ATLANTA — A list of Georgia criminal charges against Donald Trump briefly appeared on a Fulton County website Monday, but prosecutors said the former president has not been charged in a lengthy ongoing investigation into the case. the 2020 presidential election.
A Fulton County grand jury began hearing witnesses Monday. Shortly after noon, Reuters reported a list of several criminal charges to be brought against Donald Trump, including charges of extortion, conspiracy to commit false statements and solicitation of breach of oath by a public officer. .
Reuters, which later published a copy of the document, said the filing was removed promptly thereafter. A spokesperson for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claimed the filing of the charging document was “inaccurate,” but declined to comment further.
Prosecutors were expected to present those counts to the grand jury. It is unclear why the charges were detailed in a filing while grand jurors were still hearing from witnesses on Monday.
For two and a half years, Ms. Willis has investigated the actions taken by Donald Trump and others in their effort to overturn his narrow Georgia loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Barriers and street closures around the downtown Atlanta courthouse, along with statements made by Ms. Willis, had indicated a grand jury presentation was likely to begin this week.
Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, said the filing on the court’s website of a list of charges that prosecutors plan to ask the grand jury to vote on was likely an administrative error.
“The grand jury doesn’t sit around a table to write indictments, they are presented to them,” he said. I think that tells us what they plan to present to the grand jury, and the grand jury might say no.”
Donald Trump and his lawyers were quick to seize the opportunity of the leak to claim the process was rigged, but Mr Cunningham does not believe that will ultimately impact the case.
The prosecutors present the elements of the investigation
Atlanta prosecutors investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies unlawfully interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia, US, have begun presenting their case to the grand jury.
Former Democratic state senator Jen Jordan, who was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, said as she left the Fulton County courthouse late Monday morning that she had been questioned for about 40 minutes.
Media reported that former Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Gabriel Sterling, a senior official in the secretary of state’s office, were seen arriving at the courthouse earlier on Monday.
Ms Nguyen and Ms Jordan both participated in legislative hearings in December 2020, in which former New York mayor and Mr Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others made false claims about voter fraud widespread in Georgia.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, also appeared in at least one of those hearings. He claimed the election was not held according to Georgia law and that lawmakers should name a new electoral slate.
Mr. Sterling and his boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both Republicans — have vigorously opposed allegations of widespread problems with the Georgia election.
On Jan. 2, 2021, Mr. Trump phoned Mr. Raffensperger to suggest he help him “find” the votes Mr. Trump needed to beat Mr. Biden. It was the release of a recording of that phone call that prompted Ms. Willis to open her investigation about a month later.
2023-08-14 21:00:01
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