In the latest update on President Trump’s Georgia Probe a Georgia prosecutor indicated she would likely seek criminal charges against Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, argued that decisions “were imminent,” according to AP. Besides the Georgia counsels investigation into Trump, the Department of Justice is working to separately investigate Trump and his role in attempts at overturning the 2020 presidential elections.
Willis opened her office’s investigation shortly after the release of a recording of a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In that conversation, the then-president suggested that Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, could “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s narrow election loss in the state to Biden, a Democrat.
“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said on the call.
Since then, the investigation’s scope has broadened considerably, encompassing among other things: a slate of Republican fake electors, phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the weeks after the 2020 election, and unfounded allegations of widespread election fraud made to state lawmakers.
“She’s supposed to be stopping violent crime, and that’s her job,” Trump said of Willis. “Not to go after people for political reasons, that did things absolutely perfectly.”
It is unclear how Willis’ case will impact the Justice Department’s probes or what contact her team has had with federal investigators. Justice Department prosecutors have been circumspect in discussing their investigations, offering little insight into how or when they might end.
Last Tuesday an Atlanta judge will convene a hearing to decide on if they should release the special grand jury report into Donald Trump. The case pertains to the 2020 election and ultimately whether or not President Trump should face charges. The judge is said to be hearing arguments for both sides during the hearing. This comes after the special grand jury in the state spent 7 months creating their final report – which is likely to include some summary of their work, and recommendations based on those findings.
The jurors have recommended making the report public, and Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton county, which encompasses Georgia’s capital, is using its findings to determine whether to bring charges in the investigation, which has centered on the attempts by top Trump allies like attorney Rudy Giuliani and senator Lindsey Graham to convince state officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. It’s unclear if Willis is considering charges against Trump in the case. Attorneys for the former president said yesterday they will not attend the hearing, and that Trump has not committed any crimes.
According to CNN, Trump’s attorneys will not be participating in the hearing Tuesday. Though,
The judge will have to weigh the public’s interest in learning about efforts to interfere in the last presidential election against concerns that making the information public could hinder an ongoing investigation if the district attorney is pursuing indictments and that the release could disparage individuals who have not been charged with crimes.
