Sidney Powell, an attorney associated with former President Donald Trump and now criminally charged alongside him in Georgia, is still heading to trial in that case from the state’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee rejected a series of arguments that Powell’s team made about the substance of the allegations brought against her. The judge contended it was inappropriate to even proceed with the arguments on account of the stage of the case.
“We could sit here and have a preliminary trial that could last for weeks,” the judge said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But that’s not what we’re going to do.” There are apparently other arguments from Powell against her charges that were left still pending after this decision, though. After she pushed for a speedy trial, she and co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro are set to face trial alongside each other later this month, starting October 20.
Trial for Trump and other co-defendants could come significantly after that point, though one — Scott Hall, who was tied to the election data breach in Georgia’s Coffee County — has taken a plea deal, which reportedly involves an understanding to provide trial testimony. Powell was also tied to the Coffee County incident in the original criminal charges. Her team has contended with the assertion she had a meaningful role in actually pushing that scheme forward. What actually happened involved the covert copying of data from local elections, with targets including ballot images, according to currently available information.
Elsewhere, Trump and other co-defendants are continuing to face a civil trial in New York City on claims from that state’s attorney general of fraud at the Trump family business. An appeals court in the state rejected a push on Friday for trial to stop, though they reportedly got onboard with delaying the implementation of a ruling from the presiding judge that would force a transfer of control at presumably at least key Trump entities based in New York. The attorney general’s team, though, was already open to such a delay in implementation amid trial.
