WASHINGTON — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she expects the trial of former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others facing election interference charges could extend through next year’s campaign season and into 2025.
“I believe in that case, there will be a trial,” Willis said. “I believe the trial will take many months, and I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025.”
These remarks were part of an interview conducted with Willis as part of The Washington Post’s Global Women’s Summit.
Willis said the upcoming presidential election season did not factor into the timing of the case.
“What goes in the calculus is: this is the law; these are the facts,” she said. “And if those facts show you violated the law, then charges are brought.”
Even after the trials conclude, Willis said, appeals of any convictions could extend these cases for years.
The district attorney said she is aware of the criticism that the charges she brought against Trump and 18 allies, accusing them of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, were motivated by politics.
Without naming Trump, who is campaigning to return to the White House, Willis said anyone facing criminal charges for any type of crime should not believe they could avoid prosecution by seeking elected office.
“It would be a really sad day if, when you’re under investigation for this shoplifting charge, you could go run for city council and then the investigation would stop,” she said. “That’s foolishness, and it’s foolishness at any level.”
