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Chalk up a big legal win for Donald Trump in Georgia.
The Georgia Court of Appeals, after agreeing to hear the defense’s arguments for disqualifying Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the RICO case she is bringing against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, did two things. One, they set a tentative date for the disqualification hearing for October 4th – which means they have until mid-March 2025 to rule on the case.
A docket notice was posted online on June 3. It had been previously reported that the Court of Appeals was expected to hear the case during the court’s August 2024 term, which officially ends on Nov. 18, 2024, but an exact date was not known. It now appears that the appeal will be heard Oct. 4.
“President Trump’s interlocutory appeal was docketed today in the Georgia Court of Appeals, and oral argument is tentatively scheduled for October 4, 2024. We look forward to presenting argument before Judges Brown, Markle, and Land on why this case should be dismissed and Fulton County DA Willis should be disqualified for the trial court’s acknowledged ‘odor of mendacity’ misconduct in violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct,” said Steve Sadow, lead defense counsel for former President Trump in the Georgia case.
The deadline for decisions on cases that are heard by the Georgia Court of Appeals during the August 2024 term is March 14, 2025. All motions for reconsideration must be decided by March 21, 2025.
And two, just to drive the point home that this appeal will not be done before Election Day, the court also issued an order delaying the RICO trial indefinitely.
The Georgia Court of Appeals has ordered a stay of all proceedings in Fulton County against President Trump and the other defendants seeking to disqualify Fani Willis, pending the outcome of our appeal. pic.twitter.com/980amnGF61
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) June 5, 2024
The new order filed on Wednesday from the Georgia Court of Appeals is the latest indication that a trial in the state-level Georgia election subversion case will not occur before the 2024 presidential election. The court said the case will be on hold until a panel of judges rules on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified.
The appeals court is expected to rule on the disqualification issue by March 2025, though it could issue a ruling sooner. Several sources close to the case have told CNN that the timeline remains very uncertain.
Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee had initially allowed proceedings in his courtroom to continue as the appeals court weighed an appeal of his decision to allow Willis to remain on the case.
A spokesperson for Willis’ office said they can’t comment on the appeals court’s order at this point. The DA can ask the appeals court to fast track a decision in this matter if it chooses.
This means that all the pre-trial proceedings come to a dead stop while the disqualification case is being adjudicated. With the Georgia case now on hold indefinitely, the case in Washington DC regarding January 6th also on indefinite hold while appeals go through the Supreme Court, and multiple delays in the Florida classified documents case now pushing that trial date off (the next hearing date scheduled in that case is June 21st), the odds that Donald Trump has another of the pending cases against him actually being concluded and in front of a jury by Election Day become almost zero.
Which means that Fani Willis has lost. Even if the case proceeds, the Georgia Court of Appeals would have to rule on it in expedited fashion – and then whichever the losing side is, can appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. There is simply no way that this case gets presented to a jury and a verdict rendered before November 5th. If you were a Democrat, how could you not be absolutely livid with Fani Willis at this point? She’s the one who hired Nathan Wade. She’s the one paying him a lot of money for legal “expertise” he clearly didn’t have. She’s the one vacationing on his dime. She’s the one who chose to stay on the case, instead of giving it up. Fani Willis’s ego was so inflated that it became more important for her to have her name in the news than it was to “get Trump.” Another prosecutor’s office could have picked up the RICO charges and worked the case, but that would mean Fani Willis wouldn’t get her camera time, her name in the news, and the credit for a conviction. This was never about “justice” – this was always about Fani Willis making herself famous.
This also means that the RICO case now leaves the courtroom of Judge Scott McAfee, who was too chicken to remove Fani Willis off the case himself, even though he admitted that there were grounds for her to be disqualified.
When the defense in March submitted a joint motion for a Certificate of Immediate Review, McAfee said that his Order on the Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss and Disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney issued March 15 “is of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had” and allowed the defendants to ask the Georgia appeals court for an opportunity to appeal, which the court granted last month.
In passing the buck on ruling on Fani Willis’s disqualification, Judge McAfee (who once worked under Willis) got to avoid being the bad guy. But he also set up the circumstances for the trial to be delayed, and now it has been.
This is a win for Trump. But there is also a looming date on the horizon, and another judge might decide to take retribution into his own hands because of all these delays.
It’s official.
It’s Bragg conviction or bust for Dems. They aren’t getting another trial before the election.
Look for Merchan to go nuts at the sentencing now. https://t.co/omNOTtTRMr
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 5, 2024
The whole idea of lawfare against Donald Trump was all about quantity, not quality. And now Democrats have neither quantity nor quality, but they are enjoying the Manhattan conviction while they can, and they will enjoy the sentencing even more if Trump gets any jail time. The Manhattan case may well end up in front of the federal courts because of the “reversible errors” committed by the judge.
And Fani Willis could have had her day in court, if only she wasn’t so corrupt and egotistical. This is truly one of those moments where we can safely say that Donald Trump is fortunate in his enemies, because they truly do have the capacity to defeat themselves.
Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click
A Reader says: “The Manhattan case may well end up in front of the federal courts because of the “reversible errors” committed by the judge.” What errors? Turley has proven nothing other than smoke and mirrors. Merchaun’s appointment wasn’t “hand picked” because he presides over where the crime was committed. If Trump’s team had objections to certain decisions, etc., they should have brought them up during the trial. They didn’t. Yes, Bragg used a somewhat novel approach to the application of the law and the appellate courts can certainly rule on that if they choose, but it will be a slow process. Trump will have to go through three levels of appeals courts before he even gets to the Supreme Court, if that’s what you and Turley are salivating over. Acting like it’s a quick fix is ludicrous. It would be so helpful if conservatives had a decent lawyer who wasn’t a sycophant hoping for fame and clicks, but here we are.
As for Georgia, yes, it might not happen until next year. And as for the case before Judge Chutkin, that may still happen. The Supreme Court has to rule before July 1st and it’s doubtful they will fully parse this out to give Trump a total win. They may make her go through ever act to decide what is official and unofficial, but things could still happen before the election, even if it’s the day before. This also doesn’t fall under the “no charges/cases before an election” because it was already in the works.
Face it: your party is going to nominate a convicted felon and there is nothing you can do about it. He may even be in prison or on his way there before the convention. Won’t that be interesting?
Scott says: And your party has already installed an un-convicted felon… multiple times… but you do you “reader”..
Your communist cult is bent on destroying this nation, but at some point your side will push the wrong people too far. Anyone still capable of rational thought now realizes that your hate America party will lie, cheat and steal, and do whatever it takes to gain total power…The mask is off.
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