Thursday, June 6, 2024

Georgia Appeals Court Halts All Trump RICO Cases Against All Defendants Pending Decision on Fani Willis Disqualification



It looks like the Lawfare case against President Donald Trump is not going to happen prior to the election.  Considering that Fani Willis met with Mary McCord prior to filing this case against Trump, we can directly trace the origin of the Georgia case to congress and the White House.

The appellate court in Georgia is currently reviewing the professional conduct of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.   As the court is deciding whether to disqualify Ms. Willis from the cases (very likely), the court has suspended all further action by Fulton County against any of the defendants.

[Source Link]

The Lawfare community (McCord, Weissmann, Eisen and MSNBC, CNN et al) are apoplectic at this decision by the court.

WASHINGTON – A Georgia appeals court has halted all pretrial proceedings in Donald Trump’s Atlanta-based criminal case while a three-judge panel considers whether to disqualify the lead prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The order issued Wednesday effectively confirms that the sprawling racketeering case against Trump and more than a dozen codefendants — charging them with an attempt to corrupt Georgia’s 2020 election results — will not come before a jury in 2024.

The case had already seemed like a longshot to go to trial before this year’s presidential election, with a long list of complicated pretrial matters still pending before Judge Scott McAfee. The Georgia appeals court order blocks McAfee from advancing those issues while Trump and other defendants mount an appeal over allegations of ethical lapses by Willis. That appeal is scheduled for oral arguments on Oct. 4, with a decision from the appellate court likely to take several months after that.

For Trump, it’s another vindication of his well-worn strategy to delay his criminal cases until after the election. If he prevails in November, he’s unlikely to face the Georgia case until 2029 — if at all — because many legal experts believe a state cannot constitutionally prosecute a sitting president. As president, Trump would also have the power to unravel the other two languishing criminal cases against him, both brought by special counsel Jack Smith. (read more)