🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Donald Trump and 18 other suspects—charged over an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia after a more than two-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis—have just over a week to turn themselves in and face charges.
Trump and his co-defendants were given a deadline of August 25 to surrender, with all 19 set to be booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
However, according to conservative supporter who once promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, Jack Posobiec, Trump may not even need to visit Atlanta, claiming the Georgia state legislature could throw out the case "tomorrow" if it so wished.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Jack Posobiec, on August 15, 2023, and viewed more than 320,800 times since, read: "Georgia state leg is Republican-controlled and could shut this circus down tomorrow if they wanted.
"Just like they could have matched those signatures if they wanted.
"But they won't
"Are you paying attention yet?"
The Facts
The prospect of a state legislature, or any legislative branch of government, attempting to intervene in one of the highest-profile court cases, arguably in U.S. history, seems unthinkable at first.
Part of the grand jury indictment charges Trump with solicitation to violate his oath of office for asking late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to call a special session of the Georgia General Assembly. Elsewhere, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others are accused of making false claims about election fraud and pressuring members of the Georgia Senate.
The investigation itself was launched after audio was obtained of a leaked call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which the former president urged the Republican official "to find 11,780 votes" in his favor to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in the southern state.
Trump also spoke to others including Georgia's Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, urging him not to help oppose a lawsuit filed in December 2020 by the State of Texas in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to change the electoral outcome in certain states.
On December 5, 2020, he also urged Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to help change the outcome through several actions and criticized him that same day at a rally for his failure to act.
How Georgia General Assembly Responded
Had there been an opportunity for Trump, the others listed in the indictment, or supporters in the Georgia General Assembly, to have destabilized Fani Willis' investigation over the past two years, one reasonably might assume it would have happened by now.
While recent changes were passed to mitigate obligations that Georgia lawmakers faced in answering to prosecutors and the grand jury, they did not venture as far as to prevent their testimony entirely or otherwise halt Willis' investigation.
Members of the Georgia General Assembly did push back against testifying in investigations into Trump. The state House and Senate adopted rules earlier this year to shield them from communications with people outside its legislature, The Associated Press reported.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury in the investigation into Trump, set limits on what grand juries could ask Georgia lawmakers, still according to AP.
McBurney wrote that lawmakers may not be asked "about anything he said while participating in any session of the legislature, be that on the floor of the body or in subcommittee." This would include conversations and documents prepared by lawmakers or legislative staff.
Newsweek spoke to a group of experts in constitutional and state law, and with experience in district attorney offices to find out more.
Could Georgia Throw Out the Indictment?
Alafair Burke, a professor of law at Hofstra University and former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, told Newsweek that while she didn't want to present "nutty ideas" that could work, there were at least some avenues of intervention.
"A couple of years ago, I would have said that's a complete no-go. The legislature writes the criminal code, but the executive branch enforces it with oversight by the judiciary. Straightforward separation of powers," Burke said.
"But Georgia has joined what I think is a dangerous trend of enacting laws intended to empower them to oust prosecutors they disagree with, passing legislation recently to create a commission to discipline or even remove elected prosecutors from office. Some DAs filed a lawsuit this month challenging the law.
"So in theory, yes, this newly created commission could remove Fani Willis from her position in hopes that whoever took her place would dump the case.
"I could be wrong, mind you, but am not aware of any mechanism by which they could directly dismiss the case short of repealing every applicable criminal code provision retroactively.
"I'm torn in answering since the last thing I'd want is to help them come up with nutty ideas that might actually work.
"But I suppose in theory they could create some applicable defense or limit on the jurisdiction of state courts that applies retroactively."
Other experts Newsweek spoke to suggested the likelihood of it happening was very small, but existent.
Georgia State University Professor Clark Cunningham, a member of the Chief Justice of Georgia's Commission on Professionalism, told Newsweek that the state legislature "could try amending one or more of the laws" for which Trump has been indicted, it's not clear if those changes could be applied retroactively.
Even if they did try to make that attempt, Cunningham said, Governor Brian Kemp "would be likely to veto such an attempt."
Cunningham also suggested that while impeachment proceedings against Willis were possible, only requiring a two-third majority vote in the Senate, Republicans lacked that majority in that chamber.
Georgia has already passed legislation to remove prosecutors and district attorneys from their posts. Georgia's 2023 legislative session passed Senate Bill 92 establishing the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) designed to discipline or remove district attorneys and solicitors general across Georgia. Although Governor Kemp signed the bill, Trump's indictment was not mentioned.
"The creation of the PACQ will help hold prosecutors driven by out-of-touch politics than commitment to their responsibilities accountable and make our communities safer," said Kemp.
However, as professor John Owens of the United States Government and Politics in the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster, told Newsweek, passing legislation seeking to overturn the indictment would place the legislature "in a highly risky constitutional and dangerous political predicament given the indictment's central focus on the legitimacy of U.S. elections and American political democracy."
"Given Trump's reputation and previous form, of course, he will try to persuade/coerce Republican state legislators and the court to take any kind of action that would seek to overturn the indictment," Owens said.
"I'm sure his and other conservative lawyers are hard at work trying to invent new strategies to support him. I really doubt any of them will succeed."
Even if the Georgia General Assembly took such actions, Owens added, it has not been in session since March 2023, and would not start until January 2024.
"Also bear in mind that the main action has been and will be taken by the DOJ in Washington, whose actions to a great extent duplicate the grand jury's/Willis' actions in Georgia," Owens said.
"It would not surprise me to find at some future date Willis' indictment folds into the DOJ's actions at the federal level."
Trump of course is likely to make his own attempts to intervene, as professor Melissa D. Redmon, clinical assistant professor and Prosecutorial Justice Program director at the University of Georgia School of Law, told Newsweek.
"Trump filed a pre-indictment motion seeking to prevent the use of any information obtained by the special purpose grand jury and disqualify DA Willis," Redmon said.
"I expect he will file a similar motion to dismiss now that he has been indicted. He may also try to have the case removed to federal court and attempt to claim immunity there."
In any case, the idea that Jack Posobiec put forward seems tied up in theory. While the Georgia state legislature could perhaps change laws that may overturn parts of the investigation, such laws would both need to be applicable retroactively to address Trump's case and could create a constitutional firestorm.
Furthermore, while impeachment processes could put Willis at risk, there does not appear to be the political will or majority for such an action to take place.
Ahead of his indictment, Donald Trump released a campaign ad filled with disinformation attacking Fani Willis. False claims included that she had had a relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting and had created a fake subpoena.
Newsweek has contacted representatives for the Georgia General Assembly and the Fulton County Court via email for comment. Newsweek has also contacted Posobiec's Human Events media company via a contact form on its website.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
It is not clear how Posobiec reached this conclusion. Legal experts Newsweek spoke to suggested that there might be mechanisms by which elements of the case could be overturned, or Fani Willis be impeached, but stressed that the risks involved and the likelihood of it happening are very thin.
While Trump may issue his own challenges, the makeup and will of the Georgia General Assembly suggest the chances of an overthrow coming from within the legislature are slim to none.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
About the writer
Tom Norton is Newsweek's Fact Check reporter, based in London. His focus is reporting on misinformation and misleading information in ... Read more