Fani Willis ain't playing games, Ga. Grand Jury Looms in Trump Inquiry UPDATE-AND FANI MAKES 4, It's "cheese and Kraken" time as they flip
- Thread starter lightbright
- Start date
Trump lawyers try to BLOCK final Georgia grand jury report on bid to overturn the election: Attorneys ask Fulton County DA to recuse herself as she 'considers racketeering and conspiracy charges'
The filing seeks to disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis
Lawyers for President Donald Trump filed a motion in a Georgia court seeking to block the report produced by a special grand jury while seeking to force the Fulton County DA to be removed from the case entirely.
The brash legal move comes amid reports that Georgia prosecutors are considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in their probe of the 2020 election overturn effort by Trump and some of his allies.
The motion would 'preclude the use of any evidence derived' from the report – and comes after the jury forewoman on the case gave public indications that multiple people could be charged.
The legal maneuvering in Georgia comes days after Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he would be arrested Tuesday in connection with the Stormy Daniels 'hush' money scheme and called for protests, amid tense preparations in Manhattan for possible charges.
The Georgia filing asks the court to ensure the removal of Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who has been the subject of repeated Trump attacks, asking that she be 'disqualified from any further involvement in this matter.'
Trump's lawyer Drew Findling told the New York Times he had issued the filing on his client's behalf.
The special grand jury heard testimony in the case for months beginning in May, although a separate grand jury would actually bring charges.
The jury forewoman, Emily Kohrs, drew attention with a string of media appearances – including one where she said it would have been an 'awesome moment' if she got to swear in Trump following a subpoena.
She also appeared to indicate there could be multiple indictments in the case.
'Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list' of recommended indictments, Kohrs told CNN last month. 'It’s not a short list. It’s not.'
There had been indications that Trump's legal team would seek to quash any indictments, partly by pointing to media statements about the case. Trump, at the time, called it a 'kangaroo court.'
Willis has been probing conduct related to the effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, including the former president's infamous phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to 'just find 11,780 votes.'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which spoke to multiple members of the special grand jury, reported that members also heard a recording of an additional Trump call to former Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, now deceased.
The Republican former speaker cut Trump off, according to a grand juror, telling Trump 'I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.'
According to the Times, experts say Willis is building a case that 'could target multiple defendants with charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud or charges related to racketeering.'
CNN also reported that prosecutors are looking at possible charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), frequently used to fight organized crime.
Trump lawyers try to BLOCK final Georgia grand jury report on bid to overturn the election | Daily Mail Online
- Trump lawyers filed motion seeking to block the final report in Georgia
- The filing comes amid reports prosecutors are considering racketeering charges
- Seeks recusal of Fani Willis; comes amid latest in Stormy Daniels case
Lawyers for President Donald Trump filed a motion in a Georgia court seeking to block the report produced by a special grand jury while seeking to force the Fulton County DA to be removed from the case entirely.
The brash legal move comes amid reports that Georgia prosecutors are considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in their probe of the 2020 election overturn effort by Trump and some of his allies.
The motion would 'preclude the use of any evidence derived' from the report – and comes after the jury forewoman on the case gave public indications that multiple people could be charged.
The legal maneuvering in Georgia comes days after Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he would be arrested Tuesday in connection with the Stormy Daniels 'hush' money scheme and called for protests, amid tense preparations in Manhattan for possible charges.
The Georgia filing asks the court to ensure the removal of Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who has been the subject of repeated Trump attacks, asking that she be 'disqualified from any further involvement in this matter.'
Trump's lawyer Drew Findling told the New York Times he had issued the filing on his client's behalf.
The special grand jury heard testimony in the case for months beginning in May, although a separate grand jury would actually bring charges.
The jury forewoman, Emily Kohrs, drew attention with a string of media appearances – including one where she said it would have been an 'awesome moment' if she got to swear in Trump following a subpoena.
She also appeared to indicate there could be multiple indictments in the case.
'Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list' of recommended indictments, Kohrs told CNN last month. 'It’s not a short list. It’s not.'
There had been indications that Trump's legal team would seek to quash any indictments, partly by pointing to media statements about the case. Trump, at the time, called it a 'kangaroo court.'
Willis has been probing conduct related to the effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, including the former president's infamous phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to 'just find 11,780 votes.'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which spoke to multiple members of the special grand jury, reported that members also heard a recording of an additional Trump call to former Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, now deceased.
The Republican former speaker cut Trump off, according to a grand juror, telling Trump 'I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.'
According to the Times, experts say Willis is building a case that 'could target multiple defendants with charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud or charges related to racketeering.'
CNN also reported that prosecutors are looking at possible charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), frequently used to fight organized crime.
Trump lawyers try to BLOCK final Georgia grand jury report on bid to overturn the election | Daily Mail Online
Trump lawyers try to BLOCK final Georgia grand jury report on bid to overturn the election: Attorneys ask Fulton County DA to recuse herself as she 'considers racketeering and conspiracy charges'
- Trump lawyers filed motion seeking to block the final report in Georgia
- The filing comes amid reports prosecutors are considering racketeering charges
- Seeks recusal of Fani Willis; comes amid latest in Stormy Daniels case
The filing seeks to disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis
Lawyers for President Donald Trump filed a motion in a Georgia court seeking to block the report produced by a special grand jury while seeking to force the Fulton County DA to be removed from the case entirely.
The brash legal move comes amid reports that Georgia prosecutors are considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in their probe of the 2020 election overturn effort by Trump and some of his allies.
The motion would 'preclude the use of any evidence derived' from the report – and comes after the jury forewoman on the case gave public indications that multiple people could be charged.
The legal maneuvering in Georgia comes days after Trump posted on his Truth Social site that he would be arrested Tuesday in connection with the Stormy Daniels 'hush' money scheme and called for protests, amid tense preparations in Manhattan for possible charges.
The Georgia filing asks the court to ensure the removal of Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who has been the subject of repeated Trump attacks, asking that she be 'disqualified from any further involvement in this matter.'
Trump's lawyer Drew Findling told the New York Times he had issued the filing on his client's behalf.
The special grand jury heard testimony in the case for months beginning in May, although a separate grand jury would actually bring charges.
The jury forewoman, Emily Kohrs, drew attention with a string of media appearances – including one where she said it would have been an 'awesome moment' if she got to swear in Trump following a subpoena.
She also appeared to indicate there could be multiple indictments in the case.
'Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list' of recommended indictments, Kohrs told CNN last month. 'It’s not a short list. It’s not.'
There had been indications that Trump's legal team would seek to quash any indictments, partly by pointing to media statements about the case. Trump, at the time, called it a 'kangaroo court.'
Willis has been probing conduct related to the effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, including the former president's infamous phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to 'just find 11,780 votes.'
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which spoke to multiple members of the special grand jury, reported that members also heard a recording of an additional Trump call to former Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, now deceased.
The Republican former speaker cut Trump off, according to a grand juror, telling Trump 'I will do everything in my power that I think is appropriate.'
According to the Times, experts say Willis is building a case that 'could target multiple defendants with charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud or charges related to racketeering.'
CNN also reported that prosecutors are looking at possible charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), frequently used to fight organized crime.
Trump lawyers try to BLOCK final Georgia grand jury report on bid to overturn the election | Daily Mail Online
this delay tactic isn't going anywhere
Trump faces setbacks in other probes as NY case proceeds
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faces the most urgent legal challenge of his life this week in New York, where he’s set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign.
But as much as the attention will be on the courthouse in lower Manhattan, investigations from Atlanta to Washington will press forward, underscoring the broad range of peril he confronts as he seeks to reclaim the presidency.
The vulnerability Trump faces in Washington alone has become clear over the past month, as judges in a succession of sealed rulings have turned aside the Trump team’s efforts to block grand jury testimony from witnesses — including from his own lawyer and his former vice president — who were or still are close to him and who could conceivably offer direct insight into key events.
The rulings directing advisers and aides to testify don't suggest that the Justice Department is close to bringing criminal charges, nor do they guarantee that prosecutors can secure testimony valuable to a potential prosecution. But they're nonetheless a key, closed-door win for the government as it investigates whether classified documents were criminally mishandled at Trump's Florida home and the possible obstruction of that probe, as well as efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“I do think when you're talking about an attempted insurrection and the kinds of issues that we're talking about there, there's going to be a lot of arguments on DOJ's side” to get the testimony, said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and a George Washington University law professor.
Meanwhile, the district attorney in Atlanta is continuing to investigate attempts by Trump and his allies to undo his election loss in Georgia. A special grand jury in February said it believed “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges.
The former president never testified before the special grand jury, meaning he is not among those who could have perjured themselves. But the report doesn’t foreclose the possibility of other charges, and the case still poses particular challenges for Trump, in part because his actions in Georgia were so public.
Overall, the number of sealed disputes over the scope of grand jury testimony is unusual but perhaps befitting for hugely consequential probes like one concerning a former president. It also stands in contrast to the last special counsel investigation involving Trump, when he was president and when Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors sought to determine whether Trump's 2016 campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the election.
In that probe, a lawyer inside the White House, Ty Cobb, facilitated voluntary interviews of White House staff — without subpoenas — in hopes that cooperation would hasten the investigation toward conclusion.
“If I could figure out a way to cooperate and still preserve executive privilege, it would speed things up, which in my judgment ... was imperative to the president and to the country,” Cobb said in a recent interview. “We were able to accelerate getting them all of the information.”
Trump in that investigation was protected by the power of his office and by Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. No longer president, Trump has lost that shield, raising the stakes of his criminal exposure. And as prosecutors have sought to question people close to him — whether to better understand Trump's state of mind and possible defenses, or to gather potentially damaging testimony — Trump's lawyers have repeatedly objected, often in vain.
Perhaps the most vivid example came last month when the then-chief judge of the D.C. federal court ordered that Trump's lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, had to give more grand jury testimony in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. He had invoked attorney-client privilege in an earlier appearance before the grand jury in declining to answer more questions, but prosecutors pressed for more testimony.
They cited what's known as the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, which allows prosecutors to compel testimony from a lawyer if they can convince a judge that a client was using legal services in furtherance of a crime. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Corcoran had to return before the grand jury, and he was in court a week later.
Another instance came last week when a different federal judge, James Boasberg, ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence had to give some testimony in a Justice Department special counsel probe into efforts to undo the election.
The decision rejected the Trump team's objections on executive privilege grounds, though Boasberg did give Pence a victory by accepting his lawyers' arguments that, for constitutional reasons, he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Republican Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on this story but responded to the ruling in the Pence matter in a statement saying that the Justice Department “is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long accepted, long held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.”
Other former Trump aides, including Stephen Miller and former national security adviser Robert O'Brien, have also recently been ordered by a judge to offer testimony despite Trump team objections of executive privilege.
The ability of Justice Department prosecutors in multiple instances to convince judges that there's a basis to secure the testimony is significant to the extent that it shows that “there's a there there” with respect to the investigations, Eliason said.
But he cautioned from reading too much into it, given that the threshold for prevailing in a fight over executive privilege or attorney-client is lower than the burden needed to win a criminal case at trial.
“It’s a far cry from being able to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a contested trial,” Eliason said. “It would be quite a leap to go from there and be able to say that they've got a criminal case locked up.”
Trump faces setbacks in other probes as NY case proceeds - ABC News (go.com)
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faces the most urgent legal challenge of his life this week in New York, where he’s set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign.
But as much as the attention will be on the courthouse in lower Manhattan, investigations from Atlanta to Washington will press forward, underscoring the broad range of peril he confronts as he seeks to reclaim the presidency.
The vulnerability Trump faces in Washington alone has become clear over the past month, as judges in a succession of sealed rulings have turned aside the Trump team’s efforts to block grand jury testimony from witnesses — including from his own lawyer and his former vice president — who were or still are close to him and who could conceivably offer direct insight into key events.
The rulings directing advisers and aides to testify don't suggest that the Justice Department is close to bringing criminal charges, nor do they guarantee that prosecutors can secure testimony valuable to a potential prosecution. But they're nonetheless a key, closed-door win for the government as it investigates whether classified documents were criminally mishandled at Trump's Florida home and the possible obstruction of that probe, as well as efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“I do think when you're talking about an attempted insurrection and the kinds of issues that we're talking about there, there's going to be a lot of arguments on DOJ's side” to get the testimony, said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and a George Washington University law professor.
Meanwhile, the district attorney in Atlanta is continuing to investigate attempts by Trump and his allies to undo his election loss in Georgia. A special grand jury in February said it believed “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges.
The former president never testified before the special grand jury, meaning he is not among those who could have perjured themselves. But the report doesn’t foreclose the possibility of other charges, and the case still poses particular challenges for Trump, in part because his actions in Georgia were so public.
Overall, the number of sealed disputes over the scope of grand jury testimony is unusual but perhaps befitting for hugely consequential probes like one concerning a former president. It also stands in contrast to the last special counsel investigation involving Trump, when he was president and when Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors sought to determine whether Trump's 2016 campaign had colluded with Russia to tip the election.
In that probe, a lawyer inside the White House, Ty Cobb, facilitated voluntary interviews of White House staff — without subpoenas — in hopes that cooperation would hasten the investigation toward conclusion.
“If I could figure out a way to cooperate and still preserve executive privilege, it would speed things up, which in my judgment ... was imperative to the president and to the country,” Cobb said in a recent interview. “We were able to accelerate getting them all of the information.”
Trump in that investigation was protected by the power of his office and by Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. No longer president, Trump has lost that shield, raising the stakes of his criminal exposure. And as prosecutors have sought to question people close to him — whether to better understand Trump's state of mind and possible defenses, or to gather potentially damaging testimony — Trump's lawyers have repeatedly objected, often in vain.
Perhaps the most vivid example came last month when the then-chief judge of the D.C. federal court ordered that Trump's lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, had to give more grand jury testimony in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. He had invoked attorney-client privilege in an earlier appearance before the grand jury in declining to answer more questions, but prosecutors pressed for more testimony.
They cited what's known as the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, which allows prosecutors to compel testimony from a lawyer if they can convince a judge that a client was using legal services in furtherance of a crime. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Corcoran had to return before the grand jury, and he was in court a week later.
Another instance came last week when a different federal judge, James Boasberg, ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence had to give some testimony in a Justice Department special counsel probe into efforts to undo the election.
The decision rejected the Trump team's objections on executive privilege grounds, though Boasberg did give Pence a victory by accepting his lawyers' arguments that, for constitutional reasons, he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Republican Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on this story but responded to the ruling in the Pence matter in a statement saying that the Justice Department “is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long accepted, long held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege.”
Other former Trump aides, including Stephen Miller and former national security adviser Robert O'Brien, have also recently been ordered by a judge to offer testimony despite Trump team objections of executive privilege.
The ability of Justice Department prosecutors in multiple instances to convince judges that there's a basis to secure the testimony is significant to the extent that it shows that “there's a there there” with respect to the investigations, Eliason said.
But he cautioned from reading too much into it, given that the threshold for prevailing in a fight over executive privilege or attorney-client is lower than the burden needed to win a criminal case at trial.
“It’s a far cry from being able to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a contested trial,” Eliason said. “It would be quite a leap to go from there and be able to say that they've got a criminal case locked up.”
Trump faces setbacks in other probes as NY case proceeds - ABC News (go.com)
Report: Trump Could Be Indicted by the Fulton County District Attorney in the “Coming Weeks”
The Manhattan district attorney case is far from the only legal issue facing Trump.
Bess Levin
April 5, 2023
www.vanityfair.com
Donald Trump made history on Tuesday when he became the first US president ever to be charged with a crime after leaving office. And thanks to a lifetime of bad behavior, he might soon break his own record for most indictments by a sitting or former POTUS, which currently stands at one.
According to The Washington Post, Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis is “expected to announce in coming weeks whether she will file charges in connection to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.” While it’s possible Willis will not file any charges at all, or will but they won’t be against Trump, there is obviously a chance she chooses to pull an Alvin Bragg and go after the ex-president. For one thing, the special grand jury impaneled by Willis last year reportedly heard at least two phone calls in which the then president pressured local officials to overturn the election results in Georgia, including the infamous one in which Trump demanded state secretary Brad Raffensperger “find” the exact number of votes he needed to turn his loss to Joe Biden into a win. For another, when asked about the recommendations the group made re: which individuals should be charged, jury forewoman Emily Kohrs told The New York Times it was “not a short list,” adding, of whether or not Trump was on it: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.” Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, another juror said of the group’s report: “A lot’s gonna come out sooner or late. And it’s gonna be massive. It’s gonna be massive.”
In a court filing, attorneys for Trump demanded the final report from the special grand jury be quashed, claiming that the “results of the investigation cannot be relied upon and, therefore, must be suppressed given the constitutional violations.” His lawyers also claimed that Willis engaged in “instances of forensic misconduct and improper extrajudicial activity,” and should be removed from the case. In a speech at Mar-a-Lago last night, Trump called Willis, who is Black, a “racist,” and insisted his call to Raffensperger was “perfect” and “nothing was said wrong.”
Of course, the Fulton County case isn’t the only one that could result in charges on top of the ones out of New York. The ex-president is also being investigated by the Justice Department for both his attempt to overturn the election and the insurrection that followed and his handling of classified documents. On Sunday, the Post reported that special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the probes, had uncovered “significant” evidence that Trump may have obstructed justice in the documents case. On Wednesday, an adviser to Mike Pence said the former VP would not appeal a ruling ordering him to comply with a subpoena from Smith to testify before a grand jury about his conversations with Trump leading up to the attack on the Capitol.
Click Above Link To View Social Media
The Manhattan district attorney case is far from the only legal issue facing Trump.
Bess Levin
April 5, 2023
Report: Trump Could Be Indicted by the Fulton County District Attorney in the “Coming Weeks”
The Manhattan district attorney case is far from the only legal issue facing Trump.
Donald Trump made history on Tuesday when he became the first US president ever to be charged with a crime after leaving office. And thanks to a lifetime of bad behavior, he might soon break his own record for most indictments by a sitting or former POTUS, which currently stands at one.
According to The Washington Post, Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis is “expected to announce in coming weeks whether she will file charges in connection to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.” While it’s possible Willis will not file any charges at all, or will but they won’t be against Trump, there is obviously a chance she chooses to pull an Alvin Bragg and go after the ex-president. For one thing, the special grand jury impaneled by Willis last year reportedly heard at least two phone calls in which the then president pressured local officials to overturn the election results in Georgia, including the infamous one in which Trump demanded state secretary Brad Raffensperger “find” the exact number of votes he needed to turn his loss to Joe Biden into a win. For another, when asked about the recommendations the group made re: which individuals should be charged, jury forewoman Emily Kohrs told The New York Times it was “not a short list,” adding, of whether or not Trump was on it: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.” Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, another juror said of the group’s report: “A lot’s gonna come out sooner or late. And it’s gonna be massive. It’s gonna be massive.”
In a court filing, attorneys for Trump demanded the final report from the special grand jury be quashed, claiming that the “results of the investigation cannot be relied upon and, therefore, must be suppressed given the constitutional violations.” His lawyers also claimed that Willis engaged in “instances of forensic misconduct and improper extrajudicial activity,” and should be removed from the case. In a speech at Mar-a-Lago last night, Trump called Willis, who is Black, a “racist,” and insisted his call to Raffensperger was “perfect” and “nothing was said wrong.”
Of course, the Fulton County case isn’t the only one that could result in charges on top of the ones out of New York. The ex-president is also being investigated by the Justice Department for both his attempt to overturn the election and the insurrection that followed and his handling of classified documents. On Sunday, the Post reported that special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the probes, had uncovered “significant” evidence that Trump may have obstructed justice in the documents case. On Wednesday, an adviser to Mike Pence said the former VP would not appeal a ruling ordering him to comply with a subpoena from Smith to testify before a grand jury about his conversations with Trump leading up to the attack on the Capitol.
Click Above Link To View Social Media
Yep, this shit is quietly getting serious as hell Also, this is why the Georgia GOP are getting nervous as fuck.
Trump probe: DA urges law enforcement to prep for indictments this summer
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday said she would announce this summer whether former President Donald Trump and his allies would be charged with crimes related to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Willis revealed the timetable in a letter to local law enforcement in which she asked them to be ready for “heightened security and preparedness” because she predicted her announcement “may provoke a significant public reaction.”
In the letters, Willis said she will announce possible criminal indictments between July 11 and Sept. 1, sending one of the strongest signals yet that she’s on the verge of trying to obtain an indictment against Trump and his supporters.
“Please accept this correspondence as notice to allow you sufficient time to prepare the Sheriff’s Office and coordinate with local, state and federal agencies to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public,” Willis wrote to Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat.
LETTER TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
Similar letters were hand delivered to Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta’s chief of police, and Matthew Kallmyer, director of the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.
“We have seen in recent years that some may go outside of public expressions of opinion that are protected by the First Amendment to engage in acts of violence that will endanger the safety of those we are sworn to protect. As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to prepare,” Willis told the metro Atlanta leaders.
Trump has called for mass demonstrations in response to overreach from prosecutors — triggering concerns about violent unrest not unlike the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection he promoted.
Norm Eisen, a former ethics czar under President Barack Obama who has co-authored a Brookings Institute report on the Fulton probe, said Willis’s letter makes it sound like she will certainly seek charges against the former president.
“It’s hard to imagine how Willis would announce that she will be filing charges without including Donald Trump,” Eisen said. “While she does not have the former president’s name in her letter, the evidence and the applicable law in Georgia point to the substantial likelihood that Donald Trump and his principal co-conspirators will be included when she follows through on the plans she confirms in this letter.”
This isn’t the first time law enforcement in Atlanta has been ramped up in response to the Fulton DA’s Trump investigation.
Last May, as a Fulton judge selected members of the special grand jury, the Fulton Sheriff’s office blocked off vehicle traffic on the streets surrounding the courthouse and stationed deputies with guns on many street corners with semi-automatic rifles. Snipers patrolled nearby rooftops as helicopters circled overhead. Law enforcement also deployed a SWAT team to protect jurors as they returned to their cars at the end of the day.
Six months later, before jurors interviewed Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, they assigned heavily armed officers to guard the courthouse steps and brought in a bomb-sniffing dog.
Willis herself travels with a security detail and has equipped some members of her team with bulletproof vests and keychains with panic buttons.
For Trump’s arraignment last month in Manhattan, authorities erected barricades and shut down streets surrounding the courthouse. The police issued a stand-ready order for roughly 35,000 officers in the region as well as city, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
About an hour before Trump’s afternoon court appearance, a number of Manhattan courtrooms were closed, according to published reports. There was also a total shutdown of the route the former president took to the courthouse from Trump Tower and from the courthouse to board his plane at LaGuardia Airport.
The Fulton sheriff’s office referred any questions about the letter to the DA’s office. A spokesman for APD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Decisions on possible indictments in Trump Georgia investigation expected this summer
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday said she would announce this summer whether former President Donald Trump and his allies would be charged with crimes related to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Again, those charges in New York are serious, but the shit that he did in GeorgiaTrump probe: DA urges law enforcement to prep for indictments this summer
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday said she would announce this summer whether former President Donald Trump and his allies would be charged with crimes related to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Willis revealed the timetable in a letter to local law enforcement in which she asked them to be ready for “heightened security and preparedness” because she predicted her announcement “may provoke a significant public reaction.”
In the letters, Willis said she will announce possible criminal indictments between July 11 and Sept. 1, sending one of the strongest signals yet that she’s on the verge of trying to obtain an indictment against Trump and his supporters.
“Please accept this correspondence as notice to allow you sufficient time to prepare the Sheriff’s Office and coordinate with local, state and federal agencies to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public,” Willis wrote to Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat.
LETTER TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
Similar letters were hand delivered to Darin Schierbaum, Atlanta’s chief of police, and Matthew Kallmyer, director of the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.
“We have seen in recent years that some may go outside of public expressions of opinion that are protected by the First Amendment to engage in acts of violence that will endanger the safety of those we are sworn to protect. As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to prepare,” Willis told the metro Atlanta leaders.
Trump has called for mass demonstrations in response to overreach from prosecutors — triggering concerns about violent unrest not unlike the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection he promoted.
Norm Eisen, a former ethics czar under President Barack Obama who has co-authored a Brookings Institute report on the Fulton probe, said Willis’s letter makes it sound like she will certainly seek charges against the former president.
“It’s hard to imagine how Willis would announce that she will be filing charges without including Donald Trump,” Eisen said. “While she does not have the former president’s name in her letter, the evidence and the applicable law in Georgia point to the substantial likelihood that Donald Trump and his principal co-conspirators will be included when she follows through on the plans she confirms in this letter.”
This isn’t the first time law enforcement in Atlanta has been ramped up in response to the Fulton DA’s Trump investigation.
Last May, as a Fulton judge selected members of the special grand jury, the Fulton Sheriff’s office blocked off vehicle traffic on the streets surrounding the courthouse and stationed deputies with guns on many street corners with semi-automatic rifles. Snipers patrolled nearby rooftops as helicopters circled overhead. Law enforcement also deployed a SWAT team to protect jurors as they returned to their cars at the end of the day.
Six months later, before jurors interviewed Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, they assigned heavily armed officers to guard the courthouse steps and brought in a bomb-sniffing dog.
Willis herself travels with a security detail and has equipped some members of her team with bulletproof vests and keychains with panic buttons.
For Trump’s arraignment last month in Manhattan, authorities erected barricades and shut down streets surrounding the courthouse. The police issued a stand-ready order for roughly 35,000 officers in the region as well as city, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
About an hour before Trump’s afternoon court appearance, a number of Manhattan courtrooms were closed, according to published reports. There was also a total shutdown of the route the former president took to the courthouse from Trump Tower and from the courthouse to board his plane at LaGuardia Airport.
The Fulton sheriff’s office referred any questions about the letter to the DA’s office. A spokesman for APD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Decisions on possible indictments in Trump Georgia investigation expected this summer
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday said she would announce this summer whether former President Donald Trump and his allies would be charged with crimes related to alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.www.ajc.com
You don't warn law enforcement unless something real is about to go downAgain, those charges in New York are serious, but the shit that he did in Georgia
.
Definitely looking forward to it.
I’m slowly suspecting that US Attorney Letticia James, DA Alvin Bragg, DA Fani Willis and AG Merritt Garland are working together behind the scenes against Trump.
James did her shit with the Trump Organization.
Bragg recently came out with the Stormy Daniels case.
Willis announces she is calling an indictment this summer, which right after the E. Jean Carroll case.
And the icing on the cake will be AG Garland and Special Prosecutor Jack Smith dropping the bomb on Trump and his goons.
It’s look like they working from the bottom up.
We will wait and see….
I’m slowly suspecting that US Attorney Letticia James, DA Alvin Bragg, DA Fani Willis and AG Merritt Garland are working together behind the scenes against Trump.
James did her shit with the Trump Organization.
Bragg recently came out with the Stormy Daniels case.
Willis announces she is calling an indictment this summer, which right after the E. Jean Carroll case.
And the icing on the cake will be AG Garland and Special Prosecutor Jack Smith dropping the bomb on Trump and his goons.
It’s look like they working from the bottom up.
We will wait and see….
that GA. phone call....there's a mob boss somewhere saying damm i could have did better then that...see what he should have said..
And the thing is all of the Ga Republicans turned his ass ass in. Now some of the Republicans are nervous as hell because that web has gotten large. If Trump goes down a lot more other people are going to go down with him and Georgia.
It ain't rock solid..... she's been tying a bow on that shit so that there won't be any squirming offa the hook for the Trump wormThe phone call is really all they need, how is this taking so long is beyond me
.
Eight alleged fake Trump electors in Georgia accept immunity deals in grand jury probe
Eight of the so-called fake electors who sought to give Georgia’s electoral votes in the 2020 election to former President Donald Trump instead of President Joe Biden have agreed to immunity deals with the prosecution, a new court filing shows.Seven of the electors sat in April for interviews with representatives of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office before accepting the deals, the court filing says. The eighth was out of the country, but also accepted. The filing did not disclose the terms of the immunity deals.
The revelation came in a document filed Friday by the electors’ lawyer, Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow, in response to a request from the prosecution that Debrow be disqualified as the lawyer for the eight electors with immunity deals in addition to two others who do not have immunity deals.
The court filing was first reported by CNN.
“Debrow's continued participation in this matter is fraught with conflicts of interest that rise to the level of her being disqualified from this case in its entirety,” District Attorney Fani Willis told the court in a filing on April 18, days after the prosecutors met with the eight electors about immunity deals.
Willis wrote that the prosecution had offered immunity in 2022, but that another lawyer working with Debrow came back to the prosecution saying the clients weren’t interested. However, some of these clients in their interviews “told members of the investigative team that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought to them in 2022.”
Additionally, Willis said some of the electors said during their interviews that “another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to these additional acts.” The document did not name that elector.
The filing cited Georgia’s professional conduct rules saying that lawyers should not represent a client if there is a risk that a lawyer’s interests or duties to “another client, former client, or third person will materially and adversely affect the representation of the client. Willis said Debrow’s clients have signed waivers regarding any potential conflict of interest, but they are not enough.
In the 68-page filing submitted Friday and signed by Debrow that disclosed the existence of the immunity deals, the eight electors with immunity deals called Willis’ allegations “complete fiction” and that the request to have Debrow disqualified as their lawyer is “factually and legally baseless.” They asked the court to pay for the cost responding to her motion.
The eight electors in question make up half of the 16 people who met at Georgia's state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won the presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Willis' office said in July each of the 16 people was a target of her investigation, which is examining whether Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his narrow election loss.
Willis said in late April that criminal indictments could come between July 11 and Sept. 1. On Monday, she signaled in letters to local law enforcement authorities that she would be indicting Trump this summer, warning them about “significant public reaction” when grand jury results are announced.
While the grand jury could decide to indict or not, and she did not specifically name Trump, she asked for “heightened security and preparedness” during that period.
A fresh indictment of the former president — and current White House candidate — would add further complications to both the 2024 election and the future of the Republican Party, where Trump remains a frontrunner for the presidential nomination.
BREAKING: A witness in Attorney General Fani Willis’ investigation into Trump’s attempt to steal Biden’s win in Georgia drops bombshell, declares that Trumper Senator Lindsey Graham should lawyer up and be very “incredibly worried about his legal exposure” because Attorney General Willis is “building a RICO case” “brick-by-brick” against him.
She added, “That is the whole point with RICO. If you are just kind of one of the bricks, one of the cogs, one of the people who did something to move the conspiracy along, you are going to get caught up in it.”
This is fantastic news for every American, who gives a damn about our struggling democracy. Please RT and ❤️ if you think that a Lindsey Graham MUST be held accountable for trying to help Trump steal the election — and consider joining Tribel.com, a new pro-democracy Twitter alternative that I created that Elon Musk is trying bury. He banned Tribel’s Twitter account last week, but he hasn’t banned this link to download the new Tribel app yet: tribel.app.link/okwPIHYCIqb
This is why are Republicans in Georgia all nervous as fuck right now. Sure a lot of them don’t like trump but this shit goes beyond Trump.
They put their neck out on the line for Trump and now that loyalty to Trump is about to take all their asses down
I'm loving it
The kochs and the devoes and co. got what they wanted and now they're sitting on the shore drinking MaiTais and watching the ship go down.
As long as money is in politics you'll never have representation of the people; only the rich.
As long as money is in politics you'll never have representation of the people; only the rich.
I was just about to post this, didn't delete my recording of her show last night so that I wouldn't forget to.
Fulton DA urges judge to reject Trump’s attempt to gut inquiry
6 hours agoFulton County’s top prosecutor was dismissive Monday of efforts by former President Donald Trump and a GOP ally to derail her office’s more than 2-year-old criminal investigation of attempts to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
District Attorney Fani Willis said recent court motions from Trump and Cathy Latham, who served as an “alternate” GOP elector, were “procedurally flawed and advance arguments that lack merit.”
“The state respectfully requests that this court retain supervision of this matter and dismiss or deny the motions as appropriate without a hearing,” wrote Willis and one of her deputies, Donald Wakeford, in a 24-page court filing. They added that “most of the (Trump’s and Latham’s) arguments are barred by lack of standing, untimeliness, and other procedural flaws, and any remaining arguments are without merit.”
The DA’s comments came in response to an extensive broadside Trump’s Atlanta-based attorneys filed in late March. Trump’s team is seeking to disqualify the Fulton DA’s office from investigating the former president and to quash the release of the full final report authored by the special grand jury that aided Willis and recommended upwards of a dozen indictments, according to its forewoman.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23813576-fcda-response-5-15-23
FULTON DA RESPONSE TO MOTIONS
Trump’s team wants to suppress the use of any evidence collected by the special jury during its nearly eight months of work. The Republican also requested that Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the panel, step aside given past rulings and comments to the media.
McBurney, who has heard other disputes related to the inquiry over the last year, had asked the DA’s office to respond and address whether a hearing needed to be held on the matter.
In their filing, the prosecutors said that such a hearing would be premature given that no one has been charged with a crime.
Trump’s and Latham’s challenges, “fly in the face of the orderly administration of the laws of the state of Georgia,” their motion stated. “If an investigation results in actual criminal charges against (Trump and Latham), the justice system ensures they will have no shortage of available remedies to pursue.”
In a statement, Trump’s lawyers — Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg — said the DA’s response “failed to address several of the critical substantive issues which were discussed at length in our brief and exhibits.” The lawyers said they will be asking McBurney for permission to file a response to the DA’s filing.
Latham’s lawyer, Kieran Shanahan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s motion asserted that the Georgia statute allowing for the operation of special grand juries was unconstitutionally vague. It said that publication of excerpts of the final report violated the former president’s rights to fundamental fairness and due process.
His motion was joined last month by Latham, the former head of the Coffee County GOP who served as a fake elector and was on hand to greet data technicians hired by a Trump campaign attorney to copy confidential elections data from voting machines at the county elections office in Jan. 2021.
Prosecutors said Trump’s and Latham’s challenge to the constitutionality of the special grand jury’s operation involve its effects upon “the rights of actual witnesses” who testified before it. Yet neither Trump nor Latham testified before the special grand jury and, partly for this reason, they have no standing to make such a challenge, the response said.
As for their claims that Willis said and retweeted things that were so improper the office should be disqualified, the motion said Trump and Latham should have filed such complaints years ago when the comments were made. Moreover, even if such a motion was filed earlier, the comments were “conditional, vague comments regarding ‘allegations,’ or general statements about the investigation and the reason for its pursuit,” the DA argued.
Trump and Latham “are not content to follow the ordinary course of the law,” the DA’s filing said. “They seek to ‘restrain’ a criminal investigation before any charges are filed or even sought.”
In interviews with the AJC, special grand jurors said their final report recommends that Willis seek indictments against a number of unidentified individuals, though the final decision rests with the DA.
In a recent letter to local law enforcement officials, Willis warned them to prepare security for her charging decisions that could come in July or August and suggested that Trump would be indicted.
Separately, a number of news media outlets on Monday, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, opposed Trump’s motion to expunge the special grand jury’s final report.
“Not only is such a remedy unsupported by any legal basis, it would also be starkly at odds with the fundamental principles of this nation and state,” the motion said. “The report is a matter of the utmost public concern, and it should be released to the public in its entirety.”
Among those joining the AJC motion were CNN, The Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CMG Media Corp. and its station WSB-TV.
Fulton DA urges judge to reject Trump’s attempt to gut inquiry
Fulton County’s top prosecutor was dismissive Monday of efforts from former President Donald Trump and a GOP ally to derail her office’s more than 2-year-old criminal investigation of attempts to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
Lady G's punk ass is gonna be out here crying soon.
@Camille
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a portrait, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in Atlanta.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others broke the law while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia seems to be suggesting that any grand jury indictments in the case would likely come in August.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter Thursday sent a letter to county Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville indicating that she plans to have much of her staff work remotely for most days during the first three weeks of August and asking that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during part of that time. Copied in on the letter are 20 other county officials, including Sheriff Pat Labat, the court clerk and top leaders.
“Thank you for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time,” Willis wrote in the letter, first reported by The New York Times.
Willis last month wrote local law enforcement leaders advising them that she intended to announce charging decisions in the case between July 11 and Sept. 1. Thursday's letter seems to narrow that window. In the earlier letters she advised law enforcement to prepare for “heightened security," noting that the announcement of charges “may provoke a significant public reaction.”
For more than two years, Willis and her team have been scrutinizing actions Trump and others took as they tried to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
She wrote in the letter to Glanville that she plans to reduce the staffing in her office by about 70% on most Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays — the days when grand juries meet in Fulton County — between July 31 and Aug. 18. But she said her “leadership team, all armed investigators” and some other staff would continue to be on site during the remote work days.
Willis noted that most judges will be attending an annual state judicial conference from July 31 to Aug. 4, and she asked that they not schedule trials or in-person hearings the weeks of Aug. 7 and Aug. 14. But she said her office will be present and ready to go for any in-person proceedings during that time. If in-person hearings are scheduled when most of her staff is working remotely, she wrote, they would be handled by senior leadership.
The Georgia investigation is one of several that threatens the former president as he campaigns to regain the White House in 2024.
A Manhattan grand jury in March indicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential election. Federal grand juries in Washington are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election and the potential mishandling of classified documents by Trump at his Florida estate.
A federal jury in New York recently found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million.
www.yahoo.com
Prosecutor suggests any indictments in Trump election investigation would likely come in August
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis poses for a portrait, Wednesday, April 19, 2023, in Atlanta.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others broke the law while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia seems to be suggesting that any grand jury indictments in the case would likely come in August.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter Thursday sent a letter to county Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville indicating that she plans to have much of her staff work remotely for most days during the first three weeks of August and asking that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during part of that time. Copied in on the letter are 20 other county officials, including Sheriff Pat Labat, the court clerk and top leaders.
“Thank you for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time,” Willis wrote in the letter, first reported by The New York Times.
Willis last month wrote local law enforcement leaders advising them that she intended to announce charging decisions in the case between July 11 and Sept. 1. Thursday's letter seems to narrow that window. In the earlier letters she advised law enforcement to prepare for “heightened security," noting that the announcement of charges “may provoke a significant public reaction.”
For more than two years, Willis and her team have been scrutinizing actions Trump and others took as they tried to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
She wrote in the letter to Glanville that she plans to reduce the staffing in her office by about 70% on most Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays — the days when grand juries meet in Fulton County — between July 31 and Aug. 18. But she said her “leadership team, all armed investigators” and some other staff would continue to be on site during the remote work days.
Willis noted that most judges will be attending an annual state judicial conference from July 31 to Aug. 4, and she asked that they not schedule trials or in-person hearings the weeks of Aug. 7 and Aug. 14. But she said her office will be present and ready to go for any in-person proceedings during that time. If in-person hearings are scheduled when most of her staff is working remotely, she wrote, they would be handled by senior leadership.
The Georgia investigation is one of several that threatens the former president as he campaigns to regain the White House in 2024.
A Manhattan grand jury in March indicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential election. Federal grand juries in Washington are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election and the potential mishandling of classified documents by Trump at his Florida estate.
A federal jury in New York recently found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million.
Prosecutor suggests any indictments in Trump election investigation would likely come in August
The Atlanta prosecutor investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others broke the law while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia seems to be suggesting that any grand jury indictments in the case would likely come in August. Fulton County District Attorney Fani...
Last edited:
State seizes election server in middle GA county
Treutlen County hired election director forced out from Coffee County; agents probe for breaches in security
Now it makes sense why DA Fani Willis is waiting to August.
It’s clear Smith, Bragg and Willis got together to decide on who would go first, second and third.
I got a feeling Fani is gonna drop a Fuckin’ Nuke this summer on shit we we never could think of.
We will wait and see…
It’s clear Smith, Bragg and Willis got together to decide on who would go first, second and third.
I got a feeling Fani is gonna drop a Fuckin’ Nuke this summer on shit we we never could think of.
We will wait and see…
