Spring is likely to be uncomfortable for ex-President Donald Trump.Image: AP / Andrew Harnik
analysis
A Georgia judge has ordered parts of an investigative report into vote rigging to be released.
Philipp Löpfe / watson.ch
“Find me 11,780 votes,” Donald Trump asked Georgia State Secretary Brad Raffensperger in a legendary phone call. And because this conversation was recorded and Trump’s voice can be recognized by a five-year-old, the case seems crystal clear to laypeople: The ex-president clearly attempted to rig the 2020 election in his favor and committed a criminal offense.
Fani Willis, a coroner in Fulton County, a Georgia county, has been trying to cast this seemingly obvious finding into an indictment for two years. To this end, she has convened a special grand jury, a body that accompanies a kind of preliminary investigation. Numerous people had to testify before this grand jury.
More than one witness: Rudy Giuliani.Image: AP / Jacquelyn Martin
Among them were prominent names such as Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and Lindsey Graham, the fickle South Carolina senator. He had tried to refuse to testify and took his case to the Supreme Court, where he lost.
Many of the people who had to trot before the special grand jury are not just witnesses. 20 of them were warned that they were being investigated for possible crimes. Among them are Giuliani and David Shafer, leader of the Georgia Republican Party.
The special grand jury does not have the power to decide whether or who to indict. This requires a regular grand jury (sorry, US law can be very complicated). But the panel has written a detailed report on what came out of these testimonies. And members have been pushing for this report to be published.
Coroner Willis has vetoed this on the grounds that she does not want potential defendants to be prejudiced. In any case, she will soon let the cat out of the bag and, together with a regular grand jury, clarify whether and who should be indicted.
A judge makes a Solomonic verdict
Media representatives have in turn filed a class action lawsuit against this veto and, in the name of transparency, have demanded the publication of the report.
Now a judge named Robert McBurney has passed a Solomonic verdict. He decreed that parts of the report – the introduction, the summary and individual testimonies without naming – to be published on Thursday.
There are many indications that the findings of the report are explosive. The judge has suggested that some of the interviewees gave false testimony and perjury is included in the USA an offense punishable by up to five years in prison. Rudy Giuliani is likely to be one who is probably not sleeping well anymore.
The all-important question, however, is: What about Trump? It remains to be seen whether a district coroner is actually suitable to indict an ex-president. But far more potent legal artillery is also being deployed against Trump. Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has now assembled his team and moved into offices across from the Justice Department. Now he starts.
Smith is considered tough Dog. He has two things to clarify right away: What exactly is it about the secret documents that the FBI seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida? And what role did Trump play before and during the storming of the Capitol?
Regarded as a tough dog: Special Representative Jack Smith.Image: Pool AP / Peter Dejong
Apparently, Smith doesn’t burn anything. He’s already called Mike Pence as a witness. Trump’s deputy could clarify once and for all what the ex-president intended to do in the fateful weeks after his election defeat. Knowing this intent is essential to a successful impeachment against Trump.
Such an indictment – should it actually come about – must be made this early summer. After that, the primary elections for the 2024 presidential election will soon begin, and with it the time when such an indictment would be problematic for political reasons.
Smith’s team is therefore going full steam ahead through the numerous documents and testimonies collected by the committee to investigate the events of January 6, 2021, and is summoning witnesses themselves. At the same time, the lawyers who dealt with the classified documents are also being questioned.
In New York, meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has reopened his investigation into the hush money case to porn star Stormy Daniels. It can therefore be dared to predict that a stormy spring awaits Trump – at least as far as his legal affairs are concerned.
Will she be Trump’s runner-up? Kari Lake.Image: AP / Ross D Franklin
That in no way stops the Trump camp from continuing to peddle the big lie – the lie that he won the 2020 election. Kari Lake, also a failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate, is currently on tour in the state of Iowa. Lake is being discussed as a possible vice president for Trump.
Although Lake ultimately lost quite clearly, like Trump, she never admitted defeat. Like the ex-president, she knows that the members of her party are behind her. According to a recent poll, 55 percent of Republicans remain convinced that Joe Biden’s victory was the result of election fraud.
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