The same way they vote for Democrats.
CNN Legal Analyst Gobsmacked Fani Willis
For Wanting to Try Trump and 18 Co-Defendants Together
By Sarah Rumpf, CNN, Aug 15th, 2023, 12:56 am
After Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the latest indictment against former President Donald Trump, she told reporters that she wanted to try the ex-president and the other 18 defendants together, a remark that has raised eyebrows with a number of legal commentators.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and his co-defendants with a total of 41 counts in a 98-page indictment. The thirteen counts against Trump include violation of the Georgia RICO Act, filing false documents, false statements and writings, solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
After Willis announced the charges against Trump and his co-defendants in a late Monday evening press conference — including a noon Friday deadline for all of them to surrender to the court — she took questions from reporters for a few minutes. Willis emphatically said, “yes,” she intended to try all 19 defendants together.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Michael Moore was highly skeptical that was even possible, telling CNN anchor Anderson Cooper shortly after Willis’ press conference concluded he did not think that would happen or that Willis would be able to expedite the trial as quickly as she wanted:
“It was interesting to me to hear her insist that she wanted to try the case within six months, and that she was going to try all 19 of these folks together. I appreciate the fact that she wants to move the case, but that’s not going to happen. There’s just no feasible way to do it. You cannot try 19 defendants, and you’re certainly not going to try them on this kind of indictment with these allegations in six months.”
“She also knows she’s been last to indict and there are other trials already scheduled. So again, I read that this is a case — based on what we are seeing here, based on the number of defendants, based on what’s going to clearly going to be a marathon trial, not to mention a marathon jury selection — this case will be well past the election.”
Cooper asked Moore if it was even possible to try all 19 defendants together.
“It’s possible,” but “it would be like trying a football team or something, I guess,” Moore replied as he and Cooper chuckled.
“It’s just not going to be an easy task,” he continued, to have so many lawyers present, with several lawyers for each of the defendants, and them all “up and down making objections and motions,” and he did not see any way to get that done in six months, citing another “much more limited” RICO case Willis’ office was currently prosecuting, where the jury selection alone was taking more than six months.
Other CNN legal analysts, including Elie Honig and Laura Coates, also voiced a high degree of skepticism Willis would be able to try all 19 defendants together, citing reasons from the practical logistics of finding a courtroom large enough for so many people, to the complexity of the case, to the motions the defendants themselves may file to sever their cases.
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