Fulton County was the center of the political sphere on Monday night as Donald Trump and 18 others were named together in a 41-count indictment. Shortly after the charges were handed down, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis guided a short press conference regarding the indictment. Towards the end of the press session, she expressed a desire to begin trying Trump and his associates within the next six months. If Willis and her colleagues were able to meet her goal, the trial would begin just before the start of the upcoming primary cycle. However, legal experts are unsure if that will happen.
“It seems impossible that this case could go to trial sometime next year,” attorney Dan Cevallos said.
“It actually seems impossible that it could go to trial in 2026. I’m not being glib here. When you look at the other current, high-profile racketeering case that is pending in the same county, [it] has been in jury selection for eight months. If the name of that trial isn’t at the tip of your tongue, then that’s evidence. As high-profile as that trial is, they can’t seat a jury. This trial is 100 times as high profile. [Also], keep in mind that there are many co-defendants. Each one of those co-defendants is charged with different crimes and each one of them is going to file motions to sever, motions to continue, motions to dismiss, [etc]. All of these need to be decided. There’s simply no way that this case could go to trial in the next two years.”
Cevallos is not the only legal analyst who believes the trial won’t go to trial in the immediate future. Former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam is also skeptical of Willis’s plan to bring the case to trial within six months.
“If Fani Willis is going to try all of these defendants together, this case is not happening before the 2024 election,” Lam said on Monday night.
While both Cevallos and Lam question when the trial will take place, legal experts are certain that it will take place at some point.
“For the purposes of prosecuting Trump, it doesn’t really matter how long this trial takes,” Cevallos explained.
“This is one of the cases — a state case — that Trump cannot pardon. He cannot appoint a new attorney general to dismiss the case and end it. Trump is going to go to trial. It may not be this year. It may not be next year. It may not even be the year after that, but it’s going to happen.”
