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Prosecutors expect to call over 150 witnesses in Georgia election interference case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, during a news conference on Aug. 14.
John Bazemore
/
AP
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, during a news conference on Aug. 14.

Updated September 6, 2023 at 7:48 PM ET

Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., say they expect that a trial in their election interference case would last four months — not including jury selection — and they'd expect to call more than 150 witnesses.

The disclosures, made Wednesday in the case's first televised hearing, underscore the complexity of the sweeping racketeering probe. Jury selection in another Georgia RICO case, prosecuting the rapper Young Thug and others, has taken months.

Wednesday's hearing, in front of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, was to consider certain defendants' efforts to be tried alone. McAfee denied the efforts by Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell to separate their cases.

The hearing was being broadcast live on television and on the judge's YouTube channel — a level of transparency that makes this case notable in comparison with the other indictments of former President Donald Trump.

Trump and 18 other co-defendants are charged in the case.

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Washington Desk