How could Donald Trump’s Manhattan indictment impact his case in Georgia?

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - For the first time in history, a former U.S. president is facing criminal charges.

Donald Trump has been indicted and accused of paying hush money to former adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.

But now, new questions and calls for clarity are circulating, especially on what this means for a separate case in Georgia.

A handful of legal and political experts said this could embolden Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to expedite her case into the former president’s attempts to overturn the election in Georgia in 2020.

University of Georgia Professor Charles Bullock said, “once, or if, Fulton County does return an indictment, it’s going to be for a much more serious offense.”

But for a man who claimed in 2016 he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone without dropping in the poll, Bullock also thinks Trump will use both cases to his advantage.

Bullock said, “being indicted, probably even being convicted, there’s going to be a large chunk of the Republican Party that is going to look at this and say this is simply partisan politics… it’s unfair. And not only will they stick with him… he’s probably going to be able to raise campaign off of this too from his supporters.”

Bullock says nothing is barring Trump from running for reelection, but there’s also nothing in the constitution barring a former president from facing criminal charges even though it’s never happened before.

“Do high-ranking officials get indicted, do they get convicted? Yes, they do. There have been U.S. senators who have gone to prison members of Congress who have gone to prison… some are in prison right now. Governors have gone to prison,” he said.

And as for what a Trump indictment could look like? Bullock says to expect it to look the same as any other case in the New York court system.

“Trump will show up there with his attorney or maybe a fleet of attorneys, he’ll have a mug shot taken, and he’ll be fingerprinted, and then he’ll go into a courtroom and the indictment will be unsealed,” Bullock said.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office had no comment but said they would send an update ‘if and when’ an indictment comes.

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