Fani Willis decision expected this week, and more Trump trials news.
SlateKeeping up with Donald Trump’s court schedule is a dizzying task, since he faces two federal trials, a criminal trial in Georgia, and two separate civil and criminal trials in New York. And coming up this week, Trump’s legal team will get to present its defense in the classified documents case in a court-ordered hearing, while a judge down in Georgia will decide whether embattled District Attorney Fani Willis will get to stay on her election interference case. Fani Willis’ Future Could Be Determined This Week After a two-week-long hearing into allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an inappropriate relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to work on her election interference investigation, this week Judge Scott McAfee is expected to announce whether Willis should be disqualified from trying her case. Trump Will Argue His Defense in the Classified Documents Case Prosecutors and attorneys for the former president are gearing up for a long day in court this week, after Judge Aileen Cannon ordered a hearing to consider Trump’s claim that he’s protected from criminal prosecution under the Presidential Records Act. Now Trump has thrown out a slew of arguments over why he can’t be prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, including: A) the claim that he was covered by presidential immunity, B) that he declassified materials as personal when leaving the White House, and C) that, while president, he was the “constitutional superior of the.” Meanwhile, Smith has hit back in his own filings, arguing that the classified documents Trump held on to “were not keepsakes, memorabilia, or trophies for to keep and use as he pleased after his return to life as a private citizen” but were required by law to be “preserved, retained and safeguarded by the National Archives Administration, as required by the Presidential Records Act.” The PRA was established in 1978, and it dictates that official records of presidents and vice presidents are officially converted from private to public when they leave office.