While it is unlikely the SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity will impact Trump’s hush-money case, there is a case where the ruling could help Trump.
That would be the Georgia RICO case that was filed by Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
This will all depend on how the court perceives the phone call that was made between Trump and the Georgia Secretary of State.
It’s All About Perception
If you recall, after the election, Donald Trump called Secretary Raffensperger.
During that call, Trump asked him to “find” 11,000 votes so that he could win the state.
So, the question is, was Trump telling Raffensperger to literally flip 11,000 votes, or was he asking him to investigate the election?
I have always taken that call as Trump asking him to investigate, but that is not how everyone sees it, and that surely is not how Fani Willis sees it.
Former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe stated, “To the extent that the Georgia state RICO case relies on acts that are core presidential duties, or at a minimum official, then the new immunity case would present a new barrier to the government’s prosecution.
“Given the narrative overlap between the federal January 6th case and the Georgia state case, the state judge will likely follow the federal judge’s determinations.”
Trump has already filed to have the verdict set aside in the hush-money case, but I don’t think that will happen.
Trump was not president when he paid the hush money out, so presidential immunity is not even relevant in that case.
Even if he was, that would not be the act of a president but instead of a private citizen, so I doubt the court would give immunity for that particular act.
But, like I said, all is not lost here for Trump because this could get him out of this trial and possibly even the classified documents case.
I don’t see it helping him in the January 6 case because I believe the court will rule that his actions that day were also that of a private citizen-candidate and not a presidential act.
