If Trump Wins Election Before Georgia Trial Ends, All Hell Breaks Loose

There is the potential for an unprecedented legal and constitutional battle next year involving Donald Trump, his trial in Georgia, and the results of the 2024 election, a legal expert has told Newsweek.

Trump was indicted under Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' expansive 2020 election-interference investigation on August 14, along with 18 other defendants. The former president has denied all the accusations against him and accused Willis of election interference with her probe.

Willis has already said that she wants to trial all 19 defendants at the same, each of whom are facing charges under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Willis has also asked a judge to set a trial date of March 4, 2024.

However, due to the potential mammoth trial involving a former president and 18 other suspects—as well as the delays and arguments that the proceedings are sure to be met with—there is every chance that the Georgia trial will not conclude until after the November 2024 election, or until 2025 at least.

In this timeframe, there is a possible scenario that Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary, is convicted of multiple charges having already won the 2024 election.

Should a jury find Trump guilty in Georgia after winning the election, but prior to entering office in January 2025, there is every chance Trump will use the courts and legal arguments to try to delay his sentencing until he becomes president under the assumption that he will then no longer have to serve time.

If Trump is found guilty having already entered the White House, a whole new range of non-hypothetical questions and arguments would be raised about whether a sitting president can be convicted for state crimes in a way never before seen in U.S. history.

"We are in completely new territory if a sitting president is convicted of crimes he committed before he was elected president, which will be the case here," Eric J. Segall, professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law and Constitution expert, told Newsweek.

"There's nothing in the Constitution about this. There's very little case law about this. We'll have to see. There's no way to predict how that would play out. No way," Segall added.

Due to the sprawling nature of Willis' RICO case against Trump and the other defendants, other legal experts have said that the DA has almost no hope in getting her trial completed before next November. The former president is already facing three other trials in 2024.

"In Willis' case, I would be surprised if we get to trial before 2025," Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, previously told Newsweek. "There are way too many defendants, and her delay in bringing charges likely puts her case fourth in line."

Willis was previously part of a major RICO case involving dozens of educators in Atlanta accused of cheating on standardized tests. The case was launched in 2011, with convictions after a lengthy trial not arriving until 2015.

Chris Timmons, an Atlanta-based lawyer and former prosecutor, said that the amount of defendants in the election interference case will almost certainly result in lengthy delays to proceedings.

"It takes a while to get everybody arraigned," Timmons told The New York Times. "It takes a while to make sure everybody's got an attorney. There's discovery that's got to be engaged in.

"There's a lot of information to process to get organized, to be ready to go," Timmons added.

Unlike in the federal classified documents and January 6 cases in which Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges, the former president cannot pardon himself if convicted in the Georgia case should he become president again because it is a state investigation.

Instead, the power to pardon a defendant in the state is granted by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. It is unclear if the five-person panel has any intention of pardoning Trump should he be convicted under Willis' probe.

There is also nothing in the Constitution from stopping Trump from continuing to run for president, even if he is convicted of a crime either in the Georgia case or the other three criminal trials the former president is facing in New York, Florida, and Washington D.C.

Willis launched her election interference probe in January 2021, and announced her indictments against Trump and others two-and-a-half years later.

Despite the potential headache that the timing of the trial may pose, Segall said the Fulton County DA was right not to consider the election or a potential Trump victory while working on the case.

"The DA is an incredibly serious person. It wouldn't go through her head to say the election is here, the election is there. That's not her job," Segall added.

"Her job is, did Trump commit crimes in Georgia? And if so, she's going to build the biggest case. This is not a DA who's making political calculations."