August 28, 2023 - The next phase of Trump's Georgia and federal 2020 election subversion cases

Donald Trump and his lawyers may be the busiest people in the country next year. The former president faces criminal trials in four different cities — Washington, DC, New York, Atlanta and Ft. Pierce, Florida — as well as an active campaign schedule.

Even putting the campaign aside, Trump would have an extraordinarily packed year.

Judge Tanya Chutkan set the federal election subversion trial for March 4, the day before Super Tuesday.

Just three weeks later, however, a New York judge has set a trial date of March 25 for the criminal case against Trump surrounding the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal illegal conduct connected to his 2016 presidential campaign. The criminal charges stem from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign to Daniels, who alleged an affair with Trump, which he denies.

And in Florida, the trial on charges that Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving office has been set for May 2024, with a pretrial hearing on May 14 and a trial on May 20.

Here is a breakdown of the current calendar:

Remember: Most of these trials have been scheduled already, but one has a proposed trial date and its start could still change.

Read an analysis of Trump's crowded calendar here.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell and Zachary Cohen contributed reporting to this post.

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows denied directing Trump White House aide John McEntee to write a memo about how to delay or disrupt the certification of the election on January 6, 2021, which was alleged in the Fulton County indictment.

“I did not ask” McEntee to do that, Meadows testified Monday. “Me asking Johnny McEntee for this kind of a memo didn’t happen.”

The indictment alleged that Meadows and Trump met with McEntee and asked him to prepare a memo “outlining a strategy for disrupting and delaying�� the congressional session to certify the election on January 6. 

Meadows said that he had “zero recollection” of that happening and it was the “biggest surprise" to me while reading the indictment.

Meadows’ testimony has become a substantial revisiting of his actions after the election – specifically eliciting his sworn commentary on the various allegations against him in the racketeering indictment. 

Meadows also denied setting up a phone call with Former Georgia Secretary of State investigator Frances Watson: “I don’t recall reaching out to Mrs. Watson,” he said.  

On Meadows’ visit to the Cobb County elections audit of voting machines in late 2020, he said, “I believe I acted like a gentleman the whole time.”   

“In my role as Chief of Staff, I recommended that the president reach out to Ms. Watson,” Meadows said. Any outreach to the secretary of state’s office was “done in my role as Chief of Staff.”

Former President Donald Trump’s next campaign appearance is expected to be a South Dakota rally with Gov. Kristi Noem on September 8, according to the venue’s website and confirmed by source familiar with the event. 

Monday court filings showed Trump would be arraigned in Fulton County on September 6 in the Georgia election subversion case. It’s not clear whether Trump will appear in person for the arraignment, as he can waive his appearance.

The rally is expected to be Trump’s next public campaign event, according to sources briefed on the former president’s plans, who note his schedule has not been finalized. This week, Trump is planning to lay low, hosting fundraisers at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to the sources. 

Noem is a strong Trump ally and has publicly opted against a presidential campaign, saying she expects Trump will be the 2024 Republican nominee. Noem has deliberately moved to keep her name in the 2024 political sphere. During the first Republican presidential debate, Noem’s team aired an ad on Fox News in which the governor promoted her state.

“South Dakota’s the freest state in America to live, work and raise a family,” Noem says in the ad.

Federal prosecutor Molly Gaston said during Monday's hearing in Washington, DC, that it was important to take the special counsel’s election subversion case against former President Donald Trump to trial as soon as possible in part because of Trump’s social media posts.

“On a near daily basis, the defendant posts on social media about this case,” Gaston said.

Gaston also sought to use some of Trump's attorney John Lauro’s own public statements in her arguments.

Despite his complaints earlier in the hearing about the time it would take to go through the material, Lauro previously called the prosecution a “regurgitation” of the House select committee’s investigation in an interview after the indictment was first unsealed.

Lauro has also publicly claimed, Gaston said, that he has read former Vice President Mike Pence’s book twice in anticipation of the trial.

“We are not starting fresh from indictment in this case,” Gaston said.

Judge Tanya Chutkan has set the trial date for March 4.

Donald Trump is ratcheting up pressure on the House GOP to impeach President Joe Biden, as the former president's patience with Republicans starts to wear thin and his legal troubles pile up.

On Monday, amid news that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is planning to pursue a Biden impeachment inquiry this fall, Trump seemed to suggest that the House GOP should skip the step altogether and proceed directly to impeachment proceedings.

“I NEVER HAD AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY,” he falsely wrote on Truth Social. (House Democrats indeed initiated an inquiry during their first impeachment of Trump, though they did not for his second impeachment in the wake of January 6, 2021.) “I HAD AN IMPEACHMENT, WHICH I WON! IT WAS STARTED IMMEDIATELY, NO MEETINGS, NO STUDY, NO DELAYS. THE LUNATIC FASCHISTS & MARXISTS PLAY THE GAME DIFFERENTLY. THEY ARE OUT TO DESTROY AMERICA. MAGA!”

Sunday, Trump complained about House Republicans’ pace when it comes to investigations and a potential impeachment of Biden, though he called GOP lawmakers “well meaning.” 

“The Republicans in Congress, though well meaning, keep talking about an Impeachment ‘Inquiry’ on Crooked Joe Biden. … You don’t need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it’s already proven,” Trump wrote. “Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!"

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows described a daily morning call he convened in the days after January 6, 2021, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

The purpose of the call was to discuss the possibility that “some of our adversaries” might see the United States as “weak” in the wake of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

The calls between Meadows, Pompeo and Milley following January 6 have been disclosed previously, but there haven’t been significant details about them in the public record.

Milley did mention the calls during his testimony to the House select committee investigating January 6. On January 7, Meadows told those on the call: "POTUS is very emotional and in a bad place."

Meadows has also testified that he was never paid by the Trump campaign and never supervised the campaign – emphasizing instead in his testimony his responsibility of maintaining security in the United States alongside others in the administration.

A defense attorney for former President Donald Trump argued during a Monday hearing in Washington, DC, that special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a January 2024 trial date in the federal 2020 election subversion case was absurd. 

The contentious hearing twice prompted District Judge Tanya Chutkan to tell the parties she wanted to lower the temperature.

“President Trump is entitled to a fair trial,” Trump attorney John Lauro told Judge Chutkan. “This is a request for a show trial, not for a speedy trial.”

Lauro also argued in a raised voice that “for a federal prosecutor to suggest that we could go to trial in four months is not only absurd, but it’s a violation of their oath to do justice.”

Trump’s defense team has asked for an April 2026 trial date, arguing – among other things — that discovery in the case is extremely substantial.

Lauro continued to push back against the proposed trial date by the government, arguing that Trump was a normal US citizen who “deserves a fair and adequate defense.”

Chutkan, who already rejected both the DOJ and Trump’s proposed trial dates, told Lauro again he would not get a 2026 trial date.

The hearing is ongoing.

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is fleshing out how his daily activities were all part of his role as chief of staff – a crucial point that his’ legal team is trying to argue to show his post-2020 election activities were part of his official duties.

Sometimes people would meet with him so he could “get in (Trump’s) ear and pass along their message,” Meadows added.

Meadows said that, at times, he was a principal player in the meetings, while other times he was more of an observer.

At the same time, Meadows testified that he had to allocate some of the president’s time to the campaign.

“There was a political component to certainly everything we did,” he said.

Meadows also described his daily workflow, saying, “You play offense and defense. And I found myself playing defense a whole lot.”

Jennifer Little, one of Trump’s attorneys in Georgia, was spotted in the overflow courtroom earlier, before Meadows took the stand. Trump is expected to file a similar motion as Meadows to move his case from state court into federal court.

Former President Donald Trump and the other 18 co-defendants will be arraigned in Fulton County on September 6 in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case, according to court filings.

Trump’s arraignment, where he will be expected to enter a non-guilty plea, will be held at 9:30 a.m. ET. Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani will be the second arraignment at 9:45 a.m. ET.

It’s not clear whether Trump or the co-defendants will appear in person for the arraignment. This court often allows arraignments via Zoom, or defendants can waive their arraignment appearances if the judge allows. It is also unclear at this point if cameras will be allowed in the courtroom.

Here's the full list of scheduled arraignment times (all times in ET):