Hearings in Georgia and Florida on Trump's criminal cases

Donald Trump’s attorneys on Friday sought to delay one of his criminal trials until after the November election and disqualify the district attorney prosecuting another case against the former president, in a split screen that underscored how all of Trump’s criminal cases can’t help but overlap.

In Florida, Trump’s attorneys told Judge Aileen Cannon his Mar-a-Lago classified documents case should wait until after the 2024 election. At roughly the same time in Georgia, attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants made their final arguments to Judge Scott McAfee in a bid to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia racketeering case over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

Neither judge made a decision on Friday. But both hearings could have a significant impact on when – or whether – Trump will face trial in each of those two cases.

Here's a look at the key takeaways from each of the proceedings:

• Judge Cannon doesn’t tip her hand on trial date in Trump’s classified docs case: In the classified documents case, Cannon didn’t tip her hand Friday on when she might set a new trial date, but she asked questions about the prospect of holding a trial close to Election Day with the former president likely on the ballot.
• Judge McAfee suggests discipline could be the solution if Fani Willis lied: In the Georgia case, McAfee suggested Friday that if it ends up that the lead Fulton County prosecutors lied on the witness stand about their romantic relationship, the remedy might be a professional disciplinary action at the state bar, instead of the much more aggressive step of removing them from the Trump case.

You can read more about the busy day in Trump's legal proceedings.

A hearing over whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election interference case has concluded without a ruling from the judge.

Judge Scott McAfee did not rule on a request brought by several defendants to kick Willis off the case.

He said he would issue a ruling in the matter within the next two weeks.

"There are several legal issues to sort through, several factual determinations that I have to make,” he said. “Those are ones I can't make at this moment. And so I will be taking the time to make sure that I give this case full consideration.”

An attorney for the Fulton County district attorney’s office described defense attorneys' star witness as a "disgruntled, vengeful, speculator" as he fought back claims that Fani Willis should be disqualified from the election interference case because of a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, her lead prosecutor.

Attorney Adam Abbate described the witness, Terrence Bradley, as a "disgruntled former partner," saying the text messages exchanged between him and a defense attorney "show that he is vengeful."

“You heard from his own testimony here, sitting before the court, that he ... all he did was speculate, and any information that he had or had garnered and then passed on to Ms. Merchant was pure, mere speculation,” Abbate added, as he showed the court a PowerPoint slide that described Bradley as being a “disgruntled, vengeful, speculator.”

Defense attorneys had wanted Bradley, Wade’s onetime divorce attorney and former law partner, to undercut some of the testimony provided by Wade and Willis, but he failed to deliver damaging testimony at a hearing earlier this week, repeatedly saying that he couldn’t recall when Willis and Wade’s relationship started.

Former President Donald Trump appeared to grow impatient by 3 p.m. ET, just before the five-hour hearing’s end -- shaking his head as prosecutor David Harbach stood up to deliver his closing argument. 

Trump throughout the dense legal arguments in the afternoon kept closing his eyes. 

The former president barely looked at special counsel Jack Smith throughout the proceeding. They did not interact at all. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could be seen subtly rocking back and forth in her chair, nodding or shaking her head at certain legal arguments and being overall emotive during the arguments from the state to save her from being thrown off the case.

Her arrival in court during a short midday recess took everyone in the court by surprise. Willis immediately sat next to the lead attorney defending her from disqualification Adam Abbate.

When Abbate got up to argue her defense, Wills moved over to his seat, seemingly for a better view.

Judge Aileen Cannon slapped down a reference by Donald Trump’s attorney to his campaign schedule, asking the attorney to focus only on legal arguments.

Emil Bove, one of Trump’s attorneys, slammed prosecutors’ request to keep information redacted and kept out of the public eye as “absolutely frivolous.”

Noting Trump’s presence at the hearing, Bove said, “He should be preparing for Super Tuesday and campaigning” as opposed to talking about these motions in the courtroom.

Cannon cut him off, saying, “I’d like to talk about the merits.”

The hearing in the classified documents case in front of Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, has ended for the day.

During the four-hour hearing, Cannon did not issue any rulings, nor did she make any formal scheduling moves regarding the trial date.

Cannon ended the hearing around 3 p.m. ET and said she would take “under advisement” the prosecutors requests to keep under seal certain details in former President Donald Trump’s filings.

An attorney for the Fulton County district attorney’s office has begun delivering closing statements at a hearing over whether Fani Willis should be disqualified from the election interference case brought against Donald Trump and others.

“Mr. Bradley impeached no one. And I say no one because he did not impeach Mr. Wade,” Adam Abbate said, referring to Terrence Bradley, who defense attorneys had presented as their star witness in their case against Willis and Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor in the criminal case.

Defense attorneys had wanted Bradley, Wade’s onetime divorce attorney and former law partner, to undercut some of the testimony provided by Wade and Willis, but he failed to deliver damaging testimony at a hearing earlier this week, repeatedly saying that he couldn’t recall when Willis and Wade’s relationship started.

“The motions to disqualify should be denied. And Ms. Willis, as the district attorney of Fulton County, and Mr. Wade, as the special prosecutor assigned to this case, should be allowed to remain on this case and continue to prosecute the case to the end,” Abbate said later.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has just arrived in the courtroom where her attorneys are defending her against an effort to disqualify her from the election subversion case she brought against Donald Trump and others.

The last time Willis was in the courtroom she delivered dramatic testimony in defense of a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor on the case, amid allegations from some defendants that the relationship was improper.

Willis is not expected to address the court on Friday as the judge hears closing arguments in the effort to remove her from the case.