We’re closing this blog now, thanks for following along. Here is our full report on the indictment:
The Fulton county indictment represents a crucial turning point in a drama that has been unfolding since Biden was declared the winner of Georgia in November 2020. Two statewide recounts in Georgia confirmed Biden defeated Trump by roughly 12,000 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state since 1992. The victory was heralded as a landmark achievement for Democrats, particularly the Black voters who make up much of the party’s base in Georgia.
Kendra Davenport Cotton, chief executive officer at the New Georgia Project Action Fund, emphasized that the validity of Biden’s win in Georgia had been determined beyond question long before Trump’s indictment. But the charges against Trump reassert the electoral power of the multiracial coalition that carried Biden to victory.
“We believe facts. Biden won the 2020 race because Georgia voters showed up and showed out in record breaking numbers,” Cotton said. “The folks that I work with here at NGP Action Fund have always known the power of Georgia voters and have always known what Georgia voters are capable of – especially Black, brown and young voters.”
After nearly three years, two statewide recounts and a violent attack on the US Capitol, Donald Trump is finally facing criminal charges over his relentless campaign to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the battleground state of Georgia.
On Monday, the former president and his allies were indicted on a total of 41 counts in Fulton county, Georgia, where the district attorney, Fani Willis, has been investigating the former president and his associates since 2021. The 13 charges against Trump himself include racketeering, forgery and perjury. News of the Georgia indictment came less than two weeks after Trump pleaded not guilty to a separate set of federal charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 attack and 2020 election subversion efforts.
For the voting rights leaders who worked tirelessly to deliver Democratic wins in Georgia, Trump’s indictment in Fulton county marked a clear rebuke of his extensive efforts to disenfranchise the state’s voters, reaffirming the sanctity and the power of the ballot.
“This indictment is a win for voting rights and democracy because it strengthens our ability to defend it from its most imminent threat: Donald Trump,” said Xakota Espinoza, a spokesperson for the Georgia-based voting rights group Fair Fight. “It is critical that we send a message that our democracy is sacrosanct, whether it is at the ballot box or courthouse.”
Summary
Phew. What a day. Here is what happened:
A grand jury in Georgia has issued an indictment accusing Donald Trump of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Prosecutors brought 41 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups.
The defendants were indicted on charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act. The act essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.
Prosecutors charged 18 people in addition to Trump, including Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis said that all 19 defendants would be tried at the same time and that she would be asking for a trial within the next six months.
Willis said she was “giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than Friday the 25th day of August at noon.” This is the normal procedure. Trump will (most likely) arrive, be processed, and will plead not guilty.
Asked about accusations that the charges are politically motivated, Willis said, “I make decisions in this office based on facts and the law”.
This is the fourth time that Trump has been indicted. But this case is different because Trump cannot interfere in the case, even if he is elected president in 2024, and cannot issue a pardon.
The Trump campaign has responded to the indictment, saying, “President Trump will continue to power through this unprecedented abuse of power”.
A news conference featuring district attorney Fani T Willis is expected to take place after the indictment is released.
The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis’s office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state and organise a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalising Biden’s victory. She has also looked into an alleged attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee county.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”.
Updated
What did Fani Willis say?
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has just finished addressing the media, after a grand jury’s decision to indict former US president Donald Trump and 18 others on election interference charges.
Here were the main points:
The 19 defendants will be tried together.
The Fulton county DA’s office will be proposing a trial date within the next six months.
Asked about accusations that the charges are politically motivated, Willis said, “I make decisions in this office based on facts and the law”.
Willis said she was “giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than Friday the 25th day of August at noon.” This is the normal procedure. Trump will (most likely) arrive, be processed, and will plead not guilty.
“The state’s role in this process is essential to the functioning of our democracy,” Willis said.
The indictment includes 41 felony counts.
Updated
Defendants will be tried together
A moment earlier Willis was asked whether those named in the indictment would be tried together.
Asked whether she would try the defendants together, she responded with a question.
“Do I intend to try the 19 defendants named in this case?” she asked, emphasising the number “nineteen”, before answering: “Yes,” she said bluntly.
Updated
“I make decisions in this office based on facts and the law,” she says, when asked about accusations that the charges are politically motivated.
Willis proposing trial date within next six months
Willis is being asked about trial dates. She is asked whether she would like to try Trump first – though this is the fourth indictment.
She does not care about being first, she says, but she will be proposing a trial date within the next six months.
Willis will now take questions, “prior to going to sleep”, she says.
Rico charges involve time you have to serve, she says in response to a question: “It is not a probated sentence”.
Updated
“I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than Friday the 25th day of August at noon,” says Willis.
Updated
“The state’s role in this process is essential to the functioning of our democracy,” Willis says.
Some of the acts took place in other jurisdictions, she says, but are being included here.
Every individual named is charged with one count of violating Georgia’s Rico act, she says.
“Specifically, the participants in association took various actions in Georgia and elsewhere to block the [results] of the vote,” she says.
Updated
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis speaks
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is speaking now.
The prosecutors and investigators worked diligently on the case, she says.
“The indictment includes 41 felony counts and is 97 pages long. Please remember that everyone charged … is presumed innocent,” she says.
She then lists the names of those charged:
Donald Trump,
Rudolph Giuliani,
John Eastman,
Mark Meadows,
Kenneth Chesebro,
Jeffrey Clark,
Jenna Ellis,
Ray Stallings Smith III,
Robert Cheeley,
Michael a. Roman,
David Shafer,
Shawn Still,
Stephen Lee,
Harrison Floyd,
Trevian c. Kutti,
Sidney Powell,
Cathleen Latham,
Scott Hall,
Misty Hampton
Why is this case different?
The Georgia case is different because Trump cannot interfere in the case, even if he is president, and cannot issue a pardon.
This is the second case that has sought any kind of criminal accountability for his attempt to overturn the election. It is the fourth time Trump has been charged with a crime this year.
Earlier in August, Jack Smith, the special counsel for the justice department, filed four federal charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges, and Smith has moved to set a trial date for 2 January. If Trump were elected president while the case was still pending, he would almost certainly move to fire Smith and get rid of the charges. He could also theoretically pardon himself if he has been convicted.
But he cannot issue a pardon in this case.
In June, Smith charged Trump with illegally retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act and obstructing the government’s attempt to retrieve the documents. Trump pleaded not guilty.
In March, Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan. Those charges are connected to a $130,000 payment he made to Stormy Daniels, a pornstar, with whom he is alleged to have had an extramarital affair. Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney at the time, paid the money to Daniels through a shell company and Trump’s reimbursed him, cataloguing it as a legal expense. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said that amounted to falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Updated
What is the Georgia Rico Act?
Trump and eighteen others have been indicted on charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act.
The act essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.
Prosecutors have long used the federal Rico act to go after the mafia. But Georgia’s version is even more expansive than the federal statute. It allows prosecutors in the state to bring racketeering charges if a defendant attempts or solicits a crime, even if they don’t bring charges for those crimes itself.
What is this case about?
While we wait to hear from Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, here is a refresher on what the case is about.
Donald Trump lost Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. After the election, Trump and his allies made an aggressive push to invalidate the election results in Georgia as part of an effort to overturn the election results.
On 2 January 2021, Trump called Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who serves as Georgia’s top election official, and asked him to overturn the election. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump said to Raffensperger on the call. Raffensperger refused.
The call came as Trump and allies, including Rudy Giuliani, were spreading outlandish lies about the election in Georgia in order to seed doubt about the results. Most notably, Giuliani and others amplified misleading surveillance video from State Farm Arena they claimed showed election workers taking ballots out from under a table and counting them after observers left for the evening. The claim was false – counting had not stopped for the evening when the ballots were tallied.
Just as he did in other swing states, Trump convened a slate of fake electors in Georgia. The group of 16 people met discreetly in the Georgia capitol in December 2020 and signed on to a certificate affirming Trump’s victory that was sent to the National Archives. Some involved in the scheme have said they merely believed they were preserving Trump’s options amid pending litigation. The alternate slate of electors, both in Georgia and elsewhere, would later become a lynchpin of Trump’s effort to overturn the election.
One of those fake electors, Cathy Latham, also was involved in a separate incident in which Trump allies obtained unauthorized access to Dominion voting equipment. On 7 January 2021, Latham helped a firm hired by the Trump campaign get access to voting equipment in Coffee county, a rural county 200 miles south-east of Atlanta. The data was uploaded to a password-protected site, where other election deniers could download it as they sought to prove the baseless allegation that Dominion voting machines had been rigged and cost Trump the election.
Updated
Trump indictment: what we know so far
A grand jury in Georgia has issued an indictment accusing Donald Trump of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Prosecutors brought 41 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups.
Prosecutors charged 18 other people, including Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
The Trump campaign has responded to the indictment, saying, “President Trump will continue to power through this unprecedented abuse of power”.
A news conference featuring district attorney Fani T Willis is expected to take place after the indictment is released.
The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis’s office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state and organise a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalising Biden’s victory. She has also looked into an alleged attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee county.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”.
Updated
Here is the moment that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney received the indictment documents earlier:
You can read the full indictment here.
Nineteen people have been indicted by the grand jury, including Donald Trump.
The defendants are:
Donald Trump,
Rudolph Giuliani,
John Eastman,
Mark Meadows,
Kenneth Chesebro,
Jeffrey Clark,
Jenna Ellis,
Ray Stallings Smith III,
Robert Cheeley,
Michael a. Roman,
David Shafer,
Shawn Still,
Stephen Lee,
Harrison Floyd,
Trevian c. Kutti,
Sidney Powell,
Cathleen Latham,
Scott Hall,
Misty Hampton
They are charged with violating the Georgia Rico (racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations) act.
Updated
We are expecting Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, who led the investigation, to address the media shortly: cameras are trained on the podium.
The Trump campaign has responded to the indictment, saying, “President Trump will continue to power through this unprecedented abuse of power” and accusing Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being part of the “Deranged Democrat Prosecutor Club”.
The statement is attributed to Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc.
Here is a screenshot of the documents showing the names of Trump and others:
BREAKING: Donald Trump and others indicted on criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia pic.twitter.com/GTI4H9sWT4
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) August 15, 2023
Trump indicted for a fourth time
Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the vote.
The Fulton county grand jury indictment of Trump follows a two-year investigation ignited by a January 2021 phone call in which the then-president suggested that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state could help him “find 11,780 votes” needed to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Updated
The indictment is 98 pages and includes Trump’s name, as well as several others, including Rudy Giuliani, Don Eastman, Mark Meadows, Geoffrey Clark, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley, CNN reports.
Updated
Indictment unsealed and Trump reportedly indicted
The documents have been unsealed, CNN reports, and show that Donald Trump has been indicted for a fourth time.
The Guardian has not confirmed this yet.
Updated
Hillary Clinton: 'I don't know that anybody should be satisfied'
Hillary Clinton has spoken to Rachel Maddow about the election interference case, NBC reports.
Clinton said that she feels, “profound sadness” that Trump has faced indictments “that went right to the heart of whether or not our democracy would survive.”
She continued:
“I hope that we won’t have accountability just for Donald Trump, and if there are others named in these indictments along with him for their behavior, but we’ll also have accountability for a political party that has just thrown in with all of the lies and the divisiveness and the lack of any conscience about what was being done to the country,” she said.
She was asked whether she felt any satisfaction, and replied:
Hillary Clinton tells @maddow re: Trump indictments in GA:
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 15, 2023
“I don't know that anybody should be satisfied. This is a terrible moment for our country, to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes. The only satisfaction may be that the system is working.”
At least one of the indictments related to Trump case
At least one of the 10 indictments is related to the election investigation, CNN reports, and the indictments are expected to be unsealed shortly.
It is possible that multiple people are named on one indictment.
Updated
Grand jury has been empaneled for weeks, hearing multiple cases
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has pointed out that the grand jury has been meeting for weeks, and has heard evidence in a number of cases.
What does mean? Well, the grand jury returned 10 indictments, but those have not been made public. What it means is that some of those indictments may be for other cases.
The grand jury may have voted on multiple cases today.
So there are two possibilities:
1. 10 different indictments of different individuals in the Trump 2020 election interference case
2. One or more indictments related to the Trump 2020 election interference case, and others related to other cases
There is no requirement that defendants are given advance notice of an indictment, or told before the indictments are made public, the New York Times notes, “and there is no indication that they have informed any defense lawyers in the Trump case”.
While we wait for the indictments to be made public, here is our full report on what happened today:
Here is video of a representative from the Fulton Country clerk’s office carrying the indictment paperwork – the paperwork we are hoping will be made public shortly – out of the court for processing:
Here’s the representative from the Fulton County Superior Court Clerk’s office carrying the indictments unsealed today out of the courtroom, and back towards the clerk’s office for processing. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/3SdnG97RGM
— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) August 15, 2023
Snap analysis
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, noted that Georgia’s Rico statute was a favourite tool for the Fulton county district attorney, referencing the 2014 Atlanta public schools trial where teachers and officials conspired to cheat on standardised tests.
“I think the 2020 election aftermath and attempts to overthrow the election are very similar to that, where there’s just a lot of moving parts and a lot of different actors,” he said.
“They all don’t necessarily have the same degree of information as all the others do. They all don’t get together and say, ‘Let’s do this unlawful thing’ but they know they’re part of a machine that’s doing something they shouldn’t,” Kreis explained.
The Trump campaign has released a statement calling Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, a “rabid partisan” – and the indictments “bogus”. The statement is long and continues in that vein.
Instead, you can read our profile of Willis, by Jewel Wicker. Here is a short exerpt:
In early 2021 Willis had just been elected district attorney when she announced plans to investigate Trump. She took office by unseating her former boss, who had served as the DA in Georgia’s most populous county (which includes the state’s capital, Atlanta) for six terms, or 23 years.
Her investigation has focused on Trump’s efforts to subvert the will of Georgia’s voters, including his campaign’s plot to assemble a slate of fake electors and Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”, which would make him the winner over Joe Biden in the state.”
You can read the full profile here:
Snap analysis
Charges against Trump would mark significant legal peril for him, since the charges come at the state level and he would not be able to undo any potential convictions through measures such as a self-pardon or appointing a partisan attorney general even if he was re-elected president in 2024.
In recent months, the district attorney’s office identified multiple general and state election law violations by Trump and Republican operatives as they sought to subvert the 2020 election, from pressuring state officials to organizing fake slates of electors to breaching voting machines.
The prosecutors examined whether there was scope to construct racketeering charges from the outset, hiring experts on the Rico law (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) in Georgia, which is more expansive than its federal counterpart and requires only the showing of an “interrelated pattern of activity” of a criminal enterprise.
An Atlanta-area grand jury returned 10 indictments on Monday night, according to the cover page for the charging papers, in the investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia.
The specific charges and the names of the defendants were not immediately clear. The indictments were walked over to Georgia superior court judge Robert McBurney, who did not make public any of the contents of the indictments.
But the high-profile investigation led by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is widely expected to result in charges against Trump and multiple allies, especially given the nature of the witnesses summoned to testify to the grand jury on Monday.
The witnesses included former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and the reporter George Chidi, who had initially been scheduled to testify on Tuesday but were summoned to appear a day early, a move that signalled the prosecutors wanted to wrap proceedings the same day.
If you’re just joining us: the “worst case scenario” for when we will know who has been indicted (including whether former US President Donald Trump has been indicted for the fourth time) is at midnight, Fulton county court clerk Che Alexander told reporters earlier.
It is currently almost 10pm in Fulton county, Georgia, where the indictment documents are being processed in the clerk’s office.
We could know any time from now until then who the grand jury has voted to indict.
Updated
Neal Katyal, a professor of law at Georgetown University, has posted more about the indictments on Twitter.
Just to be clear, however: the Guardian has not verified the below. We do not know for certain whether Trump has been indicted (or, in other words, that the 10 indictments are “very very bad news for Trump”):
Katyal says:
The Georgia Indictments say there were zero ‘no bills.’ That means that the Grand Jury decided to indict in all cases that the DA (the prosecutor) sought. This is very very bad news for Trump, and likely others in his circle.”
Updated
A reminder: the case stems from a 2 January 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Experts agree that in Trump’s conclusive 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, there was no widespread electoral fraud in Georgia or any other state.
Trump is also facing 78 criminal charges in three other indictments, over:
Hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels
Retention of classified documents
Election subversion at the federal level
Despite his unprecedented legal jeopardy, Trump dominates Republican primary polling as the first televised debate nears at the end of this month, my colleague Martin Pengelly reported earlier.
Updated
Georgia grand jury indictment: What we know so far
Here is the latest, via AP:
The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss returned several criminal indictments on Monday, although it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
Officials with the Fulton county court handed the indictment to judge Robert McBurney, but did not make them public.
Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
Fulton county court clerk Che Alexander told reporters it could take her office up to three hours to process the indictments, after they were accepted by the judge.
A news conference featuring district attorney Fani T Willis is expected to take place after the indictment is released.
The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis’s office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state and organise a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalising Biden’s victory. She has also looked into an alleged attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee county.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”.
Updated
As we await news of who precisely has been indicted, Republican senator Lindsey Graham has said on Fox news: “The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not. This should be decided at the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail.”
“They’re weaponizing the law in this country, they’re trying to take Donald Trump down and this is setting a bad precedent,” he continued.
Updated
NBC’s Gary Grumbach has outlined exactly what happened at the court over the last half hour:
At 8:58pm, a rep from Fulton County Superior Court Clerk’s office, a representative from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office and several representatives from the Fulton County Sheriff’s office walked into courtroom 8D – Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s courtroom.
The District Attorney’s office representative was holding a stack of papers. They were greeted by the Judge, who said ‘is it evening or night?’ when the representative from the DA’s office said ‘Good evening.’
McBurney went through every indictment – it appeared there were multiple – making sure they were all signed and the various forms were properly filled out. He asked the DA’s rep ‘Everything went as it should have in front of the grand jury?’ The DA’s rep said, “Yes your honor.”
The Judge did not read anything aloud from the indictment. McBurney then handed the indictments to the Clerk’s office representative, as he instructed her to maintain custody of the indictments. She departed the courtroom, en route to the Clerk’s office to file the indictment
MSNBC correspondent Blayne Alexander has posted a picture of the certification that the grand jury indictments were returned in open court, and that there were 10 indictments.
BIG FLAG: a Fulton County grand jury has returned 10 indictments. @CharlieGileNBC snapped this photo at the clerk’s office.
— Blayne Alexander (@ReporterBlayne) August 15, 2023
We are awaiting names and details. pic.twitter.com/IwGVxsck80
It is 9.20 pm in Fulton county, Georgia.
Updated
If you’re just joining us, the grand jury at Fulton County, Georgia has returned 10 indictments. Court remained open past 5pm – and is still open, with reporters and court staff prepared to work through the night.
The clark confirmed that the grand jury has voted to indict 10 people. But, the clark said that processing, stamping and making the indictment documents public could take three hours, CNN reports. But it may be only an hour.
We do not know who has been indicted.
So it is now a question of who has been indicted. It is not clear.
What does 10 indictments mean?
There could be one or multiple people in each indictment, but it is likely this means that a minimum of ten people have been charged in these indictments, CNN reports.
The grand jury votes yes or no on each indictment, by majority vote (12 of 23 jurors).
But the grand jury has been hearing multiple cases over the last few weeks. So there is a possibility that jurors voted on multiple indictments this evening – and that not all of the 10 indictments are related to the Trump 2020 election interference case.
Updated
Grand jury returns 10 indictments
The grand jury has returned 10 indictments, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports from the courtroom.
NEW: Fulton County grand jury returned 10 indictments today in the Trump case, per cover page filed with clerk’s office
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 15, 2023
Updated
The paperwork – a large stack of papers – have now been walked back to the clerk’s office for the next stage of processing.
This document may be the indictment – but it may not be. We should know shortly.
Updated
We are expecting a dozen or so defendants to be indicted, if the grand jury has voted to indict. The defendants include former US president Donald Trump.
If Trump is indicted this will be his fourth indictment.
Judge Robert McBurney checks document
“Everything went as it should have?” Judge Robert McBurney asks. He hands the documents back to the clerk, who agrees to take custody of them.
The document will now be docketed and will become available to the public any moment.
Updated
Indictment handed to the judge
The indictment is being handed to the judge. He is now looking at it.
We’re not yet sure of how a potential indictment will be processed today (in the court or behind closed doors), but things appear to be moving quickly so we should have news any minute.
Different judges handle this stage of proceedings differently, CNN reports. Sometimes indictments are processed behind closed doors, sometimes they are processed in court in front of the public.
Updated
At the moment “everyone is going to the places they need to be to process a potential indictment”, CNN reports.
Court is back in session and reporters are waiting for word from the grand jury. We have yet to hear whether the grand jury has any findings.
Updated
Fulton county sheriff Patrick Labat enters courtroom
Judge Robert McBurney tells the courtroom: “The convoy is mobile,” presumably referring to the grand jury return being walked over from the grand jury room inside the Fulton county DA’s office to the courthouse.
The Fulton county sheriff Patrick Labat just entered the courtroom.
Updated
The New York Times has quoted McBurney, who earlier reportedly offered potato crisps to hungry reporters, as saying, “Did anyone leave early? Everyone stayed? I was tempted.”
Judge Robert McBurney enters courtroom
My colleague Hugo Lowell is in the courtroom at Fulton county, Georgia. He says that judge Robert McBurney has just returned to the courtroom, where 50 reporters are waiting for the grand jury to return from voting.
McBurney is the duty judge who will preside over any grand jury returns today.
Updated
Judge Robert McBurney just entered the courtroom.
Grand jury voting on whether to indict Donald Trump
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, who is in Georgia, has confirmed that the grand jury is currently voting on whether to indict Trump:
Confirming that the Fulton County grand jury is currently voting on indictments in the Trump 2020 case, per people familiar
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 15, 2023
Updated
Where things stand
Hello, this is Helen Sullivan taking over our live updates of the election subversion investigation into Donald Trump.
As my colleague Maanvi Singh noted, we understand that the grand jury is currently voting on whether to indict Trump over election fraud charges.
The jury in Fulton county, Georgia, has spent the day and much of the evening hearing from witnesses.
Prosecutors have presented evidence to the grand jury as they push toward a likely indictment, the Associated Press reports.
Trump is also facing 78 criminal charges in three other indictments, over:
Hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels
Retention of classified documents
Election subversion at the federal level
Despite his unprecedented legal jeopardy, Trump dominates Republican primary polling as the first televised debate nears at the end of this month, my colleague Martin Pengelly reported earlier.
Updated
Grand jury reportedly voting on election fraud charges
It appears the grand jury is voting on the election fraud charges.
Breaking on @MSNBC: The Fulton County grand jury is voting NOW.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 15, 2023
Updated
The Fulton county district attorney appears determined to finish presenting evidence in the Trump case to the grand jury tonight, according to multiple people familiar – meaning indictments could come tonight.
Inside the courthouse, people are currently having dinner. Judge Robert McBurney, who is the duty judge presiding over any grand jury returns, tells reporters he’s been informed he needs to stay for another hour.
Updated
Georgia DA Fani Willis prepares to face off with Trump
Willis is expected to ask a grand jury this week to indict former president Donald Trump and others for their attempts to overturn the election. The announcement of criminal charges, part of a sprawling racketeering case, will be the culmination of more than two years of work.
In early 2021, Willis had just been elected district attorney when she announced plans to investigate Trump. She took office by unseating her former boss, who had served as the DA in Georgia’s most populous county (which includes the state’s capital, Atlanta) for six terms, or 23 years.
Her investigation has focused on Trump’s efforts to subvert the will of Georgia’s voters, including his campaign’s plot to assemble a slate of fake electors and Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”, which would make him the winner over Joe Biden in the state.
In her first term as DA – and amid ongoing conversations about criminal justice reform in Georgia and beyond – Willis has not only prepared to face off with a former president and his legal team, she’s also been tough on crime in a number of other ways, too.
Read more:
Donald Trump case tracker: where does each investigation stand?
Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.
And more criminal charges could be on the way for Trump in Georgia. Here is where each case against Trump stands:
Updated
The Fulton county grand jury is still hearing from witnesses.
It’s unclear when we will hear about charges. Judge Robert McBurney appeared before reporters briefly, but did not indicate whether the presentation of charges would happen tonight.
Updated
A two-page docket, which appeared to have been posted on the Fulton county court website and then removed, has set of a flurry of speculation this afternoon. The Reuters news agency cited that docket in a story that charges against Donald Trump had been filed. But the agency later revised the report, saying that the Georgia was “set to charge” the former president.
The Fulton county clerk said the court had “learned of a fictitious document that has been circulated online”, an apparent reference to the Reuters report on the docket that detailed racketeering and conspiracy charges against Trump.
More clarity is expected to come at 5pm local time.
Updated
George Chidi, the independent journalist who was subpoenaed to appear before the Fulton county grand jury, was just seen entering the courthouse where he is expected to testify.
Chidi had previously written for The Intercept about how he happened upon “a semi-clandestine meeting of Republicans pretending to be Georgia’s official electors in December 2020”.
He had testified about the experience once already, to a separate special grand jury that was investigating election interference in an advisory capacity. Today he is expected to explain what he witnessed once again, to the new grand jury this week.
He wrote for The Intercept:
I went to Georgia’s state Capitol on December 14, 2020, to watch the solemn and usually forgettable ritual casting of electoral votes. As Stacey Abrams led the Democratic delegation upstairs, Republicans sat in a reserved room on the Capitol’s second floor to prepare a competing — and potentially illegal — slate of their own.
The Republicans threw me out of the room moments after I entered, camera phone in hand, going live on Facebook. When I asked what kind of gathering they were having, they told me it was an “education meeting.” As it turns out, Donald Trump’s election team had sent an email the previous night, instructing the group to maintain “complete secrecy.”
Election madness wasn’t incipient in 2020; it was happening all around us. And I get thrown out of a lot of places. So I didn’t think much about it beyond tweeting a still from the Facebook Live, asking my friends to identify the people in the picture.
But because I was lied to and thrown out, it confirmed that the legislators were acting in secret, that they didn’t want the press or public to know what they were doing. That specific bit of information has apparently been important enough to ask me to convey it to a grand jury — again.
Updated
Judge in Trump hush-money case won't recuse himself
The judge in Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush-money criminal case has rejected the former president’s demand to step aside, denying defense claims that he’s biased against the Republican election front-runner because he’s given cash to Democrats and his daughter is a party consultant, the Associated Press writes.
The agency further reports:
New York Judge Juan Manuel Merchan acknowledged in a ruling that he made several small donations to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, but said he is certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Removing himself from the case, which is due to go to trial next March, “would not be in the public interest,” Merchan wrote. His six-page ruling echoed a state court ethics panel’s recent opinion that endorsed his continued involvement in the Trump case.
The decision on recusal was entirely up to Merchan. There is so far no comment from Trump lawyers or the prosecutor, the Manhattan district attorney.
Trump pleaded not guilty in April in Manhattan to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges relate to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters. He has denied wrongdoing.
Trump’s lawyers wanted Merchan off the case in part because his daughter, Loren, is a political consultant whose firm has worked for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals and because, they contend, he acted inappropriately by involving himself in plea negotiations last year for Trump’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg. Merchan said he previously rejected that argument when asked to exit the Trump Organization case.
Merchan said in his ruling that Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds.”
Summary of the day so far
The indictment of Donald Trump over his attempted election subversion in Georgia loomed closer as prosecutors began presenting to a grand jury in Atlanta on Monday. The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, is expected early this week to seek multiple charges against more than a dozen defendants that could include the former president, sources told the Guardian.
A former Democratic state senator, Jen Jordan, former Democratic state representative, Bee Nguyen, and Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the office of the Georgia secretary of state, were seen at the Fulton county courthouse.
Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and independent journalist George Chidi, both expected to appear on Tuesday at the Fulton County grand jury hearing, are set to testify on Monday instead. Chidi said the change was because prosecutors are “moving faster than they thought”.
A two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished. A spokesperson for the district attorney said reports “that those charges were filed [are] inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment.”
Trump appeared to warn former Georgia lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, against testifying before the Fulton County grand jury in the state’s 2020 election investigation. The former president’s Truth Social post came days after the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s January 6 case in Washington DC, warned against making “inflammatory statements” that could intimidate witnesses in that trial.
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign tried to walk back on comments he made in support of a nationwide abortion restriction after the first three months of pregnancy.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who has been under a years-long federal investigation over failing to pay taxes and, separately, illegally possessing a gun, said that part of the plea deal which unexpectedly fell apart in July remains “valid and binding”, in a Sunday court filing.
The US navy became the third branch of the military to no longer have a Senate-confirmed leader for the first time in history, as Republican senator Tommy Tuberville continues his blockade on military nominations over the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who has been under a years-long federal investigation over failing to pay taxes and, separately, illegally possessing a gun, said that part of the plea deal which unexpectedly fell apart in July remains “valid and binding”, in a Sunday court filing.
Federal prosecutors, led by US attorney David Weiss, had on Friday asked the court to cancel its request that the two sides reach a renewed agreement on the deal “since there is no longer a plea agreement or diversion agreement for the Court to consider”.
But Hunter Biden’s lawyers said the guilty pleas were “separate and independent” from the diversion agreement that is set to drop his felony gun charges after two years. They said the diversion agreement was executed at the July hearing even as the overall deal collapsed and Hunter Biden intends to abide by its terms.
The court has “acknowledged in its filings agreeing to the public disclosure of the Plea and Diversion Agreements – that the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement”, Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in their Sunday filing, responding to prosecutors’ Friday motion.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has accused Fulton County of being “downright pathetic” after a list of criminal charges in Georgia against Donald Trump briefly appeared on its website before it was removed.
Here we go again: another disastrous Trump indictment. It’s downright pathetic that Fulton County publicly posted the indictment on its website even before the grand jury had finished convening. Since the four prosecutions against Trump are using novel & untested legal theories,… pic.twitter.com/LOYkGcCgm5
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 14, 2023
A judge presiding over grand jury deliberations in Fulton County has said cameras will be allowed into the courtroom if Donald Trump is indicted this week.
Fulton County superior court judge Robert McBurney was quoted by the Messenger as saying:
If a grand jury presents an indictment, that’s usually in the afternoon, and you can film and photograph that.
Unlike federal or Manhattan courts, where Trump appeared for his three previous arraignments, Georgia law requires that cameras be allowed into judicial proceedings with a judge’s approval, according to NBC.
Open courtrooms “are an indispensable element of an effective and respected judicial system”, the Georgia supreme court stated in a 2018 order.
Experts agree that in Donald Trump’s conclusive 2020 defeat by Joe Biden there was no widespread electoral fraud in Georgia or any other state.
The federal indictment secured by the special counsel Jack Smith this month contained extensive evidence that Trump was repeatedly told as much but advanced his lie regardless.
In Atlanta on Monday, prosecutors began presenting to a grand jury.
A former Democratic state senator, Jen Jordan, told reporters as she left the Fulton county courthouse she was questioned for about 40 minutes. News outlets reported that a former Democratic state representative, Bee Nguyen, and Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the office of the Georgia secretary of state, were seen arriving too.
Nguyen and Jordan attended state legislative hearings in December 2020, during which the former New York mayor turned Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and other aides made false claims of widespread fraud in Georgia.
The Trump lawyer John Eastman appeared during at least one of those hearings, saying the election had not been held in compliance with Georgia law and lawmakers should appoint a new slate of electors.
Sterling and the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, pushed back against allegations of widespread problems. Both are Republicans.
On 2 January 2021, Trump called Raffensperger to say officials should help “find” the votes he needed to beat Biden. The release of a recording of that call prompted Willis to open her investigation.
Georgia grand jury witnesses to testify today because prosecutors 'moving faster' than anticipated
Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and independent journalist George Chidi are expected to testify today before the Fulton county grand jury hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case.
Chidi, who was scheduled to appear Tuesday before the grand jury, said he will instead testify today because prosecutors are “moving faster than they thought”.
Change of plans. I'm going to court today. They're moving faster than they thought.
— George Chidi (find me on Threads and Substack) (@neonflag) August 14, 2023
Duncan was also scheduled to appear in front of the grand jury, but an official with direct knowledge of Duncan’s hearing told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he will now meet with grand jurors on Monday.
Updated
Here’s the full statement by former state representative Bee Nguyen, who confirmed she testified to a Fulton County grand jury hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case earlier today.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Patricia Murphy:
Former state Rep. Bee Nguyen, who was running for Secretary of State as a Democrat in the aftermath of the 2020 elections, released a statement about her testimony today. Her entire campaign was about protecting democracy for the future. #gapol pic.twitter.com/3MtLbqPeb7
— Patricia Murphy (@MurphyAJC) August 14, 2023
Here’s a copy of the document that the Fulton County court reportedly published on their website before taking it down without explanation, which listed several criminal charges against Donald Trump related to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
The document was dated today, 14 August, and named Trump as the defendant. The charges listed in the document include:
Violation Of The Georgia Rico (Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations) Act
Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer
Conspiracy To Commit Impersonating A Public Officer
Conspiracy To Commit Forgery in the First Degree
Conspiracy To Commit False Statements and Writings
Conspiracy To Commit Filing False Documents
Filing False Documents
Solicitation of Violation of Oath By Public Officer
False Statements And Writings
this document was posted online by the fulton county georgia DA’s office and then quickly taken down. defendant: donald trump pic.twitter.com/rv1jrbXp77
— jack queen (@jackqueen_) August 14, 2023
Two former Georgia state lawmakers testify to Fulton County grand jury
Former Democratic state representative for Georgia Bee Nguyen has confirmed that she testified on Monday to the Fulton County grand jury hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case.
Ex-Georgia State Rep. Bee Nguyen confirms that she testified this morning before the Fulton County grand jury:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 14, 2023
"When I took my oath of office in 2017, I swore my allegiance to our Constitution and promised to protect and defend out State and our country."
Earlier we reported that former state senator Jen Jordan testified before the Fulton County grand jury for about 40 minutes on Monday.
Updated
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman, who has been reporting from the Fulton County courthouse, writes that the district attorney’s office confirms no indictments have yet been made in the Trump election interference case.
I am standing in the Fulton courthouse and just spoke to the DA’s office. NO INDICTMENTS yet in the Trump election interference case
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) August 14, 2023
Here’s more on that Reuters report that said the state of Georgia appeared set to charge Donald Trump with a variety of charges, including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements.
According to Reuters, the Fulton County court’s website briefly posted a document appearing to detail several criminal charges against Trump, before taking the document down without explanation.
The two-page document cited the “Violation Of The Georgia Rico (Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations) Act”, “Solicitation Of Violation Of Oath By Public Officer”, “Conspiracy To Commit False Statements and Writings” and “Conspiracy To Commit Forgery in the First Degree” among other charges listed, Reuters said.
The document was dated 14 August and named the former president, the news agency said.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office responded:
The Reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment.
Georgia court publishes then removes docket of charges against Donald Trump - report
The Fulton County district attorney’s office said no charges have been filed yet against in the case investigating Donald Trump and others for their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
It comes after Reuters reported that the state of Georgia appeared set to charge Trump with a variety of charges, including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements.
The Reuters report cited a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton County court’s website, which it said is no longer available on the court’s website.
This is NOT true. I just spoke with the DA’s office #gapol https://t.co/vgPK6bSD1s
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) August 14, 2023
Updated
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is expected to ask a grand jury this week to indict Donald Trump and others for their attempts to overturn the election. The announcement of criminal charges, part of a sprawling racketeering case, will be the culmination of more than two years of work.
In early 2021, Willis had just been elected district attorney when she announced plans to investigate Trump.
Her investigation has focused on Trump’s efforts to subvert the will of Georgia’s voters, including his campaign’s plot to assemble a slate of fake electors and Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”, which would make him the winner over Joe Biden in the state.
In her first term as DA – and amid ongoing conversations about criminal justice reform in Georgia and beyond – Willis has not only prepared to face off with a former president and his legal team, she’s also been tough on crime in a number of other ways, too.
Since running for office, the Democratic official has made no apologies for being a liberal with conservative-leaning views on criminal justice or the fact that she was endorsed and received funding from a police union during her campaign.
As DA, she’s indicted Grammy-award winning rapper Young Thug and his music collective under Georgia’s racketeering statute, fought appeals from teachers she previously prosecuted during a high-profile standardized test cheating scandal, and sought the death penalty for a man who murdered four women during a shooting spree that targeted Asian spas in metro Atlanta.
Georgia former state senator Jen Jordan, who was spotted earlier at the Fulton County courthouse, testified on Monday before a grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the state’ss 2020 election results.
Jordan told the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman that she testified to the grand jury for about 40 minutes.
Jordan declined to say much about her testimony, but when I asked about this probe entering the indictment phase she responded, "it's about time." #gapol
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) August 14, 2023
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin, during a relinquishment ceremony for retiring chief of naval operations Adm Mike Gilday, criticized Republican senator Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing hold on senior military promotions.
“Because of this blanket hold, starting today, for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, three of our military services are operating without Senate-confirmed leaders,” Austin said.
This is unprecedented, it is unnecessary, and it is unsafe.
Austin did not name Tuberville in his speech, but he called on the Senate to confirm “all of our superbly qualified military nominees”, as the US navy became the third branch of the military to no longer have a Senate-confirmed leader.
He added:
This sweeping hold is undermining America’s military readiness. It’s hindering our ability to retain our very best officers. And it’s upending the lives of far too many American military families.
“Three of our military services are operating without Senate-confirmed leaders. This is unprecedented, it is unnecessary, and it is unsafe.”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 14, 2023
— Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin shares “painful milestone” at relinquishment of office ceremony for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday pic.twitter.com/zKxhwPi55M
The US navy became the third branch of the military to no longer have a Senate-confirmed leader for the first time in history, as Republican senator Tommy Tuberville continues his blockade on military nominations over the Pentagon’s abortion policy.
The Navy, Army and Marine Corps are now all without a confirmed leader, after retiring chief of naval operations Adm Mike Gilday gave up command on Monday.
One more down as CNO Gilday relinquished command this morning.
— Haley Britzky (@halbritz) August 14, 2023
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today this is the first time in DOD history three services are without a Senate-confirmed chief. pic.twitter.com/2tbO6A5Wry
Since February, Tuberville has been protesting Pentagon policy that allows service members to travel for abortion care if their state does not provide it. His method is to place a hold on all promotions to senior ranks that are subject to Senate confirmation, usually a pro forma process carried out with unanimous consent.
Donald Trump’s primary rivals are preparing for the possibility that the former president and Republican nomination frontrunner will attend the first GOP presidential primary debate next week, according to a report.
The campaigns of four of the eight candidates who say they have qualified for the Republican national committe’s (RNC) 23 August debate in Milwaukee told NBC they are holding debate prep sessions as if Trump will be there.
A fifth candidate, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, said she expects Trump to be at the debate.
Trump has been threatening to skip the debate for months, but last week insisted he hasn’t “totally ruled it out”.
Updated
Donald Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday warning former Georgia lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, against testifying before the Fulton County grand jury, comes days after the federal judge presiding over a separate Trump case warned inflammatory remarks from the former president would push her to schedule the trial sooner.
US district court judge Tanya Chutkan said on Friday that she would take every step to safeguard the integrity of proceedings and to avoid tainting the potential jury pool.
The admonition came as she ruled on Trump’s requests to have fewer restrictions in a protective order that will govern what evidence turned over to his lawyers in the discovery process the former president could share publicly.
Broadly speaking, Chutkan ruled that Trump was free to share “non-sensitive materials” as designated by prosecutors, but narrowed the scope so closely that it could ultimately amount to only a pyrrhic victory. Chutkan also ended up rejecting the majority of Trump’s other requests.
Updated
Trump appears to warn former Lt Gov Geoff Duncan against testifying to Georgia grand jury
Donald Trump appeared to warn former Georgia lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, against testifying before the Fulton County grand jury in the state’s 2020 election investigation.
“I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury,” Trump posted on Truth Social today.
Trump added:
He shouldn’t. I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia.
His post came days after the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s January 6 case in Washington DC, warned against making “inflammatory statements” that could intimidate witnesses in that trial.
Duncan confirmed he had been asked to testify before the grand jury on Tuesday hearing evidence of alleged meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
“Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness,” Duncan tweeted.
I can confirm that I have been requested to testify before the Fulton County grand jury on Tuesday. I look forward to answering their questions around the 2020 election.
— Geoff Duncan (@GeoffDuncanGA) August 12, 2023
Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness. https://t.co/3j73O1kLNj
Updated
The US will send Ukraine a new military aid package worth around $200m, secretary of state Antony Blinken announced.
The latest security aid package includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment, according to the statement.
For more updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine, please follow our live blog.
After five years, the US attorney pursuing Hunter Biden has only been able to file tax and unlawful gun possession charges – and that shouldn’t change just because the prosecutor has been named special counsel in the case, the lawyer for the president’s son has said.
“If anything changes from his conclusion … the question [that] should be asked [is] what infected the process that was not the facts and the law?” Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. Lowell also said: “There’s no new evidence to be found.
“Only thing that will change is the scrutiny on some of the charges.”
Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell says while U.S. attorney David Weiss has been appointed special counsel, "he's the same person he's been for the last five years."
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 13, 2023
"If anything changes from his conclusion...what infected the process that was not the facts and the law?" pic.twitter.com/uQANuFDdm2
Lowell’s remarks came after the US attorney in Delaware who has been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, David Weiss, received an appointment on Thursday to become special counsel over the case.
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has said Weiss told him days earlier that “in his judgment, his investigation [had] reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be appointed”. Garland added that he granted the request of Weiss – who was appointed to his post by Joe Biden’s presidential predecessor Donald Trump – having concluded that it was “in the public interest” to do so.
Yet Garland’s justification did little to dampen a political firestorm in Washington DC. Weiss’s probe into Biden’s son is set to continue on a track that is parallel to special counsel investigations into Trump – the Republican frontrunner to challenge Biden in the 2024 race for the White House – which have produced a multitude of criminal charges against him.
Updated
Robert F Kennedy Jr walks back on supporting three-month federal abortion ban
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign on Sunday evening tried to walk back on comments he made earlier in the day in support of a nationwide abortion restriction after the first three months of pregnancy.
In an interview at the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy told NBC News that he believes “a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life”.
Asked if he would sign a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks or 21 weeks of pregnancy if he were elected president, he said “yes, three months”.
Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child.
But in a later statement, Kennedy’s campaign team said he had “misunderstood” the reporter’s questions, citing a “crowded” and “noisy” exhibit hall at the fair.
The statement continued:
Mr Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose. He does not support legislation banning abortion.
In response, NBC reporter Ali Vitali shared a transcript of the full exchange and said she asked her questions multiple times to make sure the presidential candidate understood the subject.
Here’s the full exchange with Kennedy, in which I ask the questions multiple times to make sure we’re understanding- even at one point saying I was surprised by the stance.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 14, 2023
Full story here and video TK: https://t.co/NHWNhlaLL5 https://t.co/t9NbrnqRG4 pic.twitter.com/U9FBPDNY2A
Donald Trump case tracker: where does each investigation stand?
Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.
And more criminal charges could be on the way for Trump in Georgia as early as this week.
Here is where each case against Trump stands:
Prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia have gathered evidence directly connecting members of the former president’s legal team to the voting system breach in Coffee County, according to a report.
Prosecutors have taken a special interest in the breach of voting machines in Coffee county by Trump allies because of the brazen nature of the operation and the possibility that Trump was aware that his allies intended to covertly gain access to the machines.
In a series of particularly notable incidents, forensics experts hired by Trump allies copied data from virtually every part of the voting system, which is used statewide in Georgia, before uploading them to a password-protected website that could be accessed by 2020 election deniers.
Investigators are in possession of text messages and emails indicating the breach was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software, CNN reported, citing sources.
Six days before pro-Trump operatives gained unauthorized access to voting systems, the local elections official who allegedly helped facilitate the breach shared a “written invitation” to attorneys working for Trump, according to the report.
Investigators have also probed the involvement of Trump’s then attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, the sources said.
Georgia former state senator Jen Jordan has been spotted at the Fulton County courthouse today, according to NBC.
Jordan had been expected to testify before a grand jury as part of the Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn his election loss in the state.
Spotted at the Fulton County courthouse: Former GA Senator Jen Jordan, who was subpoenaed by Willis. She asked security for directions to the DA’s office.
— Charlie Gile (@CharlieGileNBC) August 14, 2023
The indictment that the Fulton County district attorney, Fanis Willis, may bring against Donald Trump as early as this week could be the most sprawling case against the former president in response to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.
“I think people are going to be surprised at the level of preparedness and the level of sophistication of the prosecution,” Clint Rucker, a former prosecutor in Fulton County, told AP.
He added that he was not surprised the investigation has taken so long. While Willis is likely to let her team of prosecutors handle the trial, he said there was no question that she is calling the shots.
When she says stuff like, ‘We’re ready to go,’ that’s not being braggadocious'. It’s her saying pretty much to anybody who’s interested, ‘Look, we’re ready.’
Who is Fani Willis?
The synopsis for a Fani Willis biopic would probably go something like this:
In Fulton county, the first Black woman to serve as district attorney takes on an unlikely case. Willis grew up attending court with her father, a defense attorney and Black Panther. Now, she sits on the opposite side of the courtroom, hoping to indict a former president who sought to overturn election results and often espoused white supremacist rhetoric while doing so.
The film’s montage would pull from real life, depicting a determined, unflappable Willis relentlessly poring over documents, leading her team through the long work hours and security risks that come with bringing an indictment against an often inflammatory former president, even as national attention on the case reached a groundswell.
We’d watch her face racist threats and unsubstantiated rumors of misconduct, but she’d refuse to back down from the task at hand. She’d advocate for what she believed to be right even when it wasn’t popular. She’d appear in press conferences and in media interviews delivering stern soundbites such as: “Lady justice is actually blind. This is the reality. If you come into my community and you commit a crime, you deserve to be held responsible.”
According to some of Willis’s colleagues who have worked with her over more than 20 years, all of this would be an accurate depiction of the district attorney.
Defense attorney Brian Steel has known Willis her entire career and says she’s both “extremely honest” and “extremely hard working”. Atlanta NAACP president Gerald Griggs described her as “transparent”, a “zealous advocate for the state” and the “best trial attorney” in the Fulton county district attorney’s office. He said:
What you see on TV is authentic to who she really is.
Updated
The district attorney’s office in Georgia has spent more than two years investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia, including impaneling a special grand jury that made it more straightforward to compel evidence from recalcitrant witnesses.
Unlike in the federal system, grand juries in the state of Georgia need to already be considering an indictment when they subpoena documents and testimony. By using a special grand jury, prosecutors can collect evidence without the pressure of having to file charges.
The special grand jury in the Trump investigation heard evidence for roughly seven months and recommended indictments of more than a dozen people including the former president himself, its forewoman strongly suggested in interviews with multiple news outlets.
Trump’s legal team sought last month to invalidate the work of the special grand jury and have the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, disqualified from proceedings, but the Georgia supreme court rejected the motion, ruling that Trump lacked “either the facts or the law necessary to mandate Ms Willis’s disqualification”.
From his Bedminster club in New Jersey, where Trump spends his summers, the former president unleashed a wave of personal attacks against Willis ahead of what would be his fourth indictment after most recently being charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Willis was “racist” and treated gang members with “kid gloves” – two accusations without any merit, especially given her office last week prosecuted members of the PDE gang in Atlanta with a Rico charge and street gang terrorism.
In the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his allies kicked off an aggressive pressure campaign in an attempt to overturn the election results in six swing states where certified results declared Joe Biden the winner.
Nowhere was the effort more acute than in Georgia, which became the consuming focus of the former president and his allies, according to a Washington Post report today. Those close to Trump pushed state officials to identify fraud that would cast Biden’s victory in doubt, it writes.
In the process, they personally targeted individual election workers with false claims of cheating, unleashing waves of threats, and amplified conspiracy theories about rigged machines that persist today. In the end, after Trump sought to use every lever of power to overturn the results, top state Republicans stood in his way, refusing to buckle under the pressure.
Some of the most fantastical claims of fraud came directly from Trump and his allies, “who amplified baseless accusations on conservative media and unleashed new waves of outlandish tips from rank-and-file Republicans”.
The former president’s accusations also turned election workers in Georgia and other states into targets of harassment and threats.
They spread false claims that thousands of mail ballots should be discarded because of questionable signatures, that a mother-daughter team of election workers in Atlanta had triple-tallied counterfeit votes, that voting machines had been programmed to flip votes from one candidate to another.
What charges could Donald Trump face in Georgia election case?
For the purposes of the Trump case, prosecutors in Georgia will be required to show an “interrelated pattern of activity by and through the [public] office” predicated on at least two “qualifying” or predicate crimes drawn from a list of specific statutes.
The prosecutors on the Trump case have developed evidence of a pattern of racketeering activity that could lead to a Rico charge based on predicates of influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the Guardian has previously reported.
Among the election law charges that prosecutors have been examining: criminal solicitation to commit election fraud through seeking a public or political officer to fail to perform duties and seeking to destroy, deface or delay the delivery of ballots; and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
The prosecutors have also developed evidence for the previously unreported state election law charges of intentional interference with performance of election duties, the people said, as well as general criminal solicitation, which is not part of the Georgia election law statutes.
In anticipation of charges against Donald Trump and his allies related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, local law enforcement last week started to increase security around the building that contains the Fulton county district attorney’s office and Georgia superior court, closing off roads and installing temporary barricades.
The district attorney, Fani Willis, had instructed most of her staff to work remotely through the first weeks of August as a safety precaution, and the public area inside the building for days has been taken over by deputies from the Fulton county sheriff’s office.
Georgia prosecutors prepare to face off with Donald Trump
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is expected to seek multiple charges against more than a dozen defendants, including the former president, this week.
The timeline for when the district attorney, Fani Willis, would present evidence to a grand jury came into sharper relief over the weekend after prosecutors summoned the former Georgia lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, and reporter George Chidi to testify on Tuesday.
The presentation is expected to take two days, to a grand jury that meets Mondays and Tuesdays. In Georgia, it is typical for prosecutors to ask a grand jury to return indictments the same day. The notifications are the clearest indication that the prosecutors intend to charge the former president this week.
Prosecutors have identified roughly seven statutes of the Georgia state criminal code – including a racketeering charge, election law crimes as well as other non-election law crimes – with which to charge more than a dozen defendants in a sprawling indictment, the Guardian reported today, citing sources.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
10.30am Eastern time: President Joe Biden will depart Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the White House.
1pm: Biden and vice president Kamala Harris will have lunch.
3pm. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief the press.
The House and Senate are out.
Updated
