Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s case against Donald Trump will suffer because of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, an attorney has said.
On Monday, July 1, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that former presidents have absolute immunity for their official acts but no immunity for private acts.
This ruling related to the federal indictment filed in August, in which Trump is facing four charges pertaining to his alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Speaking to local publication the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta defense attorney Andrew Fleischman said this ruling would also impact Willis in her efforts to prosecute Trump in his other election interference indictment in Georgia.
Trump and 18 others have been accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. The Republican, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, lost the state by some 12,000 votes.
“I think this does hurt the Georgia case quite a lot,” Fleischman said. “There’s not much clear guidance at all. I think Georgia courts will likely also have to apply this novel analysis, and that creates a lot of opportunity for delay.”
Former federal prosecutor John Malcolm, who also serves as vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government, told the publication that Monday’s decision by the high court will make the Georgia state case and the federal election subversion cases “much, much, much more complicated.”
“The court also made it very clear that the thumb is on the scale in terms of concluding that these are official acts, that it’s the prosecution that bears the burden of demonstrating that these are not official acts,” he said.
Meanwhile, former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that:
“to the extent that the Georgia state RICO case relies on acts that are core presidential duties, or at a minimum official, then the new immunity case would present a new barrier to the government’s prosecution.”
He added:
“Given the narrative overlap between the federal January 6th case and the Georgia state case, the state judge will likely follow the federal judge’s determinations.”
After its Monday ruling, the Supreme Court has sent the Department of Justice case back to a lower court in Washington, D.C., to determine what constitutes an official act.
This is likely to delay the case, meaning it is less likely it will go to trial before the November election. Legal experts have suggested Trump could dismiss the charges in the case if he wins the election.
The Fulton County district attorney’s office previously declined to comment on Monday after Newsweek reached out via email.
Meanwhile, Trump responded to the Court’s ruling in a post to Truth Social and wrote on Monday: “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
