it said on august 25th, 2023, defendant sidney powell also filed a speedy trial demand. the state maintained its position that severance is improper at this juncture and all defendants should be tried together. but at an absolute minimum, the court should set defendant powell s trial and that of any other defendant who may file a speedy trial demand on the same day as defendant chesebro. but the argument that she s making, that the judge is going to have to consider, severance is improper. what is the basis of arguing that severance in a case like this is improper? so, ali, any time we indict a co-defendant case, the prosecutors have a keen interest in keeping all the defendants in the same trial. the defendants ordinary try to
get themselves removed from or severed out of the joint trial. why is that? because any time co-defendants are tried separate from their fellow co-defendants, and i ve had this happen many times as a prosecutor, they will make what they call the empty chair defense. so i could almost promise you that one of, for example, defendant cheesebro s defenses, if he s sitting there alone or with sidney powell and one or two other co-conspirators, charmed co-defendants, i could almost see him saying, you know what, john eastman, the constitutional scholar, the law school dean, who should be sitting in that empty chair right there, but he s not. he is the true architect behind the alternate electors scheme because he assured me there was legal support for it. i m not saying that is a winning argument. i m not even saying it is a