Trump’s Georgia RICO trial may not end until 2025, Fani Willis says

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The racketeering case against Donald Trump and his allies for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia may not conclude until the beginning of 2025, according to Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.

That means the trial could last through the key final stages of the 2024 election.

“I believe in that case there will be a trial. I believe the trial will take many months. And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” she said at a Washington Post summit on Tuesday.

“I don’t, when making decisions about cases to bring, consider any election cycle or an election season. That does not go into the calculus. What goes into the calculus is: This is the law. These are the facts. And the facts show you violated the law. Then charges are brought,” she added.

Mr Trump, who pleaded not guilty in August in the Georgia case, has consistently painted the numerous investigations and criminal cases against him as a politicised attempt to sabotage his 2024 comeback.

As a result, the matter of when these proceedings will take place has been of central importance to the Trump team, though thus far a number of cases seem set to collide with election season.

Last week, a federal judge rejected Mr Trump’s attempt to delay his Florida trial over allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

The trial is set for 20 May 2024, though Judge Aileen Cannon said she would revist the scheduling question next year.

The former president’s 2020 conspiracy trial in Washington, meanwhile, is set for a March start date.

The special counsel’s office has accused Mr Trump of attempting to delay the process with requests for additional time to file documents.

“The defendant should not be permitted to derail the pretrial schedule,” federal prosecutors wrote in a filing Monday.