The current status on the case in Georgia involving trump's various attempts to interfere with the 2020 election results: the Fulton County DA Fani Willis announced she will begin charging decisions with the next court cycle beginning July 11, 2023. We now have a countdown. Details via Blayne Alexander, Charlie Gile and Dareh Gregorian at NBC News:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Monday that she'll announce charging decisions stemming from her probe into possible interference in the 2020 election by former President Donald Trump and his allies as early as mid-July.
Willis said the charging decisions will be revealed during the state Superior Court’s fourth term, which begins July 11 and ends Sept. 1...
“In the near future, I will announce charging decisions resulting from the investigation my office has been conducting into possible criminal interference in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 general election,” Willis wrote in a letter Monday to Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat.
She said “the need for vigilance will increase” during that time period.
“Open-source intelligence has indicated the announcement of decisions in this case may provoke significant public reaction,” Willis wrote. “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 our community. As leaders, it is incumbent on us to prepare.”
Willis is referring to the ongoing incitement by trump on social media to get his followers to RISE UP and defend him, similar to how he summoned about 2000 of them to riot at the Capitol on January 6th. It may seem odd otherwise that Willis isn't announcing charges now, but giving law enforcement and the judicial security people time to plan ahead for MAGA riots is a sensible move (although she could have done this back earlier in the year when the special grand jury presented their recommendations).
Given what we know from that special grand jury, we should expect a lot of indictments handed out: Not just to donald trump but also to his handlers working on his election fraud schemes, and also the 'Fake Electors' in Georgia who had volunteered to counter the official Electors going to Congress that January.
One of the other reasons for the delay until July is that Willis is trying to offer a lifeline to those fake electors with plea deals, but running into their lawyer blocking all offers. A little more detail from Digby over at Hullabaloo with her quoting tweets from legal expert Lisa Rubin:
Recall that last week, Willis’s office moved to disqualify a lawyer representing 10 of Georgia’s fake electors. They had two grounds: First, that she did not, contrary to representations by her then-co-counsel, communicate immunity offers to certain of her clients.
Second, they revealed that in meetings with prosecutors on 4/12 and 4/14, certain of that lawyer’s clients accused another fake elector — and fellow client — of committing “acts that are violations of Georgia law.”
Because of the “impracticable and ethical mess” the lawyer created, the D.A.’s office has moved to disqualify her from representing ANY of the 10 electors, all of whom were notified last year they were targets of the investigation.
That means 10 people — some of whom remain targets, others of whom are cooperators or exploring cooperation — likely need new lawyers.
I've mentioned before - and others with greater legal experience can as well - that in criminal conspiracy cases like this involving a broad circle of people, prosecutors love to get the lower-rung players to flip and get the eyewitness testimony to go along with the paper trails. The more you get to testify, the harder it is for the higher-ups in the conspiracy to walk away with Not Guilty verdicts. Willis needs a number of those Fake Electors - caught dead to rights with their signatures on illegal paperwork - to flip on the go-betweens who could then get pressured to flip and can give even more details that can convict the top organizers of their criminal intent.
You can flip those Fake Electors because a number of them will have personal considerations - family, business, future ambitions - that can override any loyalty they may have to a trump who wants them to go to jail so he won't have to.
By July, one way or another she'll know how the chessboard looks for her.
It's interesting how July 11 is one week after July 4. Our national day of independence followed by our national day of justice against trump and his handlers who tried to overthrow that independence.
Let the countdown to July 11 begin.
1 comment:
She knows what she is doing, and all of the things we get impatient about have already occurred to her.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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