A Georgia court on Monday indicted former US President Donald Trump and 18 others for their alleged wrongful attempts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election in the key state.
“Americans increasingly understand that Donald Trump has committed criminal acts”Estimates Reed Brody, former deputy prosecutor of the State of New York, Tuesday August 15 on franceinfo, after the announcement of the indictment of the former president in the State of Georgia.
>> Donald Trump indicted: what to remember from the appearance of the former president for conspiracy against American institutions
Donald Trump is accused of asking a senior local official to “find” the some 12,000 ballots in his name that he lacked to win this state in the 2020 presidential election. This is Donald Trump’s fourth indictment in less than six months.
franceinfo: Why is this new indictment different from the others?
Reed Brody : It’s a state charge that’s beyond federal control. If Donald Trump were to be elected president, the president does not have the power to pardon anyone who has been convicted of a state crime in Georgia. Even the governor doesn’t have that authority to grant him a pardon, because Georgia is one of the only states where there is an independent board that makes the decision to pardon. In the state of Georgia, the trial is broadcast live, there are cameras in the courtrooms.
Fanny Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, where this trial will take place, wants a speedy trial. How do you interpret this decision?
Everyone wants this trial to happen before the electoral calendar, not to happen in the middle of the electoral campaign. And I think it’s a shame that, in Georgia and at the federal level, it took so long. January 6 was three years ago after all. It would have been much healthier for democracy if these indictments had come last year. Now, Trump’s argument is that we are piling up these lawsuits to interfere with the presidential campaign. And in this he is not wrong. Fanny Willis wants it to be within six months, but it’s not her who decides, it’s the judge, and, given the complexity of the case and the number of defendants, I think that’s a rather ambitious goal. .
The Fulton County Sheriff does not rule out taking the “mugshot” (photo of the accused person in front of a height chart) of Donald Trump. Can this image harm his reputation?
So far, Donald Trump’s string of indictments have not hurt his popularity within the Republican Party. On the contrary, each time he is indicted, he uses his indictment as a campaign theme and he occupies all the Republican space. Now, I don’t think that’s going to help him in the general election. I think Americans increasingly understand that Donald Trump has committed criminal acts. I think the “mugshot” can help. Besides, I think he’s going to use the “mugshot”, but in the electorate in general, I don’t think it’s going to help him at all.
In the United States, elections are marked by a bipartisan system with Republicans and Democrats, but there are also undecided voters, independents. Can this segment of the population be sensitive to this fourth indictment?
For now, the polls, despite everything Donald Trump has done, have him neck and neck with Biden, but with plenty of undecided. I find it hard to think that the undecided, who overwhelmingly voted for Biden the last time around, will vote for Trump with all the criminal charges he has accumulated. I think it would be really dramatic for American democracy if someone who tried to hold on to power after losing the election was re-elected president.
2023-08-15 09:58:44
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