Legal experts have hit out at John Eastman requesting his legal proceedings in the 2020 Georgia election interference case be moved through the court faster than Donald Trump’s.
Eastman, who was indicted along with the former president and 17 other people in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ expansive RICO probe, requested through his attorney in court filings on Monday that the remaining defendants who have not taken a plea deal be split into two groups separate from Trump and be allowed to enter a plea by early 2024.
Eastman’s legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
The request arrived as Willis’ office proposed a final plea date of June 21, 2024, and a trial start date of August 5, 2024. Willis has vowed to trial all defendants charged in her investigation into alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results at the same time. The current proposed timeline means there is a possible scenario where Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP primary, could win the 2024 presidential election and then be found guilty in a state case in which he would be unable to pardon himself once he enters office.
Trump has already filed his opposition to the state’s proposed trial date motion. Both Trump and Eastman have pleaded not guilty to all counts against them as part of Willis’ probe. Trump has frequently accused the Georgia proceedings of being a politically motivated “witch hunt” which aims to prevent him from winning the next election.
Getty Images/Alex Wong
Eastman’s attorney, William Parker, said that the June 2024 final plea date is “both arbitrary and capricious” and suggested it be moved to earlier in 2024. Parker called for splitting the defendants into two groups without Trump, which he said would “provide more than enough time” for the court to hold two trials of around eight defendants.
Parker added that without Trump in the courtroom, who would presumably be heading into the final stretch of his White House bid by next August, Secret Service agents who are assigned to protect the former president “will not be involved in providing enhanced security, and the trials will proceed faster.”
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman was one of those who questioned Eastman’s request to split the remaining defendants off from Trump in the Georgia case.
“John Eastman motion to speed up trial in Fulton County is pretty strange not to mention riddled w/ typos etc,” Litman posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“But he wants the Court to have 3 trials — 2 each of 8 or so [defendants], starting soon, and then Trump all alone. Can’t see that. But interesting that he wants to move it up.”
Writing in her blog, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance dismissed Eastman’s reason for having Trump severed from the other defendants, stating that there has “never been any reason to believe, or even the whiff of a suggestion” that having the Secret Service in the courtroom will slow down trial proceedings.
Vance wrote that Eastman, who is alleged to have been a key part of the fake elector plot to falsely declare that Trump had beaten Joe Biden in several key states, may be seeking to have the other defendants go on trial before the former president to benefit Trump as he will be able to see evidence being presented by Willis’ office before he appears in court.
“There is no rationale for splitting the defendants into two groups for trial. It’s a device to get to the desired result: delaying Trump’s trial until after the election, given Eastman’s projected timeline,” Vance wrote. “It’s a cute stunt, but not much more than that.
“His motion is a transparent effort to delay Trump’s trial and give his lawyers a preview of the District Attorney’s evidence. It’s hard to read this as anything other than a weak effort by Eastman to advance Trump’s agenda.”
Others who are set to go on trial after being charged in Willis’ investigation include Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Four people who were also indicted in the case—former Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as bail bondsman Scott Hall—took a plea deal and agreed to testify against other defendants in the case, including the former president.
Chesebro and Powell were able to have their cases severed from the other defendants before taking a plea deal days ahead of their October trial.
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