A current ruling from a Georgia courtroom seems to be useful information for an Orland Park pastor indicted in 2023 beneath now President-elect Donald Trump for allegedly tampering with the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election in that state.
The Georgia Court of Appeals in December disqualified the prosecutor within the case, which accuses Trump and several other others of making an attempt to overturn the ends in Georgia.
The Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, pastor of Living Word Lutheran Church in Orland Park, was indicted in August 2023 on felony prices that embrace racketeering, influencing a witness and conspiracy to solicit false statements and writings.
On December 19, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fani Willis, the district lawyer for Fulton County, Georgia, who introduced the fees. The appeals courtroom didn’t dismiss the fees, nonetheless, which Trump and a few co-defendants had requested. .
In a submit to the Illinois Family Institute, Lee stated he had been contacted by his Atlanta lawyer, David Oles, concerning the ruling.
“My lawyer truly says that whereas he will not dismiss the case, this appellate determination signifies that no different Georgia prosecutors will need to contact this may of worms with a 10-foot pole, which quantities to an eventual collapse of the case ” Lee wrote.
The Illinois Family Institute pressured that the ruling didn’t dismiss the cost and that the Georgia Board of Prosecutors will probably be tasked with deciding to pursue the case and discover one other prosecutor to exchange Willis.
“However there’s additionally the chance that the Council won’t act in any respect. With Willis’ disqualification, the case might be reassigned to a different prosecutor, however this course of might trigger additional delays,” the household institute stated. “Considering Trump’s impending inauguration in January 2025, the continuation of the case throughout his presidency is unsure.”
Pastor fundraising
Mike Nolan/Daily Southtown
Attorney David Shestokas speaks at a fundraiser Nov. 9, 2023 for his consumer, the Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, pastor of an Orland Park church. (Mike Nolan/Daily Southtown)
Messages left with attorneys representing Lee in Georgia and Chicago weren’t returned.
Trump, who can be sworn in as president on Jan. 20, and co-defendants sought to disqualify Willis from the case, which a Fulton County choose refused to do, leading to an attraction.
The appeals courtroom, overturning the decrease courtroom’s ruling, stated Willis had been disqualified “as a result of a big look of impropriety,” however didn’t take the additional step of dismissing the cost solely.
Trump and different defendants claimed {that a} relationship between Willis and the lead prosecutor Willis named within the case made her unfit to strive the case.
Some defendants later pleaded responsible, and Lee’s legal professionals sought to have the pastor’s prices tried individually from the remainder of the remaining defendants.
At a November 2023 fundraiser for Lee at a Channahon church, Lee was adamant that he wouldn’t observe the lead of another defendants and try and get hold of a plea deal that might have resulted in a much less extreme penalty. He stated he faces a minimal of 5 years in a Georgia state jail if convicted.
“I’m not going to state a lie,” he stated to a crowd of about 70 supporters. “I cannot cooperate with evil. This is greater than me.
David Shestokas, a former assistant Cook County state’s lawyer, is engaged on the case with Georgia-based lawyer David Oles.
At the fundraiser, Shestokas stated most of the alleged legal acts Lee is accused of are actions protected by the First Amendment, together with freedom of speech, freedom of meeting and freedom of faith.
Shestokas stated on the fundraiser that what his consumer is being subjected to is extortion and he “does not deserve it.”
“What is at stake right here isn’t just Pastor Lee,” Shestokas stated. “It is an assault on all rights beneath the First Amendment of our Constitution.”
Lee has been interim pastor at Living Word since 2019 and was pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Burbank from 2012 to 2019, in line with a biography.
Before attending seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1988 to 1992, Lee had in depth regulation enforcement expertise, together with work as a sheriff’s police officer in California and a particular agent with the Naval Intelligence Service, together with whereas dwelling in California, in line with his bio. .
Lee was dwelling in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the time of the April 20, 1999 capturing at Columbine High School, when 12 college students and a instructor have been killed, and was lead chaplain on the scene for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. and explosives.
