Left: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File). Center:FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, with Eric and Lara Trump. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File). Right: NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx 2024 2/8/24 Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. makes a law enforcement-related announcement at the Manhattan DA Offices on February 8, 2024, in New York City.
Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday that he will attend a largely procedural hearing for his criminal hush-money case in New York instead of an arguably more significant hearing in Georgia where the very prosecutor he has steadily railed against for more than a year could potentially be thrown off the case.
The development was first reported by Politico. Trump’s attorney in the Georgia election interference indictment, Steve Sadow, made the disclosure Tuesday.
Notably, Trump’s hearing in his criminal case in New York will not be televised, whereas the hearing in Georgia will likely be livestreamed from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom.
The decision to forgo the spotlight in Georgia comes during a slog of a legal week for the Republican Party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee. The hearing in New York is expected to determine whether Trump’s trial will get underway starting March 25. It could be the first criminal trial he faces this year.
Meanwhile in Georgia on Thursday, a hearing on allegations about an improper relationship between District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade unfolds. A trial date has not yet been set there but the accusations leveled by Trump and his co-defendants aiming to disqualify prosecutors has the potential to utterly upend matters with huge implications.
In addition to the racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia, the former president is currently defending himself against falsification of business records charges in New York, wrongful retention of documents charges in Florida, and election subversion allegations in Washington, D.C.
