Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is proposing that arraignments for Donald Trump and 18 other defendants happen the week of Sept. 5. John Bazemore/Associated Press
ATLANTA — The prosecutor in Atlanta who obtained an indictment this week against former President Donald Trump and 18 others wants to take the case to trial in March.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a proposed scheduling order filed with the court Wednesday that she wants the trial to start on March 4.
That would have the trial starting a day before Super Tuesday when the most delegates are at stake in the primary contest to decide the next Republican presidential nominee. Roughly 14 primaries are set to be held across the country, from California and Texas to Massachusetts and Maine.
Willis is also proposing that arraignments for the defendants happen the week of Sept. 5.
Trump and 18 others were indicted Monday by a Fulton County grand jury. They are accused of committing various crimes as part of a scheme to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s Georgia-based legal team did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
The order said Willis selected the proposed deadlines “(i)n light of Defendant Donald Trump’s other criminal and civil matters pending in the courts of our sister sovereigns,” saying this timetable wouldn’t conflict with those other courts already scheduled hearings and trial dates.
Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in March in a separate New York case involving dozens of state charges of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor. He’s scheduled to stand trial in May in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith alleging he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and thwarted government efforts to return them.
And Smith’s team is seeking a Jan. 2 trial date in the federal case over Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
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