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There were several notable developments in the Georgia election interference case on Thursday. Here are a few of them.
Plan of attack
First, let's talk about the emotions that were on display during Thursday's hearing on motions filed by lawyers for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, two of the 19 co-defendants in the case. Emotions can actually play into how you're going to see these lawyers advocate for either the state of Georgia or their clients.
Chesebro's lawyers basically highlighted to the court what they plan to argue to try and get this case dismissed. They're claiming they want to speak to the grand jurors who returned the indictment because they apparently think somebody else from the prosecution was in the jury room during deliberations, which would be improper and not allowed.
One of the defense lawyers also claimed during the hearing that lawyers sitting at the counsel's table for the state of Georgia on Thursday were been called out by judges for doing something untoward with prior grand juries.
So it sounds like the defense teams are laying the foundation to be able to bring to the court some type of allegation of impropriety or wrong conduct by the state of Georgia in securing the indictment from the grand jury.
Knives are out
The other thing you saw during the hearing was the fact that the knives are out. Any type of "let's be professional and nice" posturing went out the window. I think you actually saw that the lawyers were like, "We don't care that the cameras are here" — and yet there was some grandstanding by the defense in terms of trying to call out the state, claiming to have been defamed, trying to play to perhaps their own clients.
Easter eggs
There are some really good Easter eggs in the order on the defendants' motions for severance. That order stated that Chesebro and Powell would be severed from the other defendants and start their trial around Oct. 23.
There is a note in the order that the judge intends to be done with jury selection for that trial by Nov. 3. So what does that mean? Unlike some of the other more complicated cases with multiple defendants, because there are only two, the judge intends by law to be done no later than Nov. 3 to secure that speedy trial window. And because of that, you can bet your bottom dollar once that jury is seated, opening statements will begin almost immediately. So that gives us an idea that this case is not actually going to start in 2024 and that jury selection isn't going to take forever and a day.
Lastly, if any other defendants file for a speedy trial demand, the court has noted in a footnote in this order that there are other members of the Fulton County bench who stand ready to begin a second trial within this November/December term. This means that Judge Scott McAfee can start the jury selection process on Oct. 23 and if any of the defendants who haven't joined Chesebro and Powell at this time file speedy trial demands, another judge in Fulton County will start a separate jury selection process.
So there are a lot of moving parts here but a lot of it is trying to be contained as much as possible by the judge because obviously there's some serious competing interests.
This is an excerpt from Katie Phang's appearance on "José Díaz-Balart Reports" on Thursday. It has been slightly edited for length and clarity.