While the criminal charges against President Donald Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were dismissed last year, a “curious development” has led to the matter coming back into the fold — and in such a manner that it “could still be a problem for the president,” MS NOW reported Monday.
Trump was indicted on conspiracy charges in 2023 over an alleged plot to have former Vice President Mike Pence swap out authentic electoral certificates for illegitimate ones, and thereby change the results of the 2020 election to ensure his electoral victory.
Initially the strongest criminal case against Trump, the case fumbled after Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis admitted to having an active romantic relationship with her own special prosecutor, ultimately leading to her removal from the case.
On Friday, however, “the frozen case suddenly thawed,” MS NOW reporter Hayes Brown wrote Monday, after the director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia announced he would be taking up the case in Willis’ stead.
“While Trump himself may be inoculated from prosecution while in office, the same can’t be said about his co-defendants in the massive anti-racketeering case,” Brown wrote.
“The pardon he signed earlier this month doesn’t automatically protect those alleged to have violated state law by trying to funnel Georgia’s electoral votes to Trump. And a curious development across the country speaks to how the case against them could still be a problem for the president.”
That “curious development” was that the Nevada Supreme Court ruled last week that its own case regarding the alleged fake electors scheme could move forward, and that in Arizona – where charges were also filed related to the fake electors scheme – may move forward as well, granted its attorney general Kris Mayes doesn’t appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court “within the next week.”
“There’s hope yet that there will be accountability for the men and women who attempted to subvert American democracy,” Brown wrote.
“There’s a chance that the pardon Trump recently signed shielding those in the fake electors scheme from federal charges could be used to try to dismiss at least some of the state charges against those fake electors. But even if that proves successful, other parts of the indictment would remain against several of the alleged co-conspirators in Georgia, putting the spotlight back on how the president sought to ignore the will of the voters to remain in power.”
