What to expect from Fani Willis’s first hearing on Monday in Trump’s Georgia case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will face the first real test in her multi-defendant prosecution of former president Donald Trump and his allies on Monday.
An evidentiary hearing is scheduled in a US District Court in Georgia where a judge will hear arguments from Ms Willis and also the defense regarding whether the trial of ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows should take place in federal court.
Mr Meadows and two others, David Shafer and Jeffrey Clark, have filed motions as part of a longer bid to obtain dismissals of the charges against them under laws prohibiting prosecution of government officials for carrying out actions taken ”under color” of their duties in the federal government.
Ms Willis argued in a motion against Mr Meadows on Thursday that the ex-Trump aide was actually violating the Hatch Act and performing services for the Trump campaign while taking part in the efforts to alter the election results in Georgia as she seeks to deny his bid. She’s expected to lay out evidence for that argument before US District Judge Steve Jones on Monday.
While the evidence presented by Ms Willis at the hearing will be far from the extent of the evidence her office will put forward against Mr Meadows, the former president and his other 17 co-defendants, it will still be a revealing look into the strength of the DA’s prepared case.
The district attorney accused Mr Meadows of soliciting a public officer to violate their oath as well as a breach of Georgia’s racketeering (RICO) statute in the sprawling indictment last week.
He and all those charged surrendered to authorities before deadline last Friday – all had their mug shots taken, including Mr Trump.
If a judge grants Mr Meadows’s request to move the trial, it could send signals about the strength of the case compiled by Ms Willis and her team. But it would not result in an outright dismissal.
Ms Willis’ case concerns the effort by the Trump campaign, and in particular lawyers including Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, to push Republican officials in Georgia into endorsing a slate of so-called “false electors” to cast Georgia’s votes in the Electoral College.
Separately, it also involves Mr Trump’s own pressurizing of Georgia’s secretary of state on a phone call to “find” more than 11,000 votes to add to his total in the 2020 election, thereby snatching victory in the state from President Joe Biden.
Mr Trump has professed innocence in the Georgia case as well as in the four other criminal prosecutions currently involving him.
Mr Meadows, unlike his former boss, has declined to speak to the media or release statements on social media or elsewhere regarding the charges against him.
