Search his maralago estate if trump continued to refuse to hand over classified documents. We begin tonight with the first televised hearing in fani willis criminal case against former President Trump in georgia. Im Jason Johnson in tonight for joy reid. The trial will be televised and is coming very soon. Today, we have a taste of whats to come. Fulton county Superior Court judge scott mcafee said he would allow Kenneth Chesebro to sever his case from Sidney Powell. Chesebro and powell are among the 19 defendants in the georgia racketeering case. They have both asked for speedy trials. Chesebro is accused of being the, quote, architect of the Trump Elector scheme while Sidney Powell is facing a slew of charges that include an effort to improperly access Voting Machines in rural coffee county, georgia. The defendant said their cases were different and they wanted to be tried separately. Prosecutors response, that aint the way this works. So weve heard a lot from both defendants about they didnt know the other people. They were located thousands of miles apart. They didnt know the other parts of the conspiracy were going on. But the case law is clear, that that does not matter. Of course, any time a person enters into a conspiracy they are liable for all of the acts of all of their coconspirators. Thats it. Evidence against one is evidence against all. The prosecutor also reminded the court who this case is really about. Part of this Rico Conspiracy involves victims. There are victims in this case that were targeted by members of the enterprise and their lives were turned upside down. And thats an important part of this case. Having those people come and testify multiple times over and over would both inconvenience but more importantly traumatize them. Mack afee denied the defendants request, meaning chesebro and powell will stand trial together beginning on october 23rd. The judge is yet to schedule a date for the other 17 codefendants including donald trump. Earlier in the hearing, a prosecutor told mcafee that holding a joint trial for trump and the other defendants would take four months to complete. With testimony from potentially more than 150 witnesses. That time line doesnt account for jury selection. All 19 defendants charged in the Fulton County case including trump have pleaded not guilty and waived their right to an inperson arraignment which had been scheduled for today. This marks the fourth time that trump formally denied charges this year. The judge said he was, quote, very skeptical of Fulton County doern fani willis plan to put all 19 Defendantings Including Trump next month. The plan seemed, quote, a bit unrealistic giving the complex, legal and practical issues and the sprawling case. He would consider additional arguments. Joining me now to discuss all of this is katie phang, Greg Bluesteen and david jolly, former republican congressman from florida who is no longer affiliated with that party. Katie phang, were going to start with you. Youre down there in atlanta. You know, the judge is basically saying, hey, i appreciate the effort. I dont think youre going to be able to do this. What are some of the potential roadblocks here . I think its reasonable to say that trying 17 people at the same time could be tough. What are the concerns from a legal standpoint about that . Does he feel that the case would get jumbled . Does he feel that people who are guilty would end up getting off . Whats the real concern there . Reporter yeah. So jason, thats a real good question and actually didnt get that deep. It was kind of Interesting Exchange that was happening between judge scott mcafee at the state of georgia as well as Defense Attorneys for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell. It was kind of who is going to blink first . I got to give credit to Da Fani Willis team put the best of the best that she could in front of judge today to basically say, judge, were ready to go. Were prepared to do all 19 defendants at one time with more than 150 witnesses. It will take about four months, not including jury selection. But the concerns that judge mcafee raised were all valid ones and ran the gamut from logistical concerns. How do i practically fit 19 defendants in one courtroom, all of their counsel and go through the process of not only pretrial motions, having them set for hearing, litigating them, getting rulings and going through jury selection. Then went to the point of, you know, if theres not enough prejudice each of these defendants is facing that would merit the idea they had to be tried on their own, i do buy into this idea well do 19 defendants at one time . What happens to the defendants . Are they still there. Have they gone to Federal Court and come back. Theres a lot that judge mcafee clearly had contemplated before todays hearing. The fact he ruled immediately there the bench was a welcome thing. We always want to have a swift ruling from a judge, but we are waiting to hear the ultimate disposition which is, will it be one trial, 19 defendants or are we going to see two different trial settings. One on october 23rd for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell and one way down the road for the other 17 defendants. I want to follow up on this. Would it be possible that there would be a trial where, you know, multiple defendants would be in se zooms and they would zoom in on the trial and they would have to lean out and speak to their Legal Counsel . Does the Legal Counsel have to be there . Just as a logistics matter, how could you try 17 people at once . Reporter well, they actually would all have to appear in person. The Fulton County courthouse is open and back to business. So there are no zoom trials that are being actually conducted behind me in the courthouse. So, you literally have everybody in one courtroom. What would happen is you would have each of the lawyers and i kind of want to set this up for people because theyre wondering exactly the machinations on this. Each lawyer, jason, has the chance to not only question potential jurors but also be able to crossexamine the governments witnesses. 150 of them. Can you imagine. Each of them had the chance to get up and do crossexamination. It literally would last way longer than four months. Judge mcafee told the state, be careful what you wish for. I know youre ready to go but theres a lot of stuff you need to brief. So i want you to do it by next week tuesday because you need to answer some of these questions before i set a trial. Greg, fani willis filed late today, put in some motions. Interesting things here i want to get your thoughts on. In the motion she said based on the Fulton County grand juries it is foreseeable they should be docked should their names be made available to the public. It would be undoubtedly be placed in jeopardy. Basically what were hearing from da willis, greg, is that there are cameras in the courtroom, but due efforts are made to keep these jurors anonymous and safe. Is that one of the Major Concerns that people are thinking of downtown . Is it one of those things where its like, okay, thats part of it. We still think will they have to be sequestered. What are the thoughts about this idea of how to keep jurors safe . Certainly, jason. Theres a century old case law in georgia that allows the public dissemination of the names of special grand juries and grand jurors. We saw the names of the grand jurors who successfully indicted President Trump and 18 were put on a russian hosted website, all over social media. They are being targeted by far right Conspiracy Theorist websites. Now that fani willis disclosed that she, too, has been targeted on this same russianhosted web server. She is using that as an example why she wants the judge to restrict the publization of the potential jurors when they get to that stage in this trial. Greg, we talked about this in the past about the need for security once this trial actually begins, in october. We dont know if separate or together trials. Is there any effort being made by Governor Kemp to make sure that jurors are safe . Are private security people, are State Security people, the gbi, who is making sure that these people are safe when they go home or might we see a situation where every juror in this case ends up being sequestered . Yeah, the Georgia State parol troll is one of the largest State Agencies in the state. So we certainly saw the last few weeks a heavy security presence from state patrol officers. I imagine well see the same coordination Going Forward especially as this trial gets under way under heavy security. But remember, too, Fulton County, the city of atlanta, they have enormous Law Enforcement agencies as well. So they have a number of officers at their disposal. David jolly, one of the things youre a lawyer. You understand these things. I watched enough legal shows to understand this, usually the corner boys, the small ended people, they will flip on the bigger guys, right . Theyre say, hey, i dont want to be involved one way or another. I have to ask you, do we think as we get closer to any of these trial dates that someone will flip . Theres got to be somebody at a lower level who is like, im not going to jail for this. Ill flip on trump. Do you think thats likely to happen or will it happen before october or after the trial begins . Yes. Statistically you are exactly right, jason. Somebody is likely to say, hey, i would like to cooperate. If fani willis is willing to at this point. It also requires her to suggest shes doing that. Theres a basic theory in criminal defense called prisoners dilemma. You have multiple defendants logically if they all stick together, perhaps they have a good chance of defending themselves. But if one of them acts in Self Interest and turns on the other, obviously that person can save their own freedom. So who flips first becomes a bit of the dilemma and the question. Yes, i would expect we see some of the lesser. But look, fani willis made very clear today that every one of these 19 defendants is a peer. Donald trump, yes, absolutely stands out among all of them. But he stands charged with the same statute that Sidney Powell does and chesebro and eastman and mark meadows and all of them now stand in equal stead. I think whats fascinating is if indeed we see two trials, like katie said, the judge today denied severance saying were not going to Sever Chesebro and powell. It appears he might be willing to consider the class of defendants who want a speedy trial, chesebro and powell together, Maybe Eastman and the remaining ones down the road. That sets up where we might have a verdict, a conviction or an acquittal in that first case before the primary in the Republican Party for the president ial nomination and before Donald Trumps determination. And so does that change a political dynamic or narrative . Perhaps. We just dont know. David, i want to go back to this. Because i thought it was interesting you have chesebro and powell saying, hey, we want to be tried separately. We have different cases. One of the arguments that you hear sort of being floated already by some of these Defense Teams is like, hey, i never went to that county. I never had a conversation with this person. How can i be involved with this. To my ears, hey, look, i never met darth vader. You worked at the death star. Youre still kind of responsible for this. How strong is that argument . How strong is the argument that i cant be part of a conspiracy if i didnt know the other conspirators on a regular basis . Does that carry in weight in court. It was strong until the court ruled today. That was essentially the argument of chesebro and powell. Never met the person. Chesebro said i was doing legal briefs in an intellectual way and powell was tampering with Voting Machines in coffee county. Clearly separate acts. However, they were charged under rico. What rico says is they were part of a common enterprise advancing a common scheme. They didnt have to do what the other one was doing nor did they have to coordinate if they were all supporting this enterprise. Though today was somewhat of a procedural ruling on saying we are not going to sever, it showed a lot of the judges approach to this. That approach is a willingness to access and give credence to the rico charge that allows the prosecutors to say, all 19 of these are in the same boat whether they met each other or not. Katie, i want to flip to a National Issue really quick. We just heard trump in the jean carol case, this is key, trump is liable for the defamation in the second e. Jean carroll case. Basically whats going to happen now is rather than having to go through heavier trials were going to hear about sentencing and fines. What do you think the significance of this case . I thought the e. Jean carroll case is not just another example of sort of trumps moral depravity but also one of the cases that we might get the quickest answer on that. Whats the significance of this most recent ruling . Reporter yeah. As we know e. Jean carroll went to a jury trial in may of 2023. Got a verdict that basically said donald trump is a sexual abuser. And he is liable for defamation. A jury awarded her 5 million in damages. Donald trump has taken that verdict up on appeal. If you will recall, jason, back in 2019 when donald trump was still the president of the united states, he defamed e. Jean carroll by claiming that he didnt know her and he denied sexually assaulting her. That is the crux of this particular case that a federal judge in new york has said, you know what, based upon what the jury found in that trial that just happened a few months ago, as a matter of law, e. Jean carroll does not have to carry her burden again to prove to a jury that donald trump defamed her. So were just going to fast track it now straight to the damages part of this case. Were going to go to a trial in january. E. Jean will put on a case as to how much she has been damaged. And a jury can award her, to its discretion, 0 to whatever amount of money that it wants. Now, remember, also, theres punitive damages that are at play here. There was punitives awarded to e. Jean a few months ago. Whats also important is that donald trump was trying to say, you know, e. Jean carroll, she got some money. So whatever she gets in january from me its got to be a setoff from what the award ends up being. The judge said no dice. Theres nothing that prohibits from e. Jean carroll from being able to get more money. The biggest consequence of this ruling is the following, it goes to show that donald trump is a proven liar. When you have this many criminal cases pending, and your credibility as a criminal defendant may come into play, either because other defendants say you have done something or you yourself are crazy enough to take the stand which donald trump says hes willing to do, if you already have findings that hes a liar, may not be admissible in your criminal trial, trust me in the court of public opinion, potential juror pool they know hes a liar. We see the record, trump. You aint got to lie. Thank you, guys, for starting us up on the reidout. 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