Closing summary
Hello again, it’s been a lively day in US political news and we’ll have more coverage tomorrow in the blog that keeps you abreast of developments as they happen. The blog is closing for now, but thanks for dipping in. There is much other coverage on the rest of the website, of course, on politics, international news and so many other topics and issues.
Here’s where things stand:
Washington, DC, appears to be making preparations for crowds and any trouble in the unprecedented event that former US president Donald Trump is criminally indicted. He’s the subject of several criminal investigations but could be charged in a case in New York this week.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg appears set to indict Donald Trump for the hush money payment he allegedly facilitated to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Trump won’t fight extradition to New York from his residence in Florida, should he be charged, a campaign insider told the Guardian.
Fani Willis, the Georgia district attorney investigating the Trump campaign’s attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election result, is said to be considering racketeering and conspiracy charges.
Some Republicans think an indictment would be a good thing for Trump.
Former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, has been ordered to appear tomorrow in a civil case in Washington, DC, by two Georgia election workers who accuse him of making false claims that put them in physical danger and threatened their livelihoods, according to a new report.
INBOX: Rudy GIULIANI has been ordered to appear at a video hearing tomorrow before Judge Beryl HOWELL as part of a discovery dispute in the lawsuit brought by GA election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss pic.twitter.com/Wg1TBC32Tk
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 20, 2023
The two former election workers filed a defamation lawsuit in late 2021 against Giuliani and also against the rightwing One America News Network and several of its senior executives.
During the 2020 election, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, worked as poll workers counting ballots at State Farm Arena in Fulton county, Georgia. They claim they became the center of a series of unfounded conspiracy theories promoted by Giuliani, who was then serving as an advisor to Trump, and OAN news network.
“As a result of their vital service, Ms Freeman and Ms Moss have become the objects of vitriol, threats, and harassment,” they said in the December, 2021 complaint, filed in federal court in Washington.
“They found themselves in this unenviable position not based on anything they did, but instead because of a campaign of malicious lies designed to accuse them of interfering with a fair and impartial election, which is precisely what each of them swore an oath to protect,” the suit said.
Last summer, Freeman and Moss appeared before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection by Trump extremists, and the Guardian reported at the time that they gave powerful and emotional testimony about the sinister results of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and described how he and his allies upended their lives, fueling harassment and racist threats by claiming they were involved in voter fraud.
Testifying to the January 6 committee in Washington, Shaye Moss said she received “a lot of threats. Wishing death upon me. Telling me that I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’”
That was a reference to lynching, the violent extra-judicial fate of thousands of Black men in the American south.
Here’s one view from a member of the public:
Good!!!
— Mad_as_hell_#WomensRights_#DemVoice1🇺🇸 🌻 🇹🇹 (@Mad_as_heII) March 20, 2023
Trump and Giuliani put Ruby and Shaye through hell! I pray these ladies get justice.#DemVoice1#FreshResists https://t.co/CV6GfWJHpy
Updated
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