A new report from The Guardian shares an expectation of additional guilty pleas coming in the criminal case against Donald Trump and others from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The case concerns the efforts by Trump and others against Georgia’s results from the 2020 presidential election, when Biden was narrowly victorious in the state.
There have already been several such deals with prosecutors among defendants in the case, who originally numbered 19 in total. However, even recent history — four deals already — leaves a lot of potential.
“The prosecutors on the Trump case appear convinced that they are close to gaining more cooperating witnesses,” The Guardian said, summarizing the prospect of additional deals with defendants as “likely” should current circumstances persist. “In recent weeks, one of the people said, prosecutors privately advised the judge to delay setting a trial date because some co-defendants may soon plead out, one of the people said.”
The publication did not identify individuals as perhaps prime possibilities for the next deals, though the list of defendants in the criminal case is wide-ranging, from former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to several individuals who signed on as sham electors for Trump from Georgia despite Biden winning the state. None of the defendants have yet succeeded in moving their cases to federal court, which could set up a dismissal if having ostensibly acted in an official capacity when perpetrating disputed conduct is then taken to provide a legal defense.
Meanwhile, the same report from The Guardian asserted that, at this stage, Willis is not intending to offer a plea deal to Trump himself or defendants close to him including Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani. A lawyer for the ex-president-turned-continued presidential candidate said Trump would be uninterested in such an offer anyway, though it sounds somewhat like a “you can’t fire me, I quit!” situation. Prosecutors recently pushed for a plea deals deadline of June 2024, pushing for trial in August.
