Judge Grants Extension in Georgia RICO Case

Fulton County DA Fani Willis is not going to be happy with Judge McAfee, who is overseeing the Georgia RICO case against Trump and 19 other defendants.

Mark Meadows and two other defendants have asked the court to delay the deadline for pretrial motions due to their pending appeals.

The court agreed, pushing the deadline back a month, now possibly putting the starting date of the trial in jeopardy.

Bad Timing

Meadows, who served as Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff at the White House, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and former Chairman of the state Republican Party David Shafer, have all filed appeals after losing their initial case to have their cases moved to federal court.

There are two reasons for this strategy.

First, they can get a jury pool that may be more forgiving, and second, the trial would not be televised, as it can be in state court.

Trump was initially expected to do the same, but his legal team stated they would move forward with the trial in Fulton County, and I believe that is solely because Trump wants it on TV.

The Meadows case is on Friday, and if he loses that appeal, he is likely to request the Supreme Court take up the case.

Taking all that into consideration, McAfee agreed to move the deadline from January 8 to February 5, which could really screw up the timeline for the trial to start in August.

Considering the sheer number of cases that Trump has coming up, if that start date is in jeopardy, the trial may not start until after the election is over, which would be a dream scenario for Trump.

Trump’s cases are stacked up pretty tight, beginning in January and going right through the entire election season, both primary and general.

We always knew his team would start making maneuvers to try to get these cases moved, but with Meadows now in the mix, I think Willis is going to have a hard time keeping this can on track for her August date.