Former President Donald Trump's election racketeering trial in Georgia could be in flux for "many months" as the court tries to sort out leaks, legal experts suggested to Salon.
This comes as the lead prosecutor herself, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, conceded to the court that the trial may not be finished until late next year, or possibly even in 2025 — after the election has taken place — despite her previous assurance her office was ready to move forward and that she thought it would take four months.
Former New York prosecutor and Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman described the challenge to Salon: “I am thinking of potential leaks of evidence and proceedings to investigate and remedy the leaks, claims that witnesses are being intimidated and the need to investigate such claims, ongoing discovery motions and the considerable litigation involving those motions.”
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Leaks are only one part of the problem, he added, with others being the possibility of more guilty pleas complicating the process, as well as, “The problems that will attend the need to select an impartial jury in the midst of one of the most controversial and consequential elections in American history."
And Loyola Marymount University law professor Laurie Levenson added that due to the complex nature of a RICO case, “Each defendant is likely to file motions, examine witnesses, and even seek appeals that could delay the trial.”
However, leaks have exploded into public consciousness after the proffer agreement videos for several of Trump's co-defendants, including attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, were exposed, revealing a number of new details about their confessions and evidence that had previously been under wraps.
The attorney for Misty Hampton, the former elections director for Coffee County also charged in the case, has admitted to leaking the Ellis video to the press.
