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\n\tLil Durk<\/a> won a significant court victory Tuesday when a federal judge agreed to separate newly filed racketeering charges<\/a> from his upcoming trial over allegations he ordered a killing that resulted in an August 2022 murder in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a brief ruling issued after a tense hearing, the judge said that a separate January 2022 killing in Chicago and an alleged February 2019 attempted murder in Atlanta would be off-limits at Durk\u2019s Aug. 20 trial in downtown Los Angeles because prosecutors introduced them only last month, in a third superseding indictment. The judge said the related new counts \u2014 alleging violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity and firearms possession in furtherance of murder in aid of racketeering \u2014 would be severed for a subsequent trial.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt has been and remains the court\u2019s intention that the Los Angeles trial will include all admissible evidence that is not unduly prejudicial,\u201d U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald wrote in his decision obtained by Rolling Stone<\/em>. He said prosecutors \u201cchose to withdraw evidence of the \u2018Chicago incident’\u201d from the Los Angeles trial earlier in the case, and they would have to live with that decision now that Banks and his lawyers spent so much time preparing their defense accordingly.<\/p>\n \n\tIn court filings, the Grammy-winning rapper, born Durk Banks, and his lawyers had argued that prosecutors blindsided the defense with the \u201csweeping new charges,\u201d leaving too little time to prepare for trial. Banks has a constitutional right to a speedy trial, they said, and he doesn\u2019t want any further delays. He\u2019s been locked up without bail<\/a> since his arrest in 2024.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe are very happy with the court\u2019s order,\u201d Drew Findling, one of Durk\u2019s defense lawyers, said after the judge\u2019s ruling. \u201cFor 21 months, we have been unwavering in our commitment to Mr. Banks and his innocence, and we look forward to an Aug. 20, 2026, trial.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDuring the 40-minute hearing Tuesday, which Banks\u2019 wife, India Royale, attended, Judge Fitzgerald pressed prosecutors on why they had waited so long to file charges related to the Jan. 27, 2022 killing of the alleged \u201crival gang member\u201d in Chicago. Banks was not charged in that killing and has denied the government\u2019s claim that he brought $1 million in cash to a music studio after the killing as a \u201cmonetary reward.\u201d<\/p>\n