While Donald Trump tries to delay his classified documents trial in Florida, he has additional legal trouble possibly brewing in neighboring Georgia.
That’s where grand jurors are being selected who could vote to indict the former president and others on charges related to 2020 election interference, which would add another criminal case to the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner’s docket.
As for when such charges could come, we’re talking weeks, not mere days or many months, if the timeline previously suggested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is any indication.
Recall that, in a letter to local law enforcement officials, the Atlanta-area prosecutor carved out a broad timeline from July 11 through Sept. 1 in which charges could come. She further indicated, more specifically, that they might come between July 31 and Aug. 18.
If the former president is charged in Georgia, that would mark his third criminal case overall and his second state criminal case, alongside New York, where his hush money trial is set for March. As Trump’s attempt to push off his federal classified documents trial while he runs for president again reminds us, state charges could wind up being even more significant than federal charges, if a Republican takes the White House and makes any federal charges against Trump disappear.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 probe, with which Willis’ probe overlaps, could also produce charges soon, which would make four Trump indictments overall, with two state cases and two federal ones.
Good morning from the Fulton County courthouse. And if, in the haze of all the Trump probes, you’re wondering: Wasn’t there already a Georgia grand jury investigating Trump and others for election interference? Yes, there was. But that special grand jury was only investigating and recommending charges — it couldn’t actually vote on the charges. Hence the new grand jurors being selected Tuesday for that purpose. And with that, we’re officially on Trump Georgia watch.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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A grand jury that could consider criminal charges against Trump & his allies will be selected today.
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