Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Atlanta, Aug. 23, 2023.
Source: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
A Georgia judge on Thursday scheduled the first trial for a co-defendant of former President Donald Trump for criminally interfering in the state’s 2020 election to begin on Oct. 23.
The co-defendant, Kenneth Chesebro, on Wednesday had filed a demand for a speedy trial in the case in Atlanta.
Earlier Thursday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, responded to that request by asking a a judge to set Oct. 23 as the trial date for Trump, Chesebro, and the other 17 defendants.
But Chesebro, who is an attorney, is the only one of Trump’s co-defendants who will stand trial starting that day under the new order issued Thursday by Judge Scott McAfee in Fulton County Superior Court.
McAfee’s order lays out an extremely fast timeline for the Chesebro’s case before trial.
Chesebro, Trump, and the other defendants were indicted by a grand jury less than two weeks ago, on Aug. 14.
It routinely takes months, and sometimes much longer, for a criminal case to go to trial, much less one involving a former U.S. president and many co-defendants.
When Willis asked McAfee to set Oct. 23 as the trial date for all defendants, Trump’s lawyer quickly replied in court opposing that request. Trump’s attorney also said he would seek to sever his case from that of Chesebro.
McAfee’s order setting Chesebro’s trial was issued as Trump was en route to an Atlanta jail to be booked in the case.
The judge set Chesebro’s arraignment for Sept. 9, with the exchange of evidence by prosecutors and his lawyers to be completed by Sept. 20.
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