Judge questions Trump's trial timing in Georgia election interference case
ATLANTA - Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee questioned prosecutors on Friday about why they want to put former President Donald Trump on trial in August, just months before the 2024 presidential election.
The former president is one of more than a dozen indicted for his alleged role in overturning the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
"What would be the state’s response that having this trial on Election Day is election interference," Judge McAfee asked.
"This trial does not constitute election interference," one of the prosecutors responded.
Earlier in the day, defense attorneys for former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, former President Trump, and others argued that they should not be charged. They argue that the First Amendment should protect them.
"The defendants’ statements and actions here are challenging the processes of the 2020 presidential election, it is political free speech," said Christopher Anulewicz, Bob Cheeley’s Attorney.
Trump's attorney attempts to quash indictments
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and at least three of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference racketeering case are appearing in a Fulton County courtroom on Friday afternoon. Trump, former campaign attorney Ray Smith, attorney Robert Cheeley, and former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer have all filed multiple motions to quash some or all the indictments against them.
Former President Trump’s lead Georgia lawyer, Steve Sadow, has been publicly silent since he took over the case in August, but on Friday, he joined in on the First Amendment argument.
"You find that it violates free speech, freedom of petitioning and all the expressions that the first amendment is designed to protect and therefore the indictment needs to be dismissed," he said.
There was also an argument that the so-called "fake electors" were not fake and that the Electoral Count Act allows an alternative group of electors to meet if certain deadlines have not been met, but prosecutors are fighting back against it.
"They were representing themselves as the actual electors certified by the governor, duly elected and qualified and they were never that," one of the prosecutors said.
So far, no decision has been made on whether the charges will be dropped. Judge McAfee will make that decision in the weeks ahead.