Tough process in Georgia
Trump’s vote-fraud trial could take four months
09/06/2023, 10:10 p.m
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The Georgia voter fraud trial is considered the most dangerous for Donald Trump. Prosecutors expect the trial to last four months and would like to start in October. However, it is questionable whether this will actually happen.
In the case of attempted electoral fraud in the state of Georgia against ex-US President Donald Trump and 18 other suspects, the public prosecutor’s office expects a four-month trial. That’s what a prosecutor said at the first hearing in the Atlanta court, to which neither Trump nor the other defendants had to appear. That estimate of the schedule does not include jury selection, the prosecutor said. About 150 witnesses are expected in the court proceedings.
The public prosecutor spoke out in favor of starting the process in October. However, the judge was very skeptical. The details of the procedure and a possible start of the process are still completely unclear. Several defendants are attempting to separate their case from the others, get a faster trial, or have their trial transferred to another court. The presidential election in the United States will take place on November 5, 2024.
In Georgia, Trump is charged with 18 others over his attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state. Trump lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden. To this day, he refuses to admit defeat. Instead, Trump claims he was deprived of a victory by massive voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere.
Trump also indicted at the federal level
In the midst of his new campaign for a Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election, Trump faces three more indictments — and thus three more lawsuits. Among other things, he has also been charged at the federal level in Washington in connection with the 2020 election. However, the procedure in Georgia differs from the rest of the procedures in New York, Miami and Washington.
Cameras were allowed at the Atlanta hearing and the session was televised live. It is possible that this will also apply to the later process. In Georgia, Trump had also had to appear in a prison for the post-charge procedure to face the authorities – and not in court as in the other cases. At the prison date at the end of August, the authorities took a police photo of the Republican. Never before has an ex-president of the USA been immortalized on a so-called “mugshot”.
For Trump, the Georgia charges are particularly dangerous because they lead prosecutors in Georgia. If the court finds him guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. If he runs for the Republican nominee next year and is elected US President at the same time, he will not be able to pardon himself, as with the indictments brought by the Attorney General in the US Department of Justice in federal courts. US Presidents cannot pardon anyone convicted by a state court.