Legal AF by MeidasTouch - WOW! Judge Makes AGGRESSIVE MOVE on Trump Trial Schedule

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

Legal AF hosts Ben Meiselas and Karen Friedman Agnifilo report on the a new notice by a Fulton County Superior Court Judge on the trial setting for the Donald Trump criminal RICO case.  Head to https://policygenius.com or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 MAGA Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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With the right tools, the goals you have tomorrow can happen today. Visa is ready to build a next generation of Fintech together. Learn more at visa.ca. I'm Ben Myselis from LegalAF joined by co-host Karen Friedman Agnifalo. Judge Scott McAfee, the Fulton County Superior Court judge in the sprawling racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fawney Willis just made a pretty significant order that if I'm Donald Trump, I'm nervous about right now because we talked about how some of Donald Trump's co-defendants like Ken Chesbro and Sydney Powell made this demand for a speedy trial, which in Georgia means had to go before November 1st, based on the unique statutory scheme there.

Speedy means very speedy in Georgia. And in this notice of motion hearing, Judge Scott McAfee is asking the parties and specifically Fulton County District Attorney Fony Willis if she is capable of trying all 19 cases together. And then also what would it look like if the cases were severed individually or tried as or tried in groupings. But I'm a little nervous right now if I'm not a Trump, I want to get your take as someone who led them in Hadton District Attorney's office from was three decades like Karen What did you make of this because?

Yes, he's in judge Maccuffee's inviting briefing, but he seems like he's intrigued by this concept of doing a trial with everybody together October 23rd is when the Chesbro trial is going to go. Is there really a way that all the cases can go October 23rd? No, there's no way all the cases can go October 23rd for various reasons. I think the reason Scott McAfee asked for a hearing tomorrow on the efforts for everybody who wants to sever their cases from each other, you know, Chesbro and Powell, and to provide, for the prosecutors to provide an estimate of time that it would take to trial all 19 defendants together. I think the reason for this is,

looks not forget that Georgia's court appearances and hearings are all televised. And I think Judge McAfee wants everything on the record and nothing to be done in secret, nothing to be done, that subject to interpretation by anybody. Looks just have it done on the record I want. I want the prosecutor to tell me how much time this is going to take for all 19 defendants. Look, see what we have.

And then let's discuss the logistics on the record, right? And not just in filings and looks have it so that everyone can see what's going on because there's so much going on in this case. I mean, the fact that Jack Smith brought his case, which is one defendant and four charges just looks more and more genius every day because it's just one defendant and four charges. When you see what's happening in Georgia, you see the mischief that can occur when you have 19 defendants and all of the, a 98-page indictment that has 150 or 60 plus overt acts and four dozen charges.

It's because you see what's happening, right? You've got three defendants who want their speedy trial, which means it has to go in October Then you've got two of those defendants moving to sever from each other chest bro and and Powell You know, they're saying we both want speedy trials, but we don't want to be together, right? So so what that that means Bonnie will this is going to have two separate cases going at the same time and two separate courtrooms because she has to start both cases at the same time because she has to have a go on together. And for judicial economy reasons, any judge would for certainly keep them together. The only way they'd be severed is if they have inconsistent and taginistic defenses, you know, that they're like pointing to each other or, you know,

one saying, my defense is, you know, mistaken identity and the other one saying, no, it was, you know, consensual or whatever whatever it is that you know the different antagonistic defenses can be in this particular case. That's the only real grounds for severance for the speedy trial ones. But don't forget you've also got people who including Mark Meadows and Johnny Eastman who are seeking removal to federal court right they want their case is not even prosecuted in state court but to federal court, right? They want their cases not even prosecuted in state court, but in federal court. And then you've got, you know,

Johnny's been making a motion today saying, you know, I want time to file my demure motion, which is a motion to dismiss certain charges or to dismiss the charges. I don't want the court schedule that you set Judge Mackity. I want time to have Judge Jones in federal court rule on my removal motion and then depending on how that goes, I'm going to appeal it. I'm going to appeal it all the way. So I want 30 days post all my appellate remedies being

sought. So that delays things. And then you've got Donald Trump trying to sever, saying he doesn't want a speedy trial, right? And there are other rights that defendants have other than due process rights, other than the speedy trial, right? That the other defendants aren't going to agree to wave. So I think it's such a mess, it's so hard to keep track of. And, you know, then there's the whole logistical consideration of can you fit 19 defendants plus all their lawyers

and their lawyers, paralegals in a courtroom to try at the same time. and how much time would it take to have 19 cross examinations of every single witness so one witness gets testifies on direct if you have 19 defendants going at the same time Each lawyer 19 times gets to cross examine that person on their own. There's 19 openings 19 closings 19 lawyers get to do wardier, you get the mess, you get the, the gist of it. So just from a logistical standpoint, 19 defendants aren't going to go at the same time. So I think the judge just says this whole thing is, is a mess. People are all want different things. The defendants clearly aren't, like there's no sort of unified defense strategy, other than chaos perhaps. And so I think he wants all of that on the record

so that everybody can sort of see what's happening and make sense of that. So I think that that's what's going to happen. And that's why he did it. If you have a family like I do, you know how much your loved ones depend on you. In a worst-case scenario, you wouldn't want them to worry about money.

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Gonna be a lot of fireworks though here. I mean recall that Fulton County District Attorney Fawni Willis originally requested after the indictment was brought back on August 14th. She requested March 4th of 2024, right? That is now the trial date for Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington, DC set by Judge Tanya Chutkin. Then you had Ken Chesbro, Donald Trump's co-defendant request to speedy trial. Sydney Powell did the same. The judge had to agree to that request,

had to a seat to the request. And then that was set October 23rd of this year. So in like, basically, less than 45, 60 days, I mean, that case would go in a trial from when Chesborough made the demand and then Fulton County District Attorney Fony Willis was like, I wanna try all the cases now, October 23rd, just to show how supremely confident that she was ready to go. And so that, and then we had a lot of the co-dependency, I'm not ready, I'm not ready, this person saying,

they're not ready. Jeff Clark filed a motion earlier saying that, you know, he doesn't want to go until his appeals are exhausted after seeking a removal, Edo's filed a removal, there's evidentiary hearing briefings taking place there. There's a lot going on here, which is perfectly within the province of Fulton County, District Attorney Fony will us to deal with and resolve just disentangling the mess, just require

some time, just so everyone can see the notice that was filed by Judge McAfee. Here's what it says, having read and considered the Severance motions submitted by defense council. This matter is scheduled to consider the issue of severance on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 and the court. At the hearing, the court intends to ask the state to provide the following information, one, a good faith estimate of the time reasonably anticipated to present the state's case during a joint trial of all 19 co-defendants and alternatively any divisions thereof, including the number of witnesses likely to be called and the number and size of exhibits likely to be introduced.

So ordered September 5, 2023, signed by Judge Scott McAfee and default the county district attorney for any of the wells is going to have to have an answer that if you were to try all, let me ask you in this car and as a former prosecutor, if you were to do this trial with 19 co-defendants the way it is right now with a rico conspiracy like this, obviously not all 19 are going to go because already we know that some are gonna have to be severed

based on the speedy trial request. How long would you say it would take to prosecute a case like this, not in terms of to bring it to trial? You're at trial. Would it take a week to do a case like this? Would it take five weeks? Would it take six months? Well, where do you estimate it?

Look, without knowing how many witnesses she's calling, because I obviously don't know what her case is. This looks like a six-month trial to me. You know, this is a big case. You know, this is in New York, this would be a six-month trial, because it wouldn't just be the witnesses. It would be corroborating all the witnesses. It would be their cell phone records, their emails,

their videos showing, people going in and out. You out, it would be disproving things that they are saying. This is a big, long, detailed, meticulous case. She's going to put on proof of all 160 something over at acts. Each one of them is going to require elements of each of the act to be proven. And don't forget her burden is beyond a reasonable doubt. So personally in New York, this would take six months. We'll see what she estimates. Like I said, I don't know how many witnesses she has.

So it's hard to say. Depending on how many witnesses she has, we'll depend on how long it will take. I mean, you know, Jack Smith in his one defendant, a four count case that's similar to this, but also incorporates all of the other seven swing states, right? He estimated, you know, something like six to eight weeks, right, for his trial, I believe. You know, he, I think that's what he estimated.

Now, now I'm thinking he said, um, a little bit longer than that. But, you know, so, so if you're going to have 19 defendants, it's going to be a lot longer than that. So, so personally, I think it's about six months. Well, everybody stay tuned as soon as we hear what goes down at this hearing. But remember that September 6th hearing was originally scheduled for the arrangement, as well as severance issues to be discussed. Mostly everyone waived their arrangement and pled not guilty via pleading, but Judge

McAfee wants to keep the hearing to address the issue of the scheduling. And so he's going to be very, very, very significant regarding scheduling. What goes down September 6th, we will keep you posted here on legal AF. Do me a favor. Check out patreon.com slash might as touch to learn about Karen Friedman, Agniflo's origin story, Michael Popox, origin story that's Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, dot com slash might as touch to learn about Karen Friedman, Agnifalo's origin story, Michael Popox origin story that's Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash might as touch. MEI D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H become a member there.

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