Donald Trump braces for two more historic indictments

“I want voters to listen to this – it is most likely, that by the time we get to the debate stage on August 23, the frontrunner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions: Florida, Washington, Georgia and New York,” former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a former Trump ally turned rival, told CNN over the weekend.

Whether a fresh round of charges will sway the minds of Republican voters is yet to be seen.

However, in a sign that things are coming to a head, Fulton County District’s Willis has given her strongest hint yet that a criminal indictment may be imminent over the attempt by Trump and allies to subvert the 2020 election vote in Georgia – the battleground state that ultimately secured Biden’s presidency.

Barricades have also gone up around Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta as part of a broad suite of security measures to protect the area amid concerns of unrest.

“I think that the sheriff is doing something smart in making sure that the courthouse stays safe,” Willis, a Democrat, told local network WXIA at an event over the weekend.

In relation to the probe, she said: “The work is accomplished… We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”

Since 2021, Willis has been overseeing a special grand jury investigation that was sparked, in part, by Trump’s now infamous phone call to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which urged him to “find” the votes needed to stop Biden from winning Georgia.

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” an insistent Trump is heard saying on a leaked recording of the call. “Because we won the state.”

But the probe has also embroiled key members of Trump’s orbit, such as disgraced lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as well as lesser known state Republicans, all of whom were allegedly involved in a brazen scheme to create a slate of “fake electors” who would flip the results by sending phony vote tallies to the US Congress.

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Under the US’s electoral college system for presidential elections, states use “electors” to officially represent the will of voters in each state. Trump’s campaign tried to nominate and use electors who would have illegally stood for Trump, rather than Biden, who won Georgia.

In a last-ditch attempt to block the Georgia investigation, the former president had sought to throw out evidence collected by the special grand jury in the case and remove Willis from the investigation.

However, a Georgia judge rejected this bid on Monday, writing in a nine-page order that the former president did not have the legal standing to make such challenges before indictments were handed down.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, a separate grand jury is due to meet on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) as part of the months-long probe into Trump’s attempt to stop Biden’s election victory from being certified, allegedly by conspiring to set up a fake electors scheme across multiple states and then, when that failed, by inciting the riots at the US Capitol.

Law enforcement authorities have been making security preparations for days amid expectations of a possible indictment, after the Justice Department sent Trump a letter two weeks ago informing him he was a target. According to the letter, Trump could be charged over three statutes: witness tampering; conspiracy to defraud the United States; and deprivation of rights under colour of law.

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On Monday (Tuesday AEST), he declared: “I assume that an Indictment from Deranged Jack Smith and his highly partisan gang of Thugs, pertaining to my “PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY (sic) Speech, will be coming out any day now” as a strategy to bury bad news relating to the business dealings of Hunter Biden, which are currently under scrutiny.

Smith is the special counsel overseeing the classified documents case, which intensified last week when Trump was hit with additional charges, along with a new co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, who is accused of scheming with the former president of trying to delete security footage sought by investigators.

De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, made his first court appearance on Monday but did not enter a plea because he has not found a Florida-based attorney to represent him. He was released on bail with an arraignment scheduled for August 10.

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