Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed during an appearance at the headquarters of The Washington Post on Tuesday that she expects the trial of her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump will be ongoing on Election Day in 2024, and may continue past the inauguration in January 2025.
Willis (pictured above) appeared at the Washington Post Global Women’s Summit event on Tuesday, which was sponsored by The Post and held at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. A transcript of Willis’ appearance at the event with The Post reporter Amy Gardner reveals the prosecutor was to clarify when she expects her trial of Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election will conclude.
Though Willis claimed she did not consider the political ramifications of the trial’s timing, she tacitly acknowledged the trial will begin before Election Day on November 5, 2024, and could even continue past January 20, 2025.
Willis confirmed she expects “there will be a trial,” and added that it “will take many months,” and likely will not “conclude until the winter” of 2024 “or the very early part of 2025.” Still, she began by acknowledging, “I think the case will be on appeals for years.”
When a Post reporter asked Willis about the timing, she claimed that she did not “consider an election cycle or an election season” when indicting Trump.
Apparently justifying her decision to prosecute the leading presidential candidate, and try him in court on Election Day, Willis argued that alleged criminals should not be able to freeze cases against them by running for public office.
“It would be a really sad day if, when you’re under investigation for this shoplifting charge, you could go run for city council and then the investigation would stop,” stated Willis. She called the idea “foolishness at any level.”
Also during the appearance, Willis denied that her team leaked the proffer videos of attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, who both entered into plea agreements with her office in October, telling The Post “it was absolutely not my office.”
Willis’ office made an emergency filing on Tuesday, requesting Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee seal all evidence related to the election case. The filing seemed to indicate Willis believed one of the defendants leaked the video, which would be a violation of their bond and cited a typo from the attorneys representing Harrison Floyd which inadvertently accepted blame.
Floyd denied he was the source of the leak on social media, and responded by posting videos and audio he plans to reference at trial.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fani Willis” by Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
