For Donald Trump, the American presidential campaign fluctuates between very good and very bad legal news. On Wednesday, it was the first choice offered to the Republican candidate for the November election. The Georgia state appeals court has suspended criminal proceedings against the former president and his 14 co-defendants for illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election until it has ruled on their request for withdrawal from the prosecutor.
This decision de facto postpones the holding of a trial in this case until next year, for which no date had yet been set. The opponent of Joe Biden therefore sees a new sword of Damocles being withdrawn.
A decision not before 2025
The judge at this trial, Scott McAfee, rejected in March the request for dismissal from the prosecutor, Fani Willis, but demanded a reorganization of his team. The defendants appealed. The state appeals court has scheduled a hearing in the case for October 4, with a decision not expected until 2025.
Judge McAfee concluded that there was insufficient evidence of a “conflict of interest” linked to the prosecutor’s intimate relationship with an investigator she had hired in the case, Nathan Wade. But, pointing to “an appearance of inappropriate behavior” and denouncing a “huge lack of judgment” on the part of the prosecutor, the magistrate demanded the withdrawal of the case, either from Fani Willis and her entire team, or from Nathan Wade. The latter presented his resignation a few hours later.
A crucial verdict expected in New York on July 11
Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, the former tenant of the White House is trying through his multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, and in any case after the election.
The New York justice system found him guilty on May 30 of accounting falsifications intended to hide a payment of $130,000 in order to avoid a sex scandal at the very end of his 2016 presidential campaign, an unprecedented verdict for a former president. American. His sentence will be pronounced on July 11. Donald Trump’s three other criminal trials, the one before the Georgia courts and two at the federal level, however, risk not being able to be held before the vote.
