Would a Trump trial during election be interference or due process?
ATLANTA — On Election Day next year, the Fulton County jurors sitting in judgment of Donald Trump may have some decisions to make: should they take time off from court to cast a vote in the presidential election? And, if they do, will they vote for the defendant or against him?
The unheard-of, almost unimaginable scenario is entirely possible. Trump is, after all, far and away the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. And District Attorney Fani Willis is proposing an Aug. 5 starting date for his trial and says it will run into 2025.
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The issue came to a head during a daylong hearing Friday before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case and will have to decide when Trump’s trial will begin.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead Atlanta lawyer, strongly opposed the trial taking place in the weeks leading up to and including Election Day.
“Can you imagine the notion of a Republican nominee for president not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is, in some form or fashion, in a courtroom defending himself?” Sadow told McAfee. “That would be the most effective election interference in the history of the United States.”
Sadow added, “I would hope the state would understand that if the Republicans believe he should be the nominee that he should be given the same fair chance to campaign … as the democratic nominee, which of course at this point appears to be President Biden.”
This led McAfee to pose a question to special prosecutor Nathan Wade. “What would be the state’s response that having this trial on Election Day is election interference?” the judge asked.
“Let’s be clear,” Wade replied. “This is not election interference. This is moving forward with the business of Fulton County. I don’t think that it in any way impedes defendant Trump’s ability to campaign or do whatever he needs to do in order to seek office.”
