‘Let’s Go On The Record’: Judge Who Will Run Trump Election Crimes Cases Makes First TV Appearance

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who will be presiding over the trials of ex-President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, made his first appearance on TV since cameras have been allowed into the courtroom.

Trump faces criminal trials in Washington DC, Georgia, New York, and Florida on a total of 91 felony counts — all of which are currently on the schedule prior to the general election.

In the Georgia election crimes case, Trump was indicted on 13 counts related to election crimes in a sweeping RICO case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis against 19 co-defendants.

On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Mcafee heard motions from attorneys for co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, and spoke the historic first words in the televised proceedings in a sweeping RICO case involving the ex-president:

JUDGE SCOTT MCAFEE: All right, let’s go on the record with 23 S.C.. 188947. And who we have as lead counsel for the state today.

NATHAN WADE: Good afternoon, Judge. Nathan Wade, special prosecutor for the state here present at the counsel table with me, I have Executive District Attorney David Young, Deputy District Attorney Warden, and special prosecutor John Floyd.

JUDGE SCOTT MCAFEE: All right. Thank you, Mr. Wade. And for Mr. Chesebro, who’s lead counsel today?

SCOTT GRUBMAN: Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Scott Grubman. I’m representing Mr. Chesebro. And with me, I have co-counsel…

JUDGE SCOTT MCAFEE: All right. And, Mr. Grubman, have you received express authority to waive your client’s presence today? (Yes) All right. And who do we have or Ms. Powell?

BRIAN RAFFERTY: Brian Rafferty on behalf of Ms. Powell Your Honor and I have received express permission to waive her appearance.

JUDGE SCOTT MCAFEE: Okay. Thank you, sir. All right, so just a few preliminary thoughts before we kick things off. To be clear, the scheduling order we heard for Mr. Chesebro earlier last week didn’t contain any kind of a ruling on severance. So the plan would be to try to resolve as many of these issues as we can this week and to begin entering scheduling orders for the remaining defendants by either the end of this week or the early next week. So with that

Watch above via CNN.