Legal expert Ellie Honig believes the Georgia election interference case may be on life support.
On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals All procedures were discontinued The appeals court has tentatively scheduled oral arguments for its decision on Oct. 4, pending the court’s decision on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) should be disbarred from prosecuting the case against former President Donald Trump.
“If Trump and the defendants prevail on this appeal, this litigation is effectively over.”
The appeals process could take months, meaning Trump and his co-defendants won’t go on trial until after the election.
But Honig believes the case is effectively “closed.”
“It’s over. And realistically, it’s not happening before the 2024 election. It’s not happening in 2024. And maybe it never happens at all,” he declared on CNN.
Honig’s prediction is based on the fact that the Georgia Court of Appeals has not only decided to take the case, but has stayed all proceedings in the trial court until a decision is reached.
“There was no need to suspend the district court,” he explained. “In fact, when they ruled to allow Donald Trump and others to ask the appeals court to hear this case, the trial court judge made it clear that, ‘I’m going to continue to hear it in this trial court while you do.’ And today, just a few hours ago, the appeals court said, ‘No, no, suspend that as well.'”
“That means they’re taking this appeal very seriously, and if Trump and the defendants prevail on appeal, this case is effectively over,” Honig predicted.
Apart from the issue of Willis’s possible disbarment, Honig noted “larger” issues that could cause the case to fail.
“There is another issue raised by Trump and the other defendants, and that is that Fani Willis made inappropriate comments about this case outside of court, which I believe is a more serious issue,” he said.
“Judge McAfee found those statements to be ‘legally improper,’ but then did nothing,” he explained. “So the defense is left to argue to the appeals court, ‘If the prosecutors made ‘legally improper’ statements that violated the defendant’s constitutional rights, then there needs to be a remedy for that.'”
The question then is what remedy should be available – to disbar Willis or to dismiss the case.
Of course, whether Trump faces a jury in Georgia depends on the outcome of the election, as a sitting president is unlikely to face trial.
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