Report: DA Won't Offer Plea Deals to Trump, 2 Top Allies

Some of the co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case have taken plea deals but that won't be an option for the alleged kingpin of the conspiracy, sources tell the Guardian. The insiders say Fulton County prosecutors won't be offering deals to Donald Trump and at least two others: former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Four of the 18 co-defendants have already pleaded guilty, including three former Trump lawyers. One of the Guardian's sources says Fulton County DA Fani Willis is trying to flip as many co-defendants as possible and prosecutors have advised Judge Scott McAfee to delay setting a trial date.

Willis has asked for a final plea date of June 21. Trump lawyer Steve Sadow made it clear that Trump wouldn't take a deal even if one was on the table. "Any comment by the Fulton county district attorney's office offering 'deals' to President Trump is laughable because we wouldn't accept anything except dismissal and maybe negotiate the terms of that office's apology to President Trump and the American people," Sadow told the Guardian. Nathan Chapman, a professor of law at the University of Georgia, tells Salon that it's standard in racketeering cases to try to get to the "big fish" by flipping "little fish."

Chapman suspects Giuliani and Meadows haven't been offered deals because prosecutors are trying to gather as much evidence as they can before asking them to testify against Trump. "They want them to squirm or even proffer a plea deal on their own," he says. Earlier this month, Willis said the trial could continue through the 2024 election and into 2025. Another alleged co-conspirator, former law professor John Eastman, has asked for defendants to be split into groups, with most receiving a speedier trial, NBC News reports. In a filing Monday, Eastman's lawyer said the case should be split so defendants who "do not have lifetime United States Secret Service protection and who are not running for election to an office can exercise and have their right to a jury trial completed within 2024." (More Georgia indictment stories.)