A grand jury selected in Georgia on Tuesday is expected to say whether Donald Trump and associates should face criminal charges over their attempt to overturn the former president’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The district attorney of Fulton county, Fani Willis, has indicated she expects to obtain indictments between the end of July and the middle of August. Trump also faces possible federal charges over his election subversion, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.
Trump already faces trials on 71 criminal charges: 34 in New York over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and 37 in Florida, from federal prosecutors and regarding his retention of classified documents after leaving office.
His legal jeopardy does not stop there. In a civil case in New York, Trump was fined about $5m after being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll. Another civil case, concerning Trump’s business practices, continues in the same state.
Grand jury selection for the Georgia case comes at a febrile moment in US society. Denying all wrongdoing and claiming political persecution, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face Biden again at the polls next year.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Willis, who is African American, is motivated by racism as well as political animus. Willis has indicated possible charges under an anti-racketeering law also used to target members of gangs.
Before 2020, no Democratic candidate for president had won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. But Biden beat Trump by 0.2% of the vote, or a little under 12,000 ballots.
As he explored ways to stay in office, Trump was recorded telling the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s win. The Fulton county investigation of such attempted election subversion has produced dramatic headlines, stoking anger on both sides of a deepening political divide.
In February, the foreperson of the grand jury that investigated the case told CNN it would be a “good assumption” that a subsequent panel would recommend indictments – to be decided on by Willis – for more than a dozen people.
The foreperson also told the New York Times it was “not rocket science” to work out if Trump would be one of those people. The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is among Trump aides and associates also believed at risk of indictment.
In March, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, was reported to have told grand jurors: “If somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots … Trump would’ve believed it.”
Last month, eight of 16 “fake electors” who sought to falsely declare Trump the winner in Georgia were revealed to have reached immunity deals.
Two grand juries were impaneled on Tuesday, each with 23 members and three alternates.
Elie Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor now senior legal analyst for CNN, said: “This is now a ‘regular’ grand jury. At the end of it, if Fani Willis asks for an indictment, they will vote on it. The vast majority of times, that does result in an indictment.”
Ed Garland, a local attorney, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the jurors would face an “awesome responsibility” that “no other group of Georgia citizens has ever dealt with – the potential indictment of a former president”.
Garland added: “This is a case that has been saturated in the media with political overtones, so it is imperative for them to be fair and impartial and for our judicial system to live up to its ideals.”
At the courthouse, the judge presiding over grand jury selection, Robert McBurney, reminded reporters of the sensitivity of proceedings. “It would not go well if any of [the jurors’] pictures appear in any of your outlets,” he said. “If you need extra photos, get Fani Willis.”
Filmed arriving at the courthouse, Willis did not speak to reporters.
