Fani Willis sets criminal indictment timeframe for Donald Trump, tells the courts to clear their calendars

With DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith now seemingly setting the table to criminally indict Donald Trump within weeks, the question has remained what timetable Fulton County DA Fani Willis would set for her Trump indictment in Georgia. Now we appear to be getting that answer, straight from her.

Willis has asked the courts not to schedule any trials during the first three weeks of August, because that’s when she’ll be unsealing her indictments in the Trump case. That’s right, the NY Times says Willis won’t be bringing indictments in August, she’ll be unsealing them. “Unsealing” means the indictments will already have happened by then, and in fact may have potentially happened already.

Two things jump out about this. First, three weeks is a long time for the courts to clear their calendars. It points to a whole lot of criminal indictments being unsealed at that time, against a whole lot of people, with a whole lot of arraignments in court. Previous reporting has pointed to more than a dozen people being indicted in this case. This three week period certainly underscores that notion.

Second, even though Willis’ timeframe did get pushed back a bit when she cut immunity deals with eight of the fake electors in exchange for their cooperation against the bigger fish, it sounds like Willis’ case is mostly done. So why is she waiting until the start of August to unseal her indictments? It’s entirely possible that she’s waiting until after Jack Smith brings his federal indictment against Trump. Stay tuned.