Like a cheap pan on late night tv, another layer of teflon from "the Don" is gonna get stripped away. UPDATE: CASE GOING TO FULTON CTY. GA GRAND JURY

[lightbright]

Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Investigation of Trump Phone Call
Fulton County prosecutors have sent letters to state officials instructing them to preserve documents related to the January call, in which former President Donald J. Trump’s asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” votes.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was overseeing the electoral process in the state.Credit...

• Feb. 10, 2021Updated 10:40 a.m. ET

ATLANTA — Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, including a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to help him reverse his loss.
On Wednesday, Fani Willis, the recently elected Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County, sent a letter to numerous officials in state government, including Mr. Raffensperger, requesting that they preserve documents related to Mr. Trump’s call, according to a state official with knowledge of the letter. The letter explicitly stated that the request was part of a criminal investigation, said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The inquiry comes as Mr. Trump faces a second impeachment trial in Washington this week, on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in stirring up the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan 6. The violence that day followed weeks of false claims by the former president that election fraud deprived him of victory, including in Georgia, where he lost by about 12,000 votes.
For two months after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner, Mr. Trump relentlessly attacked election officials in Georgia, including Mr. Raffensperger and the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, claiming they were not doing enough to uncover instances of voting fraud that might change the outcome. In addition to the phone call to Mr. Raffensperger, he also called Gov. Brian Kemp in early December and pressured him to call a special legislative session to overturn his election loss. Later that month, Mr. Trump called a state investigator and pressed the official to “find the fraud,” according to those with knowledge of the call.

The inquiry makes Georgia the second state after New York where Mr. Trump faces a criminal investigation. And it comes in a jurisdiction where potential jurors are unlikely to be hospitable to the former president; Fulton County encompasses most of Atlanta and overwhelmingly supported President Biden in the November election.



CONTINUED:

Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Inquiry Into Trump’s Efforts to Subvert Election (Published 2021)

State officials are being instructed to preserve documents related to “attempts to influence” the Georgia election, just weeks after former President Donald J. Trump asked an elections official to “find” votes.

www.nytimes.com

 

[HIGH CALIBER]

Good post

 

[TENT]

Nothing is going to happen.

We have seen people commit crimes on video and no matter what they are free.

Wait until the George Floyd case.

I know they are taking years for this. It will happen during 2023 election time.

 

[lightbright]

RAW on the District Attorney Fani Willis

Fulton’s DA opens criminal investigation into Trump attempt to overturn Georgia’s election

As U.S. House managers made their case for the impeachment of Donald Trump, Fulton County’s top prosecutor on Wednesday launched a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the former president.

The investigation by District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat entering her second month in office, centers on a Jan. 2 phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with him to “find” enough votes to overturn his narrow defeat in the state.

“This letter is notice that the Fulton County District Attorney has opened an investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election,” Willis wrote in correspondences delivered Wednesday morning to Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Attorney General Chris Carr.

Willis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that her office was best suited to handle the investigation since all other relevant state investigative agencies have conflicts. In her letter, Willis said her office “is the one agency with jurisdiction that is not a witness to the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.”
“I don’t have any predetermined opinions” about whether a prosecution will even occur, she said. Willis would not say whether anyone else besides the former president is under investigation.

The veteran prosecutor, who ousted her former boss, Paul Howard, in last year’s Democratic primary, urged the officials to preserve documents related to Trump’s efforts to reverse the outcome of Georgia’s election.

“This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration,” Willis wrote.

Calling it a “matter of high priority,” Willis said the next Fulton County grand jury is set to convene in March and added “this office will begin requesting grand jury subpoenas as necessary at that time.” She said investigators have no “reason to believe that any Georgia official is a target of this investigation.”



The Jan. 2 call with Raffensperger factors directly into the second impeachment trial of Trump that began this week in the U.S. Senate. House impeachment managers allege that Trump’s attempts to undermine the vote in Georgia showed his willingness to incite an insurrection and spurred a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol days later.

The former president’s call to Raffensperger was just one part of his efforts to undo his narrow election defeat in Georgia, which Democrats captured in a White House vote for the first time since 1992.

He repeatedly urged Kemp to call a special session to overturn his defeat, pressed then-U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to block the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s victory in Congress and urged a state investigator to find fraud during a count of absentee ballots. He also trumpeted state legislators who demanded Kemp take more action to overturn the results.

Kemp and Raffensperger, along with other top state officials, consistently pushed back on Trump’s attempts and said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Courts at every level have dismissed challenges by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the election results.



CONTINUED:
Metro Atlanta prosecutor investigating Trump attempt to overturn Georgia election (ajc.com)

 

[lightbright]

@easy_b

Georgia Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Fani Willis’s Prosecution of Donald Trump for Election Crimes


It’s been less than a week since Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis publicly began an investigation into Donald Trump‘s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia Republicans are already trying in earnest to change the rules that apply to prosecutions of election crimes.

Georgia state Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday that seeks to change the Georgia State Constitution to mandate the use of state-wide grand juries in prosecutions involving election crimes. The move would force prosecutors to draw more grand jurors from predominantly Republican rural areas of the state.

Per the bill’s text:

(d) The Attorney General or his or her designee shall act as legal adviser to any state-wide grand jury. The Attorney General, in his or her discretion, may designate any member of his or her staff or any district attorney to provide legal advice, counsel, or assistance to a state-wide grand jury.
(e) The subject matter jurisdiction of state-wide grand juries shall extend to the investigation and indictment of persons or legal entities for any crime involving voting, elections, or a violation of the election laws of this state and all related crimes.

The change, if adopted, could create a significant hurdle for any case brought by Willis, who would normally bring the results of a criminal investigation before a Fulton County grand jury. As Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis commented on Twitter, using state-wide grand juries instead of county-wide ones would likely dilute the representation of Black residents on the panel.



Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia, with a population of 1,036,200; it also has the largest number of Black residents (approximately 440,568, which accounts of 43.6 percent of the county’s total population). By contrast, Georgia as a whole has a Black population of 32.6%.

Georgia’s Grand Jury Handbook appears to place more significance on representatively-proportional demographics than do members of its legislature. The Handbook explains to prospective grand jurors as follows:

All jurors are selected from a list of the qualified residents of the county. This list is developed by the Board of Jury Commissioners so that it reflects a fair cross-section of the citizens of the county. The primary sources for this list are drivers’ license records and voter registrations, but the Commissioners may use any other source to insure that the jury list fairly represents the population of the county.

In an email to Law&Crime, Professor Kreis called the proposal “a warning shot across the bow.”

“This measure is unlikely to secure the supermajority requirement for state constitutional amendments and would still require voter ratification even if it garnered the requisite number of votes in the General Assembly,” he said.

As a result, Kreis expects Willis to be undeterred by the move.

“Ultimately, I don’t think this particular proposal will weigh into her calculus over when and how to proceed,” Kreis predicted.

Twenty-five Georgia Senate Republicans co-sponsored the proposal for the Amendment. Georgia’s 56-member Senate currently has a Republican majority of 34 to 22. Amending the state’s constitution would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which would necessitate the vote of at least four Democrats before heading for ratification from voters.

Neither Fani Willis’s office nor the offices of the proposed amendment’s top sponsors immediately responded to request for comment.

[image via Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com





Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Donald Trump | Law&Crime (lawandcrime.com)

 

[easy_b]

@easy_b

Georgia Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Fani Willis’s Prosecution of Donald Trump for Election Crimes


It’s been less than a week since Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis publicly began an investigation into Donald Trump‘s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia Republicans are already trying in earnest to change the rules that apply to prosecutions of election crimes.

Georgia state Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday that seeks to change the Georgia State Constitution to mandate the use of state-wide grand juries in prosecutions involving election crimes. The move would force prosecutors to draw more grand jurors from predominantly Republican rural areas of the state.

Per the bill’s text:


The change, if adopted, could create a significant hurdle for any case brought by Willis, who would normally bring the results of a criminal investigation before a Fulton County grand jury. As Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis commented on Twitter, using state-wide grand juries instead of county-wide ones would likely dilute the representation of Black residents on the panel.



Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia, with a population of 1,036,200; it also has the largest number of Black residents (approximately 440,568, which accounts of 43.6 percent of the county’s total population). By contrast, Georgia as a whole has a Black population of 32.6%.

Georgia’s Grand Jury Handbook appears to place more significance on representatively-proportional demographics than do members of its legislature. The Handbook explains to prospective grand jurors as follows:


In an email to Law&Crime, Professor Kreis called the proposal “a warning shot across the bow.”

“This measure is unlikely to secure the supermajority requirement for state constitutional amendments and would still require voter ratification even if it garnered the requisite number of votes in the General Assembly,” he said.

As a result, Kreis expects Willis to be undeterred by the move.

“Ultimately, I don’t think this particular proposal will weigh into her calculus over when and how to proceed,” Kreis predicted.

Twenty-five Georgia Senate Republicans co-sponsored the proposal for the Amendment. Georgia’s 56-member Senate currently has a Republican majority of 34 to 22. Amending the state’s constitution would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which would necessitate the vote of at least four Democrats before heading for ratification from voters.

Neither Fani Willis’s office nor the offices of the proposed amendment’s top sponsors immediately responded to request for comment.

[image via Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com





Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Donald Trump | Law&Crime (lawandcrime.com)

Yeah metro Atlanta is about the flex that muscle so let’s see what his goals

 

[blackpepper]

@easy_b

Georgia Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Fani Willis’s Prosecution of Donald Trump for Election Crimes


It’s been less than a week since Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis publicly began an investigation into Donald Trump‘s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia Republicans are already trying in earnest to change the rules that apply to prosecutions of election crimes.

Georgia state Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday that seeks to change the Georgia State Constitution to mandate the use of state-wide grand juries in prosecutions involving election crimes. The move would force prosecutors to draw more grand jurors from predominantly Republican rural areas of the state.

Per the bill’s text:


The change, if adopted, could create a significant hurdle for any case brought by Willis, who would normally bring the results of a criminal investigation before a Fulton County grand jury. As Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis commented on Twitter, using state-wide grand juries instead of county-wide ones would likely dilute the representation of Black residents on the panel.



Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia, with a population of 1,036,200; it also has the largest number of Black residents (approximately 440,568, which accounts of 43.6 percent of the county’s total population). By contrast, Georgia as a whole has a Black population of 32.6%.

Georgia’s Grand Jury Handbook appears to place more significance on representatively-proportional demographics than do members of its legislature. The Handbook explains to prospective grand jurors as follows:


In an email to Law&Crime, Professor Kreis called the proposal “a warning shot across the bow.”

“This measure is unlikely to secure the supermajority requirement for state constitutional amendments and would still require voter ratification even if it garnered the requisite number of votes in the General Assembly,” he said.

As a result, Kreis expects Willis to be undeterred by the move.

“Ultimately, I don’t think this particular proposal will weigh into her calculus over when and how to proceed,” Kreis predicted.

Twenty-five Georgia Senate Republicans co-sponsored the proposal for the Amendment. Georgia’s 56-member Senate currently has a Republican majority of 34 to 22. Amending the state’s constitution would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which would necessitate the vote of at least four Democrats before heading for ratification from voters.

Neither Fani Willis’s office nor the offices of the proposed amendment’s top sponsors immediately responded to request for comment.

[image via Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com





Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Donald Trump | Law&Crime (lawandcrime.com)

They will absolutely do this, because there is nothing to stop them except perhaps their own state supreme court. This is a low down, bold faced, and blatant dirty trick of an attempt to shield their messiah from prosecution for his efforts to undermine democracy. In spite of the fact that its as clear as day, the Ga.S.C. will most likely allow it. Just another "perfect call" in their eyes.

 

[Bad Andy]

Wow, this is the type of shit you would think only happens in communist countries or third world nations.

@easy_b

Georgia Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Fani Willis’s Prosecution of Donald Trump for Election Crimes


It’s been less than a week since Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis publicly began an investigation into Donald Trump‘s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia Republicans are already trying in earnest to change the rules that apply to prosecutions of election crimes.

Georgia state Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday that seeks to change the Georgia State Constitution to mandate the use of state-wide grand juries in prosecutions involving election crimes. The move would force prosecutors to draw more grand jurors from predominantly Republican rural areas of the state.

Per the bill’s text:


The change, if adopted, could create a significant hurdle for any case brought by Willis, who would normally bring the results of a criminal investigation before a Fulton County grand jury. As Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis commented on Twitter, using state-wide grand juries instead of county-wide ones would likely dilute the representation of Black residents on the panel.



Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia, with a population of 1,036,200; it also has the largest number of Black residents (approximately 440,568, which accounts of 43.6 percent of the county’s total population). By contrast, Georgia as a whole has a Black population of 32.6%.

Georgia’s Grand Jury Handbook appears to place more significance on representatively-proportional demographics than do members of its legislature. The Handbook explains to prospective grand jurors as follows:


In an email to Law&Crime, Professor Kreis called the proposal “a warning shot across the bow.”

“This measure is unlikely to secure the supermajority requirement for state constitutional amendments and would still require voter ratification even if it garnered the requisite number of votes in the General Assembly,” he said.

As a result, Kreis expects Willis to be undeterred by the move.

“Ultimately, I don’t think this particular proposal will weigh into her calculus over when and how to proceed,” Kreis predicted.

Twenty-five Georgia Senate Republicans co-sponsored the proposal for the Amendment. Georgia’s 56-member Senate currently has a Republican majority of 34 to 22. Amending the state’s constitution would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which would necessitate the vote of at least four Democrats before heading for ratification from voters.

Neither Fani Willis’s office nor the offices of the proposed amendment’s top sponsors immediately responded to request for comment.

[image via Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? tips@lawandcrime.com





Republicans Are Trying to Change the Rules for Donald Trump | Law&Crime (lawandcrime.com)

 

[lightbright]

Fani Willis could get it.... RAW..... in front of the jury !!!


Fulton DA’s investigation into Trump heads to grand jury

Fulton County prosecutors are expected to appear before a grand jury this week seeking subpoenas for documents and witnesses related to their investigation of former President Donald Trump and some of his top associates for possible election fraud, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Legal experts are split as to whether there’s a strong case to be made, but most agree Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results merit greater scrutiny. Fani Willis, Fulton’s new district attorney, has said she’s prepared to follow the evidence wherever it leads.


Some believe the recording of Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger leaning on him to “find” the votes to reverse Joe Biden’s win is grounds to move forward.






Fulton DA’s probe of Trump and Ga. election heads to grand jury (ajc.com)

 

[lightbright]

Exclusive: Georgia prosecutor probing Trump taps leading racketeering attorney



(Reuters) - The district attorney investigating whether former U.S. President Donald Trump illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who is a national authority on racketeering, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.

The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.

A representative for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

Floyd’s appointment signals that racketeering could feature prominently in the investigation. It’s an area of law where Willis has extensive experience - including a high-profile Atlanta case where she won racketeering convictions of 11 public educators for a scheme to cheat on standardized tests.

The investigation of Trump focuses in part on his phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, asking the secretary to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims.

Willis - a Democrat who in January became the county’s first Black woman district attorney - will have to navigate a fraught political landscape. She faces pressure from Democrats in Atlanta and nationally to pursue an aggressive prosecution, along with scrutiny from Republicans in a state historically dominated by that party.

Floyd declined to comment when asked about the appointment but spoke to Reuters about his past experiences working with Willis.

In 2014, when Willis was an assistant district attorney in Atlanta, Floyd was brought in as a special prosecutor for the racketeering case that grew out of the schools cheating scandal.

“It was very much a team effort,” Floyd said of working with Willis.

The cheating case could provide clues to her strategy for investigating Trump, legal experts say, while stressing that the probe is still in its early stages.

If she pursues racketeering charges, Willis will need to prove a pattern of corruption by Trump, alone or with his allies, aimed at overturning the election results to stay in power. While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials.

The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally passed in 1970 to help tie Mafia bosses to the crimes of their underlings by allowing prosecutors to argue they conspired together in a “criminal enterprise.” Over the years, however, its reach has grown to include businesses and other organizations as enterprises subject to the law.




CONTINUED:
Exclusive: Georgia prosecutor probing Trump taps leading racketeering attorney | Reuters


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[HIGH CALIBER]

Exclusive: Georgia prosecutor probing Trump taps leading racketeering attorney



(Reuters) - The district attorney investigating whether former U.S. President Donald Trump illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who is a national authority on racketeering, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.

The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.

A representative for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

Floyd’s appointment signals that racketeering could feature prominently in the investigation. It’s an area of law where Willis has extensive experience - including a high-profile Atlanta case where she won racketeering convictions of 11 public educators for a scheme to cheat on standardized tests.

The investigation of Trump focuses in part on his phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, asking the secretary to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims.

Willis - a Democrat who in January became the county’s first Black woman district attorney - will have to navigate a fraught political landscape. She faces pressure from Democrats in Atlanta and nationally to pursue an aggressive prosecution, along with scrutiny from Republicans in a state historically dominated by that party.

Floyd declined to comment when asked about the appointment but spoke to Reuters about his past experiences working with Willis.

In 2014, when Willis was an assistant district attorney in Atlanta, Floyd was brought in as a special prosecutor for the racketeering case that grew out of the schools cheating scandal.

“It was very much a team effort,” Floyd said of working with Willis.

The cheating case could provide clues to her strategy for investigating Trump, legal experts say, while stressing that the probe is still in its early stages.

If she pursues racketeering charges, Willis will need to prove a pattern of corruption by Trump, alone or with his allies, aimed at overturning the election results to stay in power. While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials.

The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally passed in 1970 to help tie Mafia bosses to the crimes of their underlings by allowing prosecutors to argue they conspired together in a “criminal enterprise.” Over the years, however, its reach has grown to include businesses and other organizations as enterprises subject to the law.




CONTINUED:
Exclusive: Georgia prosecutor probing Trump taps leading racketeering attorney | Reuters


.

Good info

 

[lightbright]

Recording of Trump Phone Call to Georgia Lead Investigator Reveals New Details
Then-president says ‘Something bad happened’ and presses for investigation into Fulton County votes

ATLANTA—Then-President Donald Trump urged the chief investigator of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office to look for fraud during an audit of mail-in ballots in a suburban Atlanta county, on a phone call he made to her in late December.

During the six-minute call, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump repeatedly said that he won Georgia. “Something bad happened,” he said.

“When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Mr. Trump told the chief investigator, Frances Watson.



CONTINUED:
Recording of Trump Phone Call to Georgia Lead Investigator Reveals New Details - WSJ