Donald Trump’s bid to have the Supreme Court declare that he has absolute legal immunity for actions conducted while he was president, preventing him being prosecuted in the federal 2020 election subversion case, could “backfire.” It could result in the Republican facing a trial in the fall, according to George Conway.
The attorney and anti-Trump conservative made the comments during a CNN appearance on Friday. Conway said the Supreme Court will rule before the end of June and that the former president will “lose big,” potentially leading to the trial going ahead after 81 days.
On May 30, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors said he did to cover up the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels, a former pornographic actress, ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump said the trial was “rigged” and is widely expected to mount an appeal. Newsweek contacted representatives of Donald Trump‘s 2024 presidential campaign for comment outside of usual business hours on Saturday via email.
The former president has also been charged over claims he mishandled classified documents and broke the law attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, both at the federal level and in the state of Georgia specifically. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said that the cases against him are politically motivated.
Conway told CNN about the Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s immunity claim: “I do trust the court on this. I think Donald Trump is going to lose. I think he’s going to lose big.
“There may be a few wrinkles in the opinion that may add a few steps to the process, but at the end of the day, I don’t think his argument is going to fly. In terms of the delay, I wish they had not taken the case… but the fact of the matter is, I don’t think there is a grand conspiracy or even an effort by some of the justices to put this off to help Trump.”
Conway added that Trump’s legal bid could result in the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate facing trial shortly before November’s election.
Conway said: “Fact of the matter is if the decision comes down the week of June 24, the last week of the term, that could mean that the case goes to trial at the end of September/beginning of October, which would be highly unfavorable.
“The reason is when the case first went up to the court of appeals, it was 81 days before trial, and the court has said it’s going to keep that 81-day schedule. And if you add 81 days to the end of June, you basically get the middle of the fall campaign, so it could actually backfire on Trump.”
In February, an appeals court ruled Trump does not have presidential immunity preventing him from being tried in the election-subversion case, though later that month the Supreme Court announced it would repeal the decision.
Trump was indicted on August 1 2023 on four charges including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding related to his efforts to overturn the 2016 presidential election result.
The former president is continuing to insist the 2020 contest was rigged against him, despite this having been rejected repeatedly in court and by independent election experts. On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed Congress in a bid to stop the 2020 election result being certified, during which 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt was shot dead by a police officer.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The post Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Move Could ‘Backfire’ on Him: George Conway appeared first on Newsweek.
