Good and bad news alternate for Donald Trump: After the guilty verdict in New York, he achieved partial success in Georgia.
For former US President Donald Trump (77), good and bad news alternate in his various legal proceedings. At the end of May, the Republican candidate for the next four years in the White House was found guilty by a court in New York City on all 34 counts of concealing hush money payments – a verdict with immense weight. In a no less significant case, however, Trump was able to score a major success.
Another case against Trump is underway in the US state of Georgia. The accusation: After losing the 2020 election, he tried to influence the election result by asking the local election official to “find” around 11,000 votes for him. These would have been enough to decide the extremely close race in the state in Trump's favor. Trump and other defendants face a total of 41 charges. In an appeal, however, Trump's lawyers have now managed to have the case suspended until next year, as reported by “CNN” and others.
Public prosecutor under criticism
The appeals court thus overturned the original decision of Judge Scott McAfee. In the appeal, the court had credibly succeeded in attesting to a possible conflict of interest on the part of the responsible prosecutor, Fani Willis, which must first be examined in detail. This will probably not be finalized until March of next year – well after the upcoming US election in November 2024.
The greatest possible delay in all court proceedings seems to have been Trump and his lawyers' strategy from the start. In the case of the indictment in Georgia, they can therefore count the postponement until March 2025 as a great success. By then, if Trump wins the election in the fall of this year, he could already be back in the White House as the sworn US President.
Two other criminal proceedings are also still pending: Trump is also being prosecuted at the federal level for election manipulation. In the US state of Florida, he is also facing proceedings for illegally taking top secret government documents. It is considered virtually impossible that there will be a verdict in either case before the US election.
A spellbound look at July 11
At least in the hush money trial involving former porn actress Stormy Daniels (45), a groundbreaking date will be set this year: After the guilty verdict on all 34 charges on May 30, the sentence will be announced on July 11. Theoretically, Trump could end up behind bars for up to four years given the offense. However, it is much more likely that he will get off with a fine and/or suspended sentence.
Regardless of the sentence, the verdict is already historic: for the first time in US history, a former president has been convicted of a crime.
