ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and his allies have been put on notice by prosecutors, but the warning didn’t come from anyone at the Justice Department.
Georgia prosecutors said she may soon face criminal charges for trying to subvert the two-year-old election. Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis tried to block the release of the special grand jury report last week, arguing that decisions in the case are “foreclosed” and publication of the report could jeopardize the rights of “future defendants.”
Willis, a Democrat, did not mention Trump by name, but her comments were the first time prosecutors have hinted at possible indictments in several current investigations involving the Republican former president. That comment confirmed speculation that the investigation, which focused in part on Trump’s calls with Georgia’s secretary of state, could be completed before the start of a federal probe.
“I would wait to see an indictment before I see any federal charges in Fulton County,” said Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University.
In addition to the Georgia inquiry, the Justice Department’s special counsel is investigating Trump over his role in overturning his 2020 presidential election loss and the mishandling of classified documents.
Trump appeared to be in serious legal jeopardy over the investigation into a cache of classified material at a Florida resort, and that threat remains. But that case appears to be complicated, at least politically, by the recent discovery of classified records at President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and Washington office. The Justice Department tapped a separate special counsel to investigate the case.
Willis opened an investigation into her office shortly after the release of a recording of a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In that conversation, then-President Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, suggested they could “get” the votes needed to reverse Trump’s narrow electoral loss to Democrat Biden.
“I just want to do this: I just want to get 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said on the call.
Since then, the scope of the investigation has expanded significantly, including allegations of false Republican voter disclosures, phone calls made by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the weeks after the 2020 election, and widespread allegations of voter fraud against state lawmakers. .
In the interview, Trump said he did “absolutely nothing wrong” and that his phone call with Raffensperger was “perfect.” He said he felt “very confident” he would not be charged.
“She has to stop violent crime, and that’s her job,” Trump said of Willis. “Not going after people for political reasons, that made things perfect.”
It’s unclear how Willis’ case will affect the Justice Department’s investigations or what her team’s relationship with federal investigators has been. Justice Department prosecutors have been busy discussing their investigations with little indication of how or when they will end.
But Willis’ comments indicate that the Georgia investigation is on track to be resolved — with charges — on a timetable independent of what the Justice Department plans to do, legal experts said.
Georgia State professor Cunningham pointed out that Willis’ comments indicate that the special grand jury report contains details about people the panel and Willis believe should be investigated at least a little more.
He added, “Unless she saw the names of potential future defendants in the report, she would not have talked about it because the release of the report would prejudice future defendants.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland in November tapped Jack Smith, a former public corruption prosecutor, to serve as special counsel overseeing investigations into Trump’s actions through Jan. 6, 2021, leading to the Capitol riots and hundreds of classified documents. Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida
Although Smith and a team of prosecutors issued a Superior Court injunction, he did not say when the investigation might be completed or who might be targeted.
Garland declined to discuss the investigations, saying that “no one is above the law” and that there are no separate rules for Democrats and Republicans.
FBI agents recently searched Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home and found six items containing classified documents, the White House said. More dodging Justice Department calculations: This month, classified records were found at the Indiana home of Trump Vice President Mike Pence.
Public statements about the Willis case are the result of a somewhat unusual process in Georgia.
In January of last year, Willis sought to convene a special grand jury to speak to her, citing the need for the subpoena power to compel witnesses who would otherwise be unwilling to speak to her. In a letter to Fulton County’s chief judge, she said she had received information about a “reasonable possibility” of “possible criminal disruption” of the 2020 election in Georgia.
The county Superior Court judges voted to accept the request, and the panel was seated in May. The Supreme Court heard from 75 witnesses and examined evidence gathered by prosecutors and investigators. Among the witnesses who testified were former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, US Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina and Georgia state officials like Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp.
The panel did not have the power to bring charges, but the report is expected to include recommendations for further action, possibly including criminal charges.
A special grand jury was dissolved earlier this month after completing its investigation report. The grand jury recommended that the report be made public.
News organizations, including the Associated Press, argued that the report should be released. At last week’s hearing, Willis said a decision to press charges was pending and that she opposed releasing the report because “we want everyone to be treated fairly and for future defendants to be treated fairly. It’s not appropriate to release this report at this time.”
Attorneys for witnesses and others who have been identified as targets have insisted that Willis was motivated by politics rather than legitimate concerns that a crime had been committed. Among other things, they pointed out that she was the first to be willing to speak to her public statements and to print and television news outlets.
Danny Porter, a Republican who served as district attorney in neighboring Gwinnett County, said Willis is navigating unfamiliar territory. Special grand juries are relatively rare in Georgia, and the law doesn’t give prosecutors much guidance, he said.
Still, Porter says, Willis appears to have crossed no ethical or legal red lines that call into question the validity of the investigation.
I didn’t see anything that made me go, “Oh jeez, I wouldn’t have done that,” “in the process.”
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Tucker reports from Washington. AP writer Meg Kinard in Columbia, South Carolina contributed to this report.