespass, Conspiracy to Commit Computer Invasion of Privacy and Conspiracy to Defraud the State.
President Trump wants to delay his trial and also requested his case be severed from the other defendants.