Some former presidents focus on their libraries. Many write memoirs. Some start foundations. Some build low-income housing, while others take up painting.
Only one former president, however, has been forced to focus on his many legal liabilities.
At last count, Donald Trump is facing multiple civil suits, criminal charges against his private business, and a grand jury investigation into his financial practices. But when it comes to the Republican’s efforts to overturn the results of his election defeat, there’s even at least one ongoing criminal probe, and it’s in the state of Georgia.
As NBC News reported yesterday afternoon, that probe now has a special grand jury.
A Georgia prosecutor investigating possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others has been granted a special grand jury to proceed with the probe. The grand jury requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will have the power to subpoena witnesses in an investigation that focuses on any “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections” in Georgia.
I can appreciate how challenging it can be to keep straight each of the legal controversies surrounding the former president, so let’s quickly revisit our recent coverage.
The trouble appeared to start in earnest on Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that he wanted someone to “find” enough votes to flip the state in the then-president’s favor, the will of the voters be damned.
As we discussed soon after, the Republican official in Atlanta recorded the call, offering the public the opportunity to hear Trump, desperate to claim power he didn’t earn, exploring ways to cheat, begging others to participate in his anti-democracy scheme, and even directing some subtle threats at the state’s top elections official. By some measures, it was among the most scandalous recordings ever made of an American president.
It also may have been illegal. Willis opened a criminal investigation into alleged violations of state election law — which seemed quite sensible, since trying to interfere with the lawful administration of an election is a crime.
The investigation has proceeded for months, though as NBC News reported last week, a significant number of witnesses have refused to cooperate without subpoenas. The empaneling of a special grand jury would have the power to subpoena witnesses, which is why the Fulton County prosecutor requested one. Yesterday, Christopher Brasher, the chief judge of Fulton County Superior Court, granted the request Monday, saying it was “considered and approved by a majority” of the judges on the court. As Rachel explained on last night’s show, while regular grand juries hear evidence in many cases, special grand juries, which are less common, consider only one case. At the end of a special grand jury’s service, it issues a report on the evidence and the district attorney can then use that report to seek an indictment if that is warranted. In this investigation, the special grand jury in Fulton County will sit for up to a year, and it will be supervised by a superior court judge, who is himself a former prosecutor in the county’s district attorney’s office. It will begin on May 2. All of this appears to make Trump quite nervous, as evidenced by the borderline-hysterical statements he’s issued in recent days.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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