Where Things Stand: Trump Allies Already Suggesting Georgia GOP Should Change State Law To Pardon Trump

This is your TPM evening briefing.

DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 12: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a rally at the Steer N' Stein bar at the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Repu... DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 12: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a rally at the Steer N' Stein bar at the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump are visiting the fair, a tradition in one of the first states to hold caucuses in 2024. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) MORE LESS

August 15, 2023 6:49 p.m.

Start your day with TPM.

In the wake of the Fulton County grand jury indictment of Donald Trump and 18 of his allies, Republicans and MAGA fiends are pulling out the usual stops to decry the ever-mounting list of charges against the former president. Some are calling for “civil war”; others are claiming that they fear it may now somehow be illegal to watch TV.

But at least one MAGA pal is raising a more concrete plan of action to shield the four-times-indicted former president from legal accountability in Georgia: Write a Trump loophole into the law. Lawyer and commentator Mike Davis, who is a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and former aide to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), took to Fox News last night to argue that Georgia Republicans should rally together to change state law so Trump can be pardoned.

If Trump is ultimately convicted on the racketeering charge under Georgia’s RICO Act statute, he does not, at the moment, have a clear path to a pardon under Georgia law — he cannot by pardoned by a U.S. president, nor can he be pardoned by a Georgia governor.

Appearing on Fox News late Monday night just after the indictment was made public, Davis suggested this path to a Trump carveout:

“Under the Georgia law, there is a statute that limits the Republican governor’s ability to pardon, and I think that the legislature in Georgia needs to amend that statute and give Governor Kemp the ability to pardon in this situation because this is clear election interference,” Davis said. “It is clear Democrat lawfare by Democrat prosecutors where they are trying to have Democrat prosecutors, Democrat judges and Democrat juries and Democrat hellholes decide the next presidential election instead of the American people.”

This man, who was a law clerk to Justice Gorsuch, essentially argues that if adhering to the rule of law results in holding Trump to account, Georgia legislators should change their law to allow Gov. Kemp to pardon Trump. https://t.co/Jw56pQETMq
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) August 15, 2023

Though the state’s legislature is controlled by Republicans and an amendment to the state constitution could be proposed in either the state House or Senate, changing the constitution in Georgia, like other states, would be a significant undertaking, requiring the approval of both a supermajority in the legislature and of Georgia voters.