Legal expert John Malcolm said on Monday that former President Trump’s efforts to prolong other legal proceedings and appeal various court judgments put his case in Fulton County, Georgia, at risk.
The current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, Trump, is embroiled in multiple legal matters on both the federal and state levels. One such case is an indictment filed against the former president by the DOJ, in which he is accused of trying to reverse the 2020 presidential election results that caused the riots that broke out in the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Unsubstantiated claims of massive voting fraud led Trump to assert that the election was stolen from him. He has entered a not-guilty plea and is appealing a decision by the case’s supervisory judge, Tanya Chutkan, who rejected his claim of presidential immunity, which states that he is not liable for crimes done while in office. The date of Trump’s trial has been set for March 4, 2024, by Chutkan.
The case against Trump in Fulton County “essentially collapses” if the Washington, D.C., appeals court determines that he should have presidential immunity, according to Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor who spoke on Monday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Moreover, Malcolm is the current VP of the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government. Trump nominated Malcolm to the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) board of directors in 2019.
In August 2023, a grand jury indicted 18 individuals, including Trump, for breaching the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act of Georgia to reverse the state’s 2020 election results. District Attorney Fani Willis filed the case against Trump, although he has maintained his innocence. In their request for a trial date, prosecutors have set August 5, 2024—less than three months before the general election.
When asked about the potential verdict on presidential immunity in December, Willis said, “I believe we’re in a good spot.”
A court file showing Trump’s legal team asking for the dismissal of the Fulton County lawsuit due to presidential immunity was published on X.
The idea that a president is exempt from criminal prosecution in all situations is questionable, and the matter has to be thoroughly examined before the court can make a clear and convincing ruling.
