June 6, 2024
Another one of former President Trump’s criminal trials just got put on hold indefinitely. This leaves only one criminal trial that could poooossssibly go forward before the November election. It’s a long shot but I’ll tell you which one in a second.
But first…the Georgia Court of Appeals just ordered the election interference case in front of Judge Scott McAfee to stop as it weighs Trump’s appeal. This is the RICO case being brought by District Attorney Fani Willis against the former president and several others over their alleged interference in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Trump and several of his co-defendants want Fani Willis removed from the case because of what they call an inappropriate relationship with the lead prosecutor. After a contentious hearing about this relationship Judge McAfee ruled that Willis could stay on the case, but her lead prosecutor had to go. But that wasn’t good enough for the former president and his co-defendants. They appealed and that’s how we got to the appeals court today.
The Georgia Appeals Court has set a tentative oral argument date for October 4th and then will have until mid-March of 2025 to rule. Whichever side loses will then be able to appeal to Georgia’s supreme court. This case won’t be going anywhere probably until next year.
So – with the Georgia case on hold indefinitely, and the federal classified documents case on hold indefinitely in florida that only leaves the federal election interference case being brought by jack smith in Washington DC left in play. Now – that case is also on hold as judge Tanya Chutkan waits for the Supreme Court to rule on whether or not former President Trump has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution. The justices will rule on that probably by the end of June and if they rule trump has no “absolute immunity” or limited immunity from criminal prosecution, Judge Chutkan will then be able to continue with her pre-trial motions in that case. Whether those get done before the election is unclear. It’s possible but it’s going to be a tight timeline.
It’s also worth noting that if the supreme court rules that trump does have absolute immunity – which they didn’t indicate they were inclined to do during oral arguments – but if they do — then that federal election interference case will likely be over. Many also believe this federal election interference case and the federal classified documents case will be squashed if trump wins back the presidency in November.
