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The Supreme Court would likely put a stop to Donald Trump's Georgia trial if he was sworn in as president, a legal expert has said.
New York University law professor Stephen Gillers told Newsweek that the Supreme Court would likely delay Trump's Georgia trial, in which he is accused of illegal interference in the 2020 presidential election, until he was out of office.
Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis said on Tuesday that she anticipated the trial to conclude by early 2025, with proceedings probably underway during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election.
In an interview at The Washington Post Live's Global Women's Summit on Tuesday, Willis said the anticipated trial over alleged election interference by Trump and his allies could be ongoing on Election Day 2024 and possibly still underway on Inauguration Day.
"I believe the trial will take many months. And I don't expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025," Willis said. "I don't, when making decisions about cases to bring, consider any election cycle or an election season," she added.
That means that the trial verdict could come right down to the wire—if Trump is elected president, he may be able to halt the trial until he is out of office, by which time he will be 82 years old.
If a Georgia jury reaches a verdict before inauguration day, Trump could be sentenced to prison, setting off a major constitutional crisis.
"Of course, as with many things Trump, we lack a precedent," Gillers said. "But I believe that the Supreme Court would order a delay of any state criminal prosecution of a sitting president until the end of his term, regardless of when the alleged crime occurred."
Gillers added that the Supreme Court would rely on "the structure of the constitution, federalism, and the supremacy clause."
Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause, "prohibits states from interfering with the federal government's exercise of its constitutional powers," according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University in New York.
In August, an Atlanta grand jury voted to indict Trump and 18 others over alleged attempts to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential election results, charging the former president and every other co-defendant with at least one count of violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts he faces. He has also alleged the investigation against him was an attempt to disrupt his 2024 presidential campaign.
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's lawyer on Thursday.
New York University constitutional law professor, Peter Shane, told Newsweek that, if Trump was inaugurated in January, 2025 while the Georgia trial was continuing, he would "no doubt argue that he cannot be subject to state criminal proceedings while in his office because the need to attend to those proceedings would diminish his capacity to serve as president."
However, Shane said that, while presidents are not immune while in office from state civil proceedings, "a criminal trial of a sitting president would be unprecedented."
If the trial was halted for four years, it would likely have to restart from the beginning once Trump was out of office—something Shane believes the courts would be keen to avoid.
" I have a hard time imagining that the courts would force Georgia to wait four years to redo a trial already commenced, but these are uncharted waters," he said.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more