With 15 defendants left on the Georgia election interference indictment, questions abound over how the state prosecution against Donald Trump and others will end. It depends partly on the strategy from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, including which defendants she’ll cut deals with or force to trial.
So, which remaining defendants does Willis want to cut deals with? Thus far, four of the initial 19, including three lawyers, have received no-jail agreements in the alleged 2020 election subversion plot. And while it’s unlikely that all remaining 15 defendants will go to trial, we don’t know who might plead guilty next.
But we did learn who might be the least likely. The Guardian reported Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Willis doesn’t want deals for Trump, Rudy Giuliani or Mark Meadows. NBC News and MSNBC haven’t confirmed the report, but if true, it isn’t too surprising regarding Trump especially. It’s hard to imagine the leading GOP presidential candidate willing to take any deal admitting wrongdoing, saying nothing of accepting a prison sentence, which it’s likewise hard to imagine Willis not insisting on.
Perhaps more illuminating is who would still be eligible for a deal in the prosecution’s eyes, according to the article — namely, high-profile defendants John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark. It’s unclear what would separate them in this respect from both Giuliani and Meadows in Willis’ mind. All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty (with four having since pleaded guilty).
As the article notes, the prosecution’s strategy could always change. And as we’ve seen in the Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro pleas, an impending trial can be the best deal facilitator. However the parties are positioning themselves currently, last-minute resolutions are always possible. A hearing set for Friday could help us learn more about where this case is headed next. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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