Fani Willis Wants ‘Speedy Trial’ Starting in OCTOBER For All 19 Co-Defendants in Trump Election Case

Fulton Co. District Attorney Fani Willis made a stunning request by asking the court in the Georgia fake elector case to allow her to try all 19 co-defendants, including former President Donald Trump, together beginning Oct. 23.

To date, only attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell have asked for speedy trials. However, Willis wrote in a document filed Tuesday that separating the defendants would be “improper.”

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi asked legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, “What is the basis of arguing that severance in a case like this is improper?”

“So, Ali, anytime we indict a co-defendant case, the prosecutors have a keen interest in keeping all defendants in the same trial,” Kirschner said. “The defendants ordinarily have a keen interest to try to get themselves removed from, or severed out, of the joint trial. Why is that? Because any time co-defendants are tried separate from their fellow co-defendants — and I’ve had this happen many times as a prosecutor — they will make what they call ‘the empty chair defense.'”

Kirschner continued:

So I can almost promise you that one of, for example, defendant Chesebro’s defenses, if he is sitting there, either alone or maybe with Sidney Powell and one or two other co-conspirators, charged co-defendants, I can almost see him saying, “You know what? John Eastman, the constitutional scholar, the law school Dean, who should be sitting in that empty chair right there, but he’s not, He is the true architect behind the alternate electors scheme because he assured me there was legal support for it.”

Kirschner said such a defense could lead to at least one juror finding reasonable doubt, leading to a hung jury.

Earlier in the segment, Kirschner predicted “a chorus of voices from many of the co-defendants” will say there’s no way they can prepare for trial by Oct. 23.

“It will be really interesting now to see what Judge [Scott] McAfee does now that Fani Willis is prepared to give everyone their speedy trial,” Kirschner said.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC