Legal expert Elie Honig believes the Georgia election interference case may be on life-support.
On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals halted all proceedings in the case involving former President Donald Trump until the court decides whether or not Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) should be disqualified from prosecuting the case. The appellate court has tentatively scheduled oral arguments to decide that issue on Oct. 4.
‘If Trump and the defendants prevail in this appeal, this case is essentially a toast.’
Because the appeals process will take months to play out, that means Trump and his codefendants will not be tried in the case until after the election.
But Honig believes the case is effectively “over.”
“It’s over. Let’s be realistic: It’s not happening before the 2024 election. It’s not happening in 2024. It’s maybe not happening at all,” he declared on CNN.
Honig based his prediction on the fact that the Georgia Court of Appeals not only decided to take the case, but it stayed all proceedings in the trial court pending its decision.
“They didn’t have to pause the district court,” he explained. “In fact, the trial court judge — when he issued his ruling allowing Donald Trump and the others to ask the appeals court to take the case — specified, ‘While you all are doing that, I am going to continue holding proceedings in this trial court.’ Now, today, just a couple hours ago, the appeals court said, ‘No, no, no, pause that, too.'”
“So, that tells me that they are taking this appeal very seriously. And if Trump and the defendants prevail in this appeal, this case is essentially a toast,” Honig predicted.
Aside from the question of Willis’ potential disqualification, Honig spotlighted the “bigger” issue that could sink the case.
“There is a separate issue that Trump and the other defendants are going to raise that I think is a bigger deal, which is Fani Willis’ inappropriate comments about the case outside of court,” he said.
“Judge McAfee found those comments to be ‘legally improper,’ and then he did nothing about it,” he explained. “And so, the defense is going to argue to the Court of Appeals, ‘If the prosecutor makes ‘legally improper’ statements that impair the constitutional rights of the defendant, there needs to be a remedy for that.”
The question, then, is what the remedy should be: Willis’ disqualification or for the case to be dismissed.
Of course, whether Trump faces a jury in Georgia depends on the outcome of the election, as it would be unlikely that he would go to trial if he is the sitting president.
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Elie honig, Georgia election interference case, Donald trump, Cnn, Politics