Former President Trump’s lead attorney in the Georgia election interference case made his debut Friday during a hearing where the trial judge asked probing questions about how Trump’s status as a 2024 candidate could impact the case — and the trial date.
Trump attorney Steve Sadow made minimal arguments during the multi-hour hearing, but his answers to Judge Scott McAfee’s hypothetical queries gave a preview of the battles to come as Trump defends himself against 13 counts.
Prosecutors are seeking to begin trial in August for Trump and all his co-defendants who don’t accept plea deals. With that timeline raising the possibility that Trump would be on trial on Election Day, Sadow has pushed for a delay.
“Mr. Sadow, if your client does win the election in 2024, could he even be tried in 2025?” McAfee asked during discussion of a future trial date.
“The answer to that is, I believe, that under the Supremacy Clause and his duties as President of the United States, this trial would not take place at all until after he left his term of office,” Sadow replied.
That exchange came just minutes after Sadow noted his client’s polling lead in the Republican presidential primary, saying Trump is poised to become the nominee except for “some strange occurrence.”
“Can you imagine the notion of the Republican nominee for president not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is, in some form or fashion, in a courtroom defending himself?” Sadow said.
“I mean, with all due respect to everybody — and I know what the court is attempting to do is to give justice and due process, and I've said that and I'll continue to say that — that would be the most effective election interference in the history of the United States, and I don't think anybody wants to be in that position.”
The state, when questioned by McAfee, strongly rejected the suggestion that the trial amounts to “election interference” in the 2024 presidential race.
“This trial does not constitute election interference,” responded special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
“Let's be clear, this is not election interference, this is moving forward with the business of Fulton County,” Wade continued. “I don't think that it in any way impedes defendant Trump's ability to campaign or do whatever he needs to do in order to seek office.”
The Fulton County district attorney’s office charged 19 defendants, including Trump, with joining a criminal enterprise bent on keeping Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election. Since then, four defendants have pleaded guilty to lesser counts after reaching agreements with the state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has fervently argued in favor of trying all the remaining defendants together for a singular trial beginning Aug. 5, 2024. Prosecutors have indicated a trial would take multiple months and include hundreds of potential witnesses.
McAfee said he won’t make a final decision on the trial timing or whether to split the defendants up until down the road.
But he signaled at Friday’s hearing that he’s leaning toward breaking up the 15 remaining defendants into two trial groups – an “A League” and “B League” selected by the state — suggesting the courthouse couldn’t physically handle everyone together.
"The court feels eight is the most we can do at once,” McAfee said.
Sadow also said his client would be filing a motion defending himself under presidential immunity, an argument Trump has made in his federal election 2020 case in Washington, D.C.
In that case, Trump is charged with four felony counts over accusations of multiple unlawful conspiracies in an attempt to subvert the election results. He pleaded not guilty.
