Thursday couldn’t have gone any better for former President Donald Trump, experts told Newsweek.
An ethics complaint was filed against one of Trump’s biggest enemies, the justices on the Supreme Court signaled they would rule in the former president’s favor, and a damning report was released about his number one political rival.
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The latest developments have been welcome news for Trump, who has been dealt a number of legal setbacks in recent weeks, including an $83.3 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case against him and a federal appeals court ruling that paved the way for the federal criminal cases against Trump to continue through the courts.
“Former President Trump had a great, wonderful, fabulous day yesterday,” GOP consultant Alex Patton told Newsweek on Friday.
Patton said Trump’s primary objective is to delay any and all court proceedings, but that his secondary objective is to “kick up as much dirt and smoke as possible.”
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“When the air is dirty and smokey, the public doesn’t see well. Additionally, if he can continue to feed the ‘partisan witch-hunt narrative’, even better,” Patton said. “Yesterday was a very good day for him.”
“Donald Trump has had a great week,” Republican strategist Matt Klink agreed. [He] still faces many legal hurdles but he most definitely won the week.”
Trump’s Thursday began with a complaint that could potentially derail one of the four criminal prosecutions against him. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative firebrand and staunch Trump supporter, filed a complaint with the Georgia State Ethics Commission in the morning, calling for an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis and Wade’s relationship was first made public by a court filing that sought to remove both of them from the sweeping RICO case being brought by Willis’ office. Willis admitted last week that she and Wade have a “personal relationship” that began after she hired the special prosecutor. Taylor Greene’s complaint alleges that the district attorney violated the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act by not disclosing “suspicious relationships and transactions.”
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“The DA Fani Willis drama continues to get worse for the highly controversial prosecutor,” Klink told Newsweek.
The scandal surrounding Willis’ relationship with Wade has hung over the case accusing Trump and 18 co-defendants of interfering in Georgia’s 2020 election and has been used by Republicans to undermine the district attorney’s allegations about the former president.
“The Fani Willis situation is such an unforced error on her part and likely will cloud the court proceedings tremendously,” Patton said. “Prosecutors, especially prosecutors charging in any political case, must be above all reproach.”
Shortly after Taylor Greene filed her complaint, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Colorado case seeking to kick Trump off the 2024 ballot. The 14th Amendment challenge has been widely viewed as the strongest legal effort to disqualify Trump from running for president again, but the justices signaled in their line of questioning that they would likely rule in his favor and agree that he should remain eligible in November’s election.
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“Yesterday was a very good legal day for Trump,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek. “He was always expected to win his 14th Amendment appeal, but now it appears the Supreme Court justices will overwhelmingly side with him.”
Trump found an unexpected supporter in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the only justice appointed by President Joe Biden. Jackson asked some of the hardest questions during the hearing, telling the court she found it “troubling” that the insurrection clause being argued didn’t specifically list “president” under the individuals who should be barred from office.
“The decision may come down either 9-0 or potentially 8-1,” Supreme Court expert Alex Badas previously told Newsweek, suggesting that two, if not all three, of the court’s liberal justices would reject the effort to kick Trump off the ballot.
Patton added that a Supreme Court ruling in his favor would “give the Trump campaign additional legitimacy ‘blessed by the Supreme Court.'”
Then later on Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Hur released his highly anticipated report on the Obama-era classified documents found in Biden’s possession after a yearslong investigation into the matter. Although Hur declined to pursue criminal charges against the president and made note of the difference between Biden and Trump’s cases, the report painted a damning picture of a forgetful commander-in-chief that has reignited criticisms surrounding Biden’s age and mental fitness.
“The Special Counsel gives Trump a gift when he questioned Biden’s memory,” Rahmani said. “It wasn’t necessary for his report, but it’s political fodder during an election year.”
Trump has long questioned Biden’s ability to lead and the age of the 81-year-old president has remained a major obstacle for his reelection campaign. And even though there won’t be charges against Biden, Trump will likely walk away with two wins since the decision to let Biden walk free will hand Trump more fuel for his claims about a politically motivated justice system.
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In an all-caps statement posted to his Truth Social account, Trump declared, “This has now proven to be a two-tiered system of justice and unconstitutional selective prosecution!”
“The special counsel released a report that he will position as highlighting a two-tiered justice system. The U.S. government won’t prosecute Biden but will Trump,” Klink agreed. “Better still for Trump, the special prosecutor detailed a mentally addled president. Joe Biden provided another gift when he appeared on TV to rebut these claims and came across as angry and defensive.”
Despite Trump’s good Thursday, political consultant Jay Townsend noted, “All candidates, no matter their skills, are going to have good days and bad days.”
After all, Trump was hit with a double whammy of bad news on Tuesday after a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s presidential immunity claim and the New York judge in his civil fraud trial signaled he could toss out everything that former Trump executive Allen Weisselberg said in defense of the former president’s company. And Trump’s legal journey is far from over. He is still facing four criminal cases and waiting for a verdict in the fraud trial.
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“Those who know how to take a punch and bounce back are usually those who prevail in a competitive election,” Townsend said. “There will be more surprises in this race. Citizen Trump is bound to have a few bad days in the coming months. So will President Biden.”
Patton said while the courts’ decisions are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 2024 race, there are still undetermined legal outcomes that could sway the election back out of Trump’s favor.
While the former president has managed to remain popular among his slew of legal challenges, and leverage his court appearances in his favor, polls show that a conviction could turn the tide and give Biden a boost. A NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released this week showed Biden and Trump tied 48 to 47 percent. However, those figures shifted when voters were asked whether their opinion would change if Trump were criminally convicted, with 51 percent saying they’d back Biden, while only 45 percent would vote for Trump.
Correction 2/9/24, 13:15 p.m. ET: This article was updated with a correction to the spelling of Neama Rahmani’s name
