A judge in Georgia on Thursday rejected a request from prosecutors to try former President Donald Trump and 18 others together in the Georgia election interference case, severing the cases of attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, according to multiple reports.
Last month, Chesebro and Powell filed demands for speedy trials after they were indicted as part of a sprawling investigation into interference in the 2020 presidential election. They and their 17 co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Earlier, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee scheduled the pair to go to trial on Oct. 23. Trump and other defendants had asked that their cases be separated from those against Powell and Chesebro, with some telling the court that they could not be ready for trial by late October, The Associated Press reported.
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In a court order obtained by The Hill, McAfee said that separating Powell and Chesebro’s cases from the others “is an absolute necessity.” However, he declined a request to separate their cases from each other, saying they had “not satisfied their burden” to show that the severance is necessary.
“Additional divisions of the defendants may well be required,” he wrote. “That is a decision for another day once the many anticipated pretrial motions have been resolved and a realistic trial date approaches.”
[ Trump indictment in Georgia: Trump asks for case to be severed from others; pleads not guilty ]
A grand jury last month indicted Chesebro and Powell on seven charges each, including several conspiracy charges.
Prosecutors allege that the attorneys and their co-defendants violated Georgia’s RICO Act to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the presidential election in the state to President Joe Biden. Trump lost Georgia to Biden by 11,779 votes, WSB-TV reported.