Of defendants and mug shots may be over, but the cases and fallout have only begun, including new developments late today. also tonight, the 6 3 , 215 pound blonde or strawberry hair defendant s newfound place in the story of mug shots. level support in russia for the wagner mercenary army and yevgeny prigozhin. john berman here in for anderson. first in tonight, a string of new developments in georgia s rico case against the former president and 18 others, all of which we will talk about tonight. there is election lawyer, sidney powell, in a court filing late today joining codefendant kenneth chesebro in requesting a speedy trial. also today, a court filing from codefendant and fake elector kathy latham joining two others in claiming she was following the advice of the former president s legal counsel and acting, quote, at the direction of the president of the united states. it is a striking admission but
Defendants are splitting with different legal arguments from trump either cuddling up to him or distancing themselves from him. and with this argument that they re making, that could become something that they ll try to make later on as well, try to say, we were just doing what we were told. how could we be charged with a crime there? we re going to dig into that a little bit because that s really interesting. also today, late today, sidney powell requesting a speedy trial, as kenneth chesebro did. his trial date is october 23rd. does that mean that s when sidney powell will go also? reporter: quite possibly. that might not be the date that anyone goes to trial. trial dates move. they really do. they move back because of arguments. they move because people need more time. but these two people are also in this position already pushing themselves away from trump in that trump is saying he doesn t want a trial date set at all at this point, let alone at that time so soon. so, sidney p
To try to thin this herd right away and get some of these people out of the case if they cooperate and testify against donald trump, presumably this is what they re going to say, which will be very strong evidence against the former president and others. the other way it could come up is if they remain in the case and go to trial alongside the former president and testify in their own defense and say that they were acting at the direction of donald trump and therefore should be found not guilty. so, there are a couple of ways, if this is their evidentiary position, that it could be a problem for donald trump down the road. let s shift to the speedy trial request now coming in from sidney powell. also she s joining kenneth chesebro in this. what are the benefits and risks of getting a speedier trial for these codefendants? well, again, i m speculating now, but i wonder if what they re trying to do by moving for a speedy trial is get out from under the other defendants. in other wo