“Will the Georgia case move forward without Trump?”
— Wayne Warner, Littleton, Colo.
Hi Wayne,
The Georgia state election interference case can move forward without Donald Trump — but it’s an open question whether it will move forward at all.
Last month, a divided Georgia state appeals court panel said that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office are disqualified from prosecuting the case against Trump and his co-defendants. If that ruling stands, the case is at least hobbled in the short term, and possibly done for good.
A new prosecutor or office would need to be assigned to handle the complex case.
That’s because a new prosecutor or office would need to be assigned to handle the complex case. It’s unclear who would take it up or how long it would take to reassign it. And that’s saying nothing about whether a different prosecutor might take a different view about how to handle the case.
The DA has appealed the ruling to the state’s top court, so stay tuned on that front.
If the case eventually moves forward, whether under Willis or a new prosecutor, it could still proceed against Trump’s co-defendants, who aren’t about to receive the legal protections of the presidency, even if the case wouldn’t proceed against Trump while he’s in office. The Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents doesn’t apply to state prosecutors, but there’s still no expectation for Trump to continue to be prosecuted while he’s in office. It’s legally unsettled whether a state case, which a president can’t pardon away or get dismissed, can be paused during a president’s time in office. But again, given the disqualification issue, the more immediate question is whether the Georgia case proceeds against anyone. It could take months or years until we know whether it will. Indeed, the next steps in the case could take so long to play out that it could still be pending when Trump leaves office in 2029. While last month’s ruling against Willis might have effectively killed the case, if it turns out it didn’t, then the case could be a legal threat looming over Trump’s second term, waiting for him when he leaves office. Have any questions or comments for me? I’d love to hear from you! Please email deadlinelegal@nbcuni.com for a chance to be featured in a future newsletter.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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