Donald Trump’s criminal conviction by a New York jury could aid Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s election interference case against the former president.
“When we think about the conviction of President Donald Trump, it doesn’t have a direct effect on the president’s trial in Georgia,” legal expert John Acevedo said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “However, it will have a psychological impact on both Fani Willis and her team, as well as potential jurors.”
The professor at the Emory University School of Law explained the basis for his viewpoint, saying, “Because, for both groups, they do not have to be the ones to open the door of convicting the former president, because the door has already been opened. And in that sense, it has been done, will be done, and therefore removes the mystique and invulnerability of Mr. Trump himself and any former president.”
Acevedo is not the only legal expert warning Trump’s conviction could benefit Willis’s election interference case against the former president.
“If anything, [the conviction] provides a road map to prosecuting a former president, something that didn’t exist prior to yesterday,” Matthew Mangino, a former district attorney in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, said in a statement to Newsweek.
A Georgia grand jury indicted Trump last year on racketeering charges. Willis alleged that the former president and 18 other defendants illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, arguing that they should be dropped because his actions were shielded by constitutional protections of freedom of speech and expression.
The former president faces 10 charges in the Fulton County election interference case.
Willis is working to add several charges back in after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dropped six, including three against Trump. The district attorney appealed the judge’s decision after he said the counts did not have sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.
The Trump legal team has tried to remove the Georgia prosecutor from the case. It cites revelations that Willis improperly benefited from hiring special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship, which the former president’s lawyers argue disqualifies her from leading the prosecution.
Willis faces two other investigations, including one at the state level and another from federal officials.
Willis is under investigation by Georgia’s state Senate for impropriety. Earlier this month, the Senate Special Committee on Investigations held its fourth meeting as part of an inquiry to determine conflicts of interest and allegations that her office misused federal and state grants.
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has also threatened Willis with contempt of Congress over an inquiry he launched into her use of federal grant money.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office for comment.
