Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Georgia Makes BIG DECISION on Trump Criminal Cases

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

The Revolution may not be televised, but the Georgia criminal cases against Donald Trump and his henchman will. The question is when will these trials take place, and we have a new data point in the form of a last minute order from the Georgia Court of Appeals that sheds some light as their timing in 2025 and beyond. Michael Popok explains. iHerb: Get 22% OFF your first order when you use code LEGALAF at https://iherb.com/shop/LEGALAF Existing customers receive 15% OFF Join the LegalAF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/legalAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And when life is moving at the speed of, well, life, Enterprise is right there with you, around the corner and around the globe. We'll keep you moving forward. Enterprise for lives in drive. Well, the revolution may not be televised, but the Georgia criminal cases against Donald Trump and all of his henchmen and co-conspirators will be. The question is when. I'm Michael Popock, you're on Midas Touch Network and Legal AF.

We got a new order that just came out kind of in the middle of the night. We weren't expecting it from the Court of Appeals in Georgia, which has indefinitely postponed the oral argument that was scheduled for December 5th about whether Fonny Willis should be the prosecutor of the case or not. And I'm going to cover it here on this hot take for Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. Just to bring everybody up to speed, We'll cover it here on this hot take for Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. Just to bring everybody up to speed, we've got an appeal that was filed by Donald Trump and about eight or nine other co-conspirators arguing that Judge McAfee, the trial court

judge below, got it wrong when he ruled after an evidentiary hearing that Fonny Willis can stay in the case as long as she fired the guy that she used to date who worked on the prosecution with her. She fired that guy, she stayed in the case, and this appeal ensued. Now, we knew the appeal was coming because basically the trial judge invited it. He made comments, kind of gratuitous comments, negative criticisms of Fonny Willis, although he kept her in the case, which he questioned her judgment, questioned, he said there was an air of mendacity,

which is another word for saying he thinks somebody's lying about the relationship in the case. Well, of course, the Trumpers picked it up and decided to file their appeal. And we had full briefing. The oral argument is the last step, usually, in the process before the panel, the appellate panel, in this case a three-judge panel, makes their ruling. The order of operation,

I'll talk to you now as an appellate lawyer, the order of operation is the party taking the appeal, in this case the Trumpers, are the appellant. The party who's opposing the appeal is the appellee. The appellant gets two briefs, the appellee one. party who's opposing the appeal is the appellee. The appellant gets two briefs, the appellee won. There's the opening brief by the appellant along with the record from below with all the transcripts of the hearing and the evidence and all of that.

There is the middle brief, which is the opposition brief by the appellee. And then the appellant who brought the appeal gets the final word in a reply. And that is full briefing. And then the appeals court generally, generally, 90% of the time or more, takes an oral argument. They don't have to.

You have to usually ask for oral argument. It has to be granted to you. Sometimes they just rule on the papers, literally just rule on the hard, cold record before them without the need for oral argument. The purpose of oral argument is generally for the three judge or five judge panel, whatever we're talking about,

or nine judges on the US Supreme Court to get some questions answered or to communicate with the other people on their panel through the questions they're asking of the advocate to try to get some consensus or coalesce around a certain position so when they finally write their decision, they know what they're talking about You know a lot of these panels don't get assigned until a day or two or that day

usually a day or two before the case and The advocates don't know about it sometimes until the morning of who your three judge or five judge or whatever judge panel is gonna be You know, we're scrambling as advocates. Who's going to be on the panel? How do I orient my arguments based on what I know about these particular judges? The judges get the briefs in advance. Usually they've read them a couple of days in advance.

And then they'll start asking questions. And it could be a hot bench, which is what it sounds like. A lot of questions coming at the advocates, one or both. You get about a minute into your canned presentation and then you're bombarded with questions and you have to respond to them and then pivot and weave your argument into the questions that have been asked in your five or 10 or 20

or 30 minute allotment. You have lights in front of you, red lights and green lights to tell you where, usually a timer in front of you. And when the red light comes on, you stop talking unless you're granted more time. That's the oral argument. It could be a quiet bench, and they let you present fully your entire version of your brief and ask very few questions, and then you just sit down at that point. I've had hot benches I thought were against me where I've gotten rulings in my favor. I've had cold benches I thought were against me where I've gotten rulings in my favor.

I've had cold benches where I thought I got this and I came home and I didn't win that appeal. So that it's very hard sometimes to tell based on the bench how you're doing, but that's supposed to happen. It's not gonna happen now. To port for today's episode comes from iHerb. iHerb offers the best curated selection

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And they're gonna, and the case is stay. There's a pin in it. It's on ice. It's trapped in amber, whatever you want to call it until the appeal is concluded. Now, if they're just going to rule on the papers, frankly they would have issued an order that said we are dispensing with oral argument. We will rule on the papers and we will advise

the parties. I mean, you'd see an order like that. We didn't see an order like that. If they were going to continue it to another date, they would say we will be rescheduling it to another date or here's the date we're rescheduling it to. We didn't get that order either. We got this Oracle of Delphi type order, like eight ball, magic eight ball, what do they mean? They're just going to postpone until further notice.

So the case is effectively on ice until further notice. Eventually, one of the parties can ask the clerk of the court, what is going on? Is this going to be rescheduled? I'm sure they're making those phone calls now and we'll report on it. Let's assume sometime in 2025, they hear the appeal. Then through 2025, we're going to have this appellate process because the loser, whatever finally gets ruled on by this three-judge panel in Atlanta, is going to go up to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Now one thing's for sure, every one of those co-defendants from Mark Meadows to Rudy Giuliani to Jeff Clark, they're not going anywhere. They've all tried one way or the other to take their case to federal court on the way to try to get it dismissed by the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court just recently ruled against Mark Meadows and said, effectively, sit down.

You're going to stay in state court. You're not going to take your state prosecution to federal court. We don't want to hear from you on this issue. You are a defendant in a criminal case in state court, and that's it. Now, Donald Trump is, of course, a unique situation, having committed the crimes alleged while he was still president and now having been reelected four years later. And there is no, just to manage expectations, there's no judge, federal or state appellate or

trial that's going to force Donald Trump to stand for a criminal trial while he is the president of the United States. Just not happening. Under various doctrines, not so much immunity, it's not that not so much that he's immune, although I think immunity is going to be discussed at length in Georgia, similarly to the federal side. But even if he got through immunity, the whole issue of dragging him back into the case and making him defend himself is opposed

by a series of doctrines about the office of the presidency not being impaired or impeded with while he's president. Now after he gets out, statute of limitations hasn't run, 2029, sure, sure. I'm sure a lot of prosecutors are biding their time. Fonny Willis isn't going anywhere. She won reelection on election night as well, another four-year term. So she's not going anywhere. The people in Atlanta appreciate her work.

We appreciate her work, her hard work and support her and rallied around her. And she might be Donald Trump's javert chasing after him like Les Mis, but she's, except he's really guilty. But we'll continue to follow it. We got that new reporting about the order. I've explained it, I think to you, what's happened and he's really guilty. But we'll continue to follow it. We got that new reporting about the order. I've explained it, I think to you, what's happened and what should happen next. And then we'll follow it up right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. If you like this legal stuff, you're going to love our new channel in collaboration with

the Midas Touch Network. We call it, wait for it, Legal AF. Yep, we're that creative. It's at the intersection of law and politics. Go on YouTube and you can find it at Legal AFM, TN're that creative. It's at the intersection of law and politics. Go on YouTube and you can find it at Legal AFM, TN for Midas Touch Network. I'm curating that channel. I'm doing a lot of the hot takes. I bring on some other great collaborators from both the Midas world and outside the Midas world at the intersection of law and politics, where as you know, we don't

blow smoke or sunshine. And if you like this kind of work, you'll love our podcast also called Legal AF. Yep. We founded that four and a half years ago. And if you didn't know why we called it that, well, this kind of story sort of tells you join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm Eastern time on Midas Touch Network for Legal AF of the podcast. And then on audio podcast platforms of your choice. So until my next Legal AF contribution,

somewhere, someplace, I'm Michael of Law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at LegalAFMTN. That's at LegalAFMTN.