BY PHILIP ELLIOTT
POLITICS
THE SIGNS IN GEORGIA WERE THERE FOR MONTHS. BACK in February, the forewoman of a special grand jury hinted that her advisory panel had recommended criminal charges against “not a short list” of familiar names in connection to an effort to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. The prosecutor asked a county judge in May to keep the courthouse clear and prepared for any potential violence, just in case she moved ahead with a second grand jury seeking an indictment of ex-President Donald Trump. On July 27, orange barricades encircled the Fulton County courthouse compound, telegraphing as clearly as possible that the former Leader of the Free World was about to face a judicial summons, even as he leads the pack of rivals for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2024.
And on Aug. 14, those convinced Trump may have acted illegally in his attempts to set aside his legitimate loss in Georgia in 2020 found they were not alone: the Fulton County district attorney and a grand jury agree. The indictment they handed down includes 13 state charges of racketeering, soliciting a public official to violate their oath, and conspiracies to impersonate a public official, to commit forgery, to falsify writings and statements, and to file false documents.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ indictment brings the number of criminal cases against Trump to four, after he became the first President to ever be criminally indicted earlier this year. He now faces 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions, and will need to juggle numerous trial dates with the packed 2024 primary calendar. (Trump has pleaded not guilty or denied wrongdoing in all charges.)
It’s been a busy August. Just two weeks before Willis, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith brought felony charges against Trump for similar alleged attempts to subvert the will of the voters in 2020 and his alleged role in fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. On Aug. 1, Smith charged Trump with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and a conspiracy against voting rights.
The charges are severe, and may offer catharsis for those seeking accountability for the violence in D.C. that sent scores of career politicos into therapy for the trauma that comes when a federal office building becomes a war zone. But however historic and powerful the Ju
