Judge rejects latest attempts to toss Georgia election subversion charges as first trial approaches

By Marshall Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Jury selection in the first Georgia election subversion trial is set to begin Friday as planned, after the judge issued a slew of rulings Tuesday rejecting attempts to throw out the charges.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied eight motions from co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, pro-Donald Trump lawyers who are the first to go to trial.

Chesebro is accused of helping orchestrate the fake electors plot and Powell is charged with crimes stemming from the Coffee County voting system breach. They are the first of the 19 defendants to go to trial, because they invoked their right to a speedy trial.

They have already lost several bids to get the case dismissed. Both have pleaded not guilty

In an 18-page ruling, McAfee rejected the defendants’ arguments that Fulton County prosecutors misapplied Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, and that the indictment failed to establish key elements of the crimes that have been charged, among other things.

“The Court finds that the indictment contains the necessary elements of each offense and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what she must be prepared to meet at trial,” he said.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Friday.

Roughly 900 residents of Fulton County have been summoned for the jury selection process, and the judge said Monday that he’ll tell potential jurors that the trial is expected to last about five months.

The trial would overlap with the opening months of the 2024 GOP primaries, including the Iowa caucuses in January, Super Tuesday in early March and likely the Georgia primary on March 12.

Trump’s trial is not yet scheduled. One defendant, bail bondsman Scott Hall, has already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution at the trials.

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