Georgia prosecutors seek March 4 trial in Trump racketeering case

Georgia prosecutors are seeking a March 4, 2024, trial for Donald Trump and 18 allies on racketeering charges connected to the former president’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

The timeline, combined with Trump’s other proposed and scheduled criminal cases, could put Trump in the courtroom for most of the first six months of 2024, a span that covers almost the entirety of the GOP primary in which he’s the frontrunner for the nomination.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis framed the proposed date as a bid to work around Trump’s other scheduled matters, including a March 25 trial date in New York on charges that he falsified business records to cover up an extramarital affair and a May 20 trial date on federal charges that he hoarded classified documents at his Florida estate.

“The State of Georgia proposes certain deadlines that do not conflict with these other courts’ already-scheduled hearings and trial dates,” Willis wrote in court documents filed Wednesday.

The proposal also includes a Sept. 5, 2023 arraignment, evidence-sharing deadlines in September and other interim motions throughout the fall.

It’s unclear how Trump’s pileup of criminal cases will resolve. Special Counsel Jack Smith is seeking a Jan. 2 trial on charges that Trump illegally obstructed the transfer of presidential power. (Trump is expected to object to Smith’s proposed trial date in a court filing due Thursday.) Smith’s team has estimated it will take four to six weeks just for the prosecution to present its case, meaning a verdict in the case — if U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan agrees with Smith’s timeline — would likely arrive by mid-to-late February.

That would leave little time for the start of Willis’ trial, which itself would almost surely stretch to the beginning of the March 25 trial date in New York. And if Trump’s trial in New York lasted two weeks, it would leave a small gap before Trump’s Florida trial before U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon.

Trump has called for all four of his criminal matters to be postponed until after the 2024 election, though the two judges who have set trial dates have so far dismissed those attempts. Chutkan has warned Trump that if he continues a rash of inflammatory comments about witnesses or others involved in his case, she would consider speeding up his trial date in Washington.

Trump is also facing several civil lawsuits that are scheduled to go to trial over the next six months, but he’s unlikely to attend those in person. So far, judges have largely rejected Trump’s concerns about the political calendar and the likelihood that he could be forced off the campaign trail for long stretches. If Trump’s dominant position in the GOP primary holds, however, those contests may be less climactic than if the race were to tighten.