ATLANTA — Hours after the Court of Appeals issued a stay in the Georgia election interference case, former President Donald Trump railed against the U.S. justice system and President Joe Biden, saying he’s done nothing wrong, and the Justice Department has been weaponized against him to keep him from winning reelection.
“I think I say in about almost all of these cases that are brought against me, they are doing it for the purposes of hurting a political opponent of Biden and trying to get him to win, Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. What’s happened to me has never happened in this country before. And it has to stop.”
Last week, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 courts of falsifying documents over hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to cover up his affair with her leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
He currently faces several charges here in Georgia where he and 14 others are accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. That case is now on hold until the Georgia Court of Appeals makes a decision on the ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the case.
Trump and other co-defendants filed a motion to remove Willis from the case over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis and Wade acknowledged the relationship, which they said ended last summer, but they have argued it does not create any sort of conflict and has no bearing on the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis would be allowed to stay on the case if Wade stepped aside. Wade resigned the same day as the ruling.
Trump and his attorneys later submitted an appeal arguing the indictment should have been dismissed, and that Willis and her team should have been disqualified from the case.
“I have been under siege. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this in this country. Now in other countries, in other third world countries who have a banana republic, as they say, a banana republic,” Trump said. “There was no criminality, there was no crime. And you can go back to all of these legal scholars, they can’t believe what’s happening. Some of them don’t even like me, and they say this is a very, very dangerous thing that’s happening.”
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Legal experts told Channel 2 Action News that Trump’s New York conviction could be used against him here in Georgia once the case is allowed to start back up.
“It could be used to impeach him, but notice has to be given and there’s a lot of legal issues that sort of come up. But generally speaking, yes, it could be used,” attorney Manny Arora said.
Arora defended Kenneth Cheseboro in the Georgia election interference case, who was one of four defendants who have taken plea deals so far in the case.
Arora said he sees the Georgia case as a heavier lift for prosecutors, but the charges here are more serious than in New York where the charges were lower-level, Class E felonies.
“We don’t have classes of felonies in Georgia. But our conduct is far, far more serious, in my opinion, than what happened in New York. And so, if you are convicted here, there may be a realistic chance of jail time,” Arora said.
On the political spectrum, the Appeals Court putting a stay in place in the case eliminates any chance of the Georgia case going to trial before the November election.
Political analyst Bill Crane said the conviction in the New York trial is going to energize both camps.
“It’s a base election, and it’s basically going to energize the extreme elements of both parties, leaving a lot of voters in the middle left too with a choice that they don’t find tenable on either side,” Crane said.
Crane said the election will ultimately come down to independent voters.
“Independent, nonaligned Libertarian voters that are in the center have been saying for months felony convictions would matter to them. We don’t know how many of them there are. But certainly, some of them will be backing away from Donald Trump,” Crane said.
The Appeals Court is expected to hear arguments over the Fani Willis ruling on Oct. 4.
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