attorney, told me that the recording of the call, combined with evidence turned up by the House January 6 committee showing that Trump knew claims of fraud were false, provides both a clear act of wrongdoing and proof of criminal intent.ĭavid French: Georgia has a very strong case against Trump Trump often speaks elliptically and avoids clearly implicating himself, but Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. “The tape is the tape and it’s pretty darn compelling by itself, and it looks like it would be the centerpiece of any charges,” Rosenzweig told me. Willis would seem to have a wide range of charges she could bring against a range of defendants, but any charges against Trump would likely center on the Raffensperger call. The report is expected to include recommendations for indictments and to reveal much of the scope of the investigation, so its possible release means that Willis is likely to seek charges soon, if she is not doing so already. Judge Robert McBurney has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow, January 24, on that question, and opinions differ as to whether he is effectively required to release the report or might have discretion on timing. When the special grand jury completed its work, it requested that a judge make its report public. The special grand jury, unlike a normal grand jury, cannot bring indictments instead, it makes recommendations, and Willis would have to seek indictments from a normal grand jury. Willis appears to be interested not only in Trump’s pressure campaign against Raffensperger but also in a slate of fake electors who gathered in Georgia, and in various claims that Trump allies made about supposed election fraud. The grand jury’s work is secret, but it has reportedly interviewed dozens of people, including Senator Lindsey Graham and the former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. District Attorney Fani Willis requested the panel after audio emerged in January 2021 of Trump pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” in the state, enough to surpass Joe Biden’s tally. A special grand jury there conducted a lengthy investigation that began in June 2022 and concluded earlier this month.
The first movement might come from an investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes part of Atlanta. Here is a field guide to the potential indictments of Donald Trump. Read: The inevitable indictment of Donald Trumpĭespite all of the uncertainty, the information already available makes it possible to know what to watch for, or perhaps where to watch. “He’s weaponized the court systems all of his life.” “He has learned that due process is the Achilles’ heel of liberal democracy,” Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor, told me. But the mountains of evidence already before the public-about Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, about his handling of government documents, and about his previous interactions with the justice system-suggest a fierce conflict to come. We don’t know what pieces of evidence-or even what investigations-might exist that aren’t public, we don’t know how prosecutors will wield the discretion the law affords them, and, of course, we don’t know how a jury might fall on any charges that end up being tried. What actually will happen is unpredictable. Others believe that Trump shouldn’t be charged, or that prosecutors might choose not to charge him even if they can. He denies wrongdoing in all cases, but many legal experts think that prosecutors have grounds to charge him and will.
After a years-long elaborate dance with the law in which he usually stayed just one step ahead, Donald Trump now faces at least three serious investigations that could produce criminal charges. At some point this year, perhaps as soon as this month, the former president of the United States may be charged with a serious crime.
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