A Georgia judge will hear arguments Wednesday about whether to hold separate trials in Donald Trump’s racketeering indictment with 18 co-defendants.
Trump, lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and lawyer Sidney Powell have each asked to separate their trials from the others.
Chesebro and Powell asked for speedy trials, but Trump would like more time to prepare his defense. Chesebro’s trial is scheduled Oct. 23 – and he doesn’t want to be tried with Powell because the cases involve different accusations. She wants to be tried alone.
Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee must decide whether to hold separate trials and when they should be.
McAfee has broad discretion under Georgia law about whether to separate the cases, according to legal experts. Chesebro’s lawyers, Scott Grubman and Manubir Arora, argued his request should be granted “whenever it appears ‘necessary to achieve a fair determination of the guilt or innocence of a defendant.’”
The indictment charges 19 people with 41 crimes under a racketeering conspiracy alleging they tried to steal the 2020 election. Several of the co-defendants have argued they had nothing to do with others who were charged.
Why does Sidney Powell want a separate trial?
Powell has pleaded not guilty and was the first to ask Aug. 30 for a separate trial. Besides the overarching racketeering charge, Powell faces six conspiracy charges to commit election fraud, computer theft, computer trespass and defrauding the state by allegedly tampering with computer equipment in Coffee County, Georgia.
Powell argued she wasn’t working for Trump or his campaign, despite attending White House meetings with Trump and news conferences to discuss alleged election fraud.
The indictment said a White House meeting Dec. 18, 2020, with Trump included discussion of making Powell a special counsel with broad power to investigate allegations of voter fraud. The House committee that investigated the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021, found White House lawyers “vehemently opposed” her appointment during the “highly charged” meeting and the assignment was never formally made.
Powell said she met with Trump to discuss an executive order about election interference, according to her court filing. The House committee reported Powell argued the executive order gave Trump the authority to seize voting machines.
Powell acknowledged her typed name appeared on a contract with SullivanStrickler for forensic computer analysis in Michigan and Arizona, and that a non-profit she founded paid an invoice from the vendor, but argued there was no contract covering work in Coffee County and she didn’t request that project.
“She had no contact with most of her purported conspirators and rarely agreed with those she knew or spoke with,” her lawyer, Brian Rafferty, wrote in requesting a separate trial. “Ms. Powell can receive a fair trial only if she is tried alone.”
Rafferty estimated Powell’s trial could be conducted in three days.
Why does Trump oppose a speedy trial in Georgia?
Trump asked on Aug. 31 to separate his case from co-defendants who asked for speedy trials, including Chesebro and Powell.
Trump faces 13 charges including soliciting public officials to violate their oaths of office, filing false statements in a federal lawsuit and conspiracies involving the recruitment of alternate presidential electors to vote for him even though President Joe Biden won Georgia. Trump pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s lawyer, Steven Sadow, argued that two months was too little time to prepare for trial on a 98-page indictment spanning 161 acts by 19 co-defendants dealing with a variety of charges.
Why does Kenneth Chesebro want a separate trial?
Chesebro argued his case has nothing to do with Powell’s, so they should not be tried together. Besides the overarching racketeering charge, Chesebro faces six conspiracy charges for developing the legal strategy to have alternate electors vote for Trump. Chesebro pleaded not guilty.
Chesebro denied he was the “architect of the Trump elector scheme” in a court filing. His involvement was limited to sending 18 emails, receiving one and attacking one meeting in Wisconsin, he said in a court filing.
Chesebro argued he’s never met Powell or exchanged emails or texts with her, and never visited Coffee County, where the bulk of her charges are focused.
“The actions of Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell are kin to oil and water; wholly separate and impossible to mix (into one conspiracy),” Chesebro’s lawyers wrote.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump, co-defendants seek separate election trials in Georgia