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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Yesterday Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave the strongest indication yet that she intends to bring indictments in the 2020 election interference case in early August. In a letter to Chief Judge Ural Glanville of the Superior Court of Fulton County, which was first reported by the New York Times, the DA informed the court that approximately 70 percent of her office staff would be working remotely during ten specific dates between July 31 and August 18. The FCDAO “leadership team” as well as “armed investigators” will be in the building as usual.
The DA further requested that the court clear its own premises of civilians during the same time period:
I am aware that the week of July 31 through August 4, most judges will be attending the state’s annual judicial conference and few if any in person proceedings will be held. I respectfully request that judges not schedule trials and in person hearings during the weeks beginning Monday, August 7 and Monday, August 14. If judges schedule in person hearings during the post-conference days when my office will be working partially remote, senior leadership will handle those proceedings.
Along with the prior request that the Fulton County Sheriff “ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public” during a similar time period, yesterday’s letter strongly suggests that the DA is seeking an indictment of a high profile figure — perhaps one with a history of inciting his followers to violent acts against the government.
There was also the unfortunate babbling to jurors by the special purpose grand jury foreperson, who burst out laughing upon being told by an Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter that Trump claimed “total exoneration” by the panel, saying “Did he really say that? Oh, that’s fantastic. That’s phenomenal. I love it.”
Adding to the ominous drumbeat, Judge Robert McBurney seems disinclined to grant the former president’s motion to disappear the special purpose grand jury’s (mostly) sealed report and all the underlying evidence from its inquiry. In March, Trump moved to quash the report, allegedly to vindicate the rights of grand jury witnesses. He also demanded the disqualification of the entire FCDAO from 2020 election prosecutions, as well as the recusal of Judge McBurney himself from the case. DA Willis responded primarily by noting that Trump lacks any standing, and anyway the witnesses themselves have made similar motions, including for disqualification, which were all rejected.
Trump requested three weeks to reply, but in a terse ruling today, Judge McBurney wrote, “To date, the Court has received well over five hundred pages of briefing, argument and exhibits on the issues raised by former President Trump and [alternate Trump elector Cathy] Latham. That is plenty. There will be no more briefing unless it is solicited, in writing, by the Court.”
This would appear to put the kibosh on an amicus brief which a group of former federal and Georgia prosecutors seek to file in objection to the “extraordinary and unwarranted relief” Trump seeks from the court.
Luckily, we have a leader with gravitas to calm the turbulent waters.
Oh, dear.
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.
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