Daniel Sutter: The COVID stimulus and the COVID recession
Did the fiscal and monetary policy responses to the COVID-19 economic shock — $5 trillion in spending and a $5 trillion increase in the Federal Reserve System’s balance sheet — prevent a worse recession? Economics takes up such challenging questions. There are several related questions I will not consider here. Do the costs of inflation spurred by the COVID-19 stimulus outweigh any gain from a milder recession? How does the labor shortage worsened by generous unemployment benefits affect evaluation? Finally, did the “lockdown” policies even slow the spread of COVID-19? If not, the costs of job losses and business closures were for naught. What would have happened with the lockdowns but without the COVID stimulus measures? This involves constructing a counterfactual, or path of the economy we did not observe. Washington and the Federal Reserve acted aggressively, so we did not observe lockdowns with no stimulus, and we cannot conduct a replay to experiment. Economists construct models to build internally consistent counterfactuals. We want realistic counterfactuals, given the proviso that we cannot verify predictions about a path the world did not travel. Economics is about envisioning paths we have not traveled. Let’s start with the potential for fiscal and monetary policy to counter downturns in the main macroeconomic model. Macroeconomics views recessions as short-run fluctuations around a long-run equilibrium with steady economic growth. In this framework, the economy eventually self-corrects. Fiscal and monetary policy can, at best, shorten or moderate a recession. Supply and demand are the two sides of any economic market. Recessions occur due to fluctuations in aggregate demand or aggregate supply. Some recessions are supply shocks (1970s oil shocks), while others result from reduced aggregate demand. Fiscal policy uses debt-financed government spending to increase aggregate demand. A monetary stimulus can increase aggregate demand through business investment or offset a credit-induced supply disruption. Monetary policy can also assist banks in distress to prevent a collapse of credit. Macro models also offer reasons why fiscal and monetary policy may not work. One reason is lags in fiscal and monetary policy. A stimulus will not immediately boost economic activity, just like aspirin does not instantaneously relieve a headache. This can be offset through forecasting, but economic forecasting is imperfect. Government spending can also crowd out private spending and not boost demand, while businesses might not borrow even if the Fed lowers interest rates. Is stabilization policy effective? Economists do not agree. Some see the depth of the Great Recession despite the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Fed’s monetary response as demonstrating ineffectiveness. Others contend that the package was too small (about $800 billion). Recovery from the COVID recession was quick and vigorous. The recession lasted just two months, the shortest on record. It took seven and a half years to eliminate the 5.5 percentage point increase in unemployment from the Great Recession. The 11.2 percentage point COVID increase in unemployment was erased by July 2022. Does this mean the stimulus worked? CARES Act checks were largely saved and not spent. The Boston Fed argues that spring 2020 PPP payments went to the largest eligible businesses and saved few jobs. A paper by University of California’s Alan Auerbach and coauthors documents that government spending prevented job losses only in cities not under strict stay-at-home orders. Fiscal policy normally increases consumer spending. During COVID, fiscal policy appears to have impacted supply directly. I believe that COVID did not produce a recession as much as a shutdown. The appropriate comparison may be a resort community during the offseason. Economic activity craters, but everyone knows why and expects a recovery with the change of seasons. Relaxing lockdowns brought economic recovery. The brief COVID recession does not yield many lessons about macro stabilization. Much of CARES Act spending was probably not even a fiscal stimulus but rather compensation for the economic victims of lockdown. We did not need trillions in Federal spending to end the COVID recession, just governments to allow commerce again. Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVisi n. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.
Former Cumberland law school dean John Carroll has died
Samford University President Beck Taylor reported that longtime Cumberland Law School Dean John Carroll died on Monday. Carroll served as Dean at Samford’s prestigious law school for 13 years. He also served as a federal judge in Montgomery for 16 years. “The Samford family mourns the passing of Judge John Carroll, Dean of Cumberland School of Law from 2001-2014,” Taylor wrote on Twitter. “Judge Carroll was a beloved colleague and friend. Prayers extend to Susan and the entire family.” Carroll was a native of Washington, D.C., and served as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He received his undergraduate degree from Tufts College, his law degree from Samford, and his master’s in law from Harvard. Cumberland was Carroll’s alma mater. He graduated from Cumberland in 1974 and went to work for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as its legal director – a position he held for ten years. He served as a law professor at Mercer for a short term after leaving the SPLC. In 1985 he became a federal judge and served in the Middle District in Montgomery. He left the bench in 2001 to return to his beloved Cumberland School of Law. While at Cumberland, the school focused on trial advocacy. Carroll founded and served as the supervising attorney for the Cumberland Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic, which became more commonly known as C-VETS. Since the program launched in 2020, it has positively impacted the lives of countless veterans across the state of Alabama. Carroll also served on the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, a group that analyzes and makes recommendations to the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress on possible changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. “Samford is a unique place—it really is,” Carroll said. “It’s a Christian-oriented school but one that’s a convening place for all sorts of different ideas and the exchange of different ideas. It was a great experience, and I’m very, very thankful for the opportunity to serve both the law school and the university.” Cumberland School of Law dean Blake Hudson said, “Judge Carroll was a beloved colleague and friend. We owe him a great deal of gratitude for simply being who he was―an inspiring leader who always put others, and country, before himself.” Carroll stepped down as dean in 2014 as one of the longest-serving law school deans in the nation to return to being a full-time law school professor at Cumberland. In law school, Judge Carroll taught courses related to mediation, evidence, trial practice, ethics and professionalism, and e-discovery. He is survived by his wife, Susan, and their children. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
15 people exposed to rabies after cat contracts rabies in Russell county
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported that a cat in Russell County had contracted rabies. That cat exposed four family members from Hurtsboro to the deadly illness and 11 staff members at an Opelika veterinary hospital. In another incident, a laboratory confirmed that a Lee County raccoon had rabies, exposing one person. The most common variant found in domestic animals is the raccoon variant. Rabies infections in raccoons are common in some areas of Alabama, including Russell and Lee counties. Raccoons frequently visit homes and farmsteads to forage in the garbage or to eat pet food left out for the pets. Raccoons are intelligent and can easily be trained to return to a backyard for food. Some people have even illegally made them into pets. Do not do that. Raccoons are very susceptible to rabies, and their lifestyle and diet mean that if rabies is in their forest, they will likely become exposed to it. Dr. Dee Jones is the State Public Health Veterinarian. “Vaccinating your animals against rabies is the best way to keep your pets protected from the deadly virus,” Dr. Jones said. “Animal vaccinations also help protect people, who many times are exposed when the animal first becomes sick and before rabies can be confirmed, just as with this recent case in a cat.” The cat in question was a stray cat that attacked the owner’s dog. The family was exposed at that time. Wisely on their part, the cat was then presented to the local veterinary hospital, where it was placed in quarantine. The cat died and tested positive for rabies on Friday, August 11. One person in the clinic was bitten by the rabid cat, and ten were exposed indirectly. All fifteen exposed people were sent to East Alabama Medical Center for post-exposure prophylactic treatment for rabies and had been treated as of the evening of August 11. Dr. Homer S. Bruce is the Lee County rabies officer. “The key here is that all of the owner’s pets had received a previous rabies vaccination, and all have received rabies booster vaccinations post-exposure,” Dr. Bruce said. “Rabies vaccinations are so important in protecting your pets from rabies and thereby protecting humans from exposure through their pets.” Alabama law requires all dogs, cats, and ferrets to be vaccinated at three months of age and annually after that unless they receive a 3-year rabies vaccine. The first rabies vaccination is only good for one year, regardless of which vaccine a pet receives. Rabies prevention is multifaceted. It involves taking precautions with wildlife, ensuring their pets are current on rabies vaccinations, and always reporting an animal bite or other exposures to their medical provider and the Alabama Department of Public Health. In addition to vaccination, area residents are advised to take the following precautions to avoid possible exposures to rabies: * Do not allow pets to run loose, confine within a fenced-in area or with a leash. * Do not leave uneaten pet food or scraps near your residence. * Do not illegally feed or keep wildlife as pets. * Do not go near wildlife or domestic animals that are acting in a strange or unusual manner. * Caution children not to go near any stray or wild animal, regardless of its behavior. “I ask everyone to please check their pet’s rabies vaccination status and to get them boosted immediately if they are not up to date,” Dr. Bruce said. “Lastly, stray animals hanging around your property can expose you, your children, your pets, and your livestock to rabies. Please contact your local animal control agency for assistance with stray animals on your property. As always, please be ever vigilant and aware of wild animals hanging around and or acting out of place on your property.” Rabies is endemic in the state of Alabama. The raccoon and bat variants of the disease are found here. Do not handle either raccoons or bats. Each year, Alabama participates in an Oral Rabies Vaccine (ORV) Program to control the spread of rabies in wildlife. That especially targets raccoons. Contact your veterinarian if you cannot determine your pet’s vaccination status. Please call (334) 745-0060 if you have questions about rabies. Contact your veterinarian if you cannot determine your pet’s vaccination status. For more information, visit the Alabama Public Health website. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Barry Moore says Democrats “have been out to get Trump since he came down the escalator”
On Monday night, former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury for charges dating back to 2020, accusing the former President and 18 of his attorneys, advisors, and affiliates of conspiring to unlawfully overturn the results of the 2020 election. Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL02) – who has endorsed Trump for President – took to Twitter on Tuesday to denounce the prosecution of Trump and his team. “The United States had never before indicted a former president, and now Biden’s Department of Justice and weaponized blue state prosecutors have indicted President Trump four times in a matter of months,” Moore said on Twitter. As they continue their quest to throw their chief political opponent in jail, Democrats have joined the likes of Maduro and Noriega,” Rep. Moore wrote on Twitter. “They have been out to get President Trump since he came down the escalator, and Americans can see through this desperate sham.” Moore, a member of the House Judiciary Committee that is investigating alleged influence peddling by the President’s son, Hunter Biden, and allegations that Biden himself may have received payoffs from foreign sources while he was Vice President – has suggested that the indictments of Trump are part of a plan by Democrats to distract attention from those hearings. “JUST IN: The Biden family received more than $20 million from oligarchs in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan while he was VP,” said Moore on Twitter. “Biden dined with these oligarchs and spoke with them on the phone 20 separate times. The indictments are just a distraction from the real story.” Most Republicans dismiss the Trump indictments as partisan politics. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) called them a “sham” and a “witch hunt” in a statement on Tuesday. Some Trump opponents, on the other hand, claim that he should not be allowed on the ballot due to the legal controversy. William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen claim that by challenging the results of the 2020 election, Trump is guilty of participating in an insurrection between the election and the certification of the Electoral College votes on January 9, 2021, and is thus barred from holding public office under the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment. Trump has already made history as only the third President in the country’s history to be impeached by the House of Representatives and the only President to be impeached twice. Like Bill Clinton and Andrew Johson before him, Trump was not convicted by the Senate. Trump is the sixth one-term President since 1900 to lose reelection. The others are William Howard Taft in 1912, Herbert Hoover in 1932, Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, and George H. Bush in 1992. If Trump wins the Republican nomination for President and then is elected to a nonconsecutive term in 2024, he would be the first to accomplish that since Grover Cleveland. Moore is serving in his second term representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Tommy Tuberville says GA indictments of Donald Trump are “pure politics”
Late Monday night, a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, returned indictments against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his advisors, team members, and affiliates. On Tuesday, Alabama Today requested comment from U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama). Tuberville’s staff said that a comment would be forthcoming. Tuberville shared the statement with Alabama Today and on Twitter. Tuberville was the first Senator to endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and has for years been a vocal supporter of the former president. Tuberville recently introduced Trump at an Alabama Republican Party event in Montgomery. “Another day, another activist indictment of Biden’s top political opponent,” Sen. Tuberville said. “The fact that the radical Fulton County DA ‘accidentally’ published the indictment before the grand jury finished voting proves what we already know — this is pure politics.” “Where I come from, you beat your opponents by winning fair and square,” Tuberville continued. “This witch hunt has gone on for long enough. Democrats are afraid of President Trump because they know he will expose their corruption. The American people deserve an equal justice system — not one that twists the law to fit their politics.” The former President was indicted on 13 charges ranging from making false statements and impersonating a public officer to conspiracy and racketeering – a charge generally reserved for organized crime. This is the fourth round of indictments that the former President has received. The Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, is a Democrat and a noted Joe Biden ally. She claimed that Trump and the other eighteen defendants were trying “to accomplish the illegal goal” of keeping Trump in office. The alleged conspirators are being prosecuted under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is usually reserved for organized crime figures like mafia or drug cartel members. Also indicted were former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump attorney John Eastman, Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, Trump’s Georgia legal team member Ray Smith, staffer Jeffrey Clark, attorney Robert Cheeley, Trump’s director of Election Day operations Michael Roman, staffer Stephen Lee, a leader of Black Voices for Trump Harrison Floyd, Kanye West’s former publicist Trevian Kutti, Trump “fake” elector and former Georgia Republican Party Finance Chair and State Senator Shawn Still, Trump “fake” elector Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, Sidney Powell – an attorney allied with Trump, “fake” elector retired teacher and the Chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party, Cathy Latham, and Coffee County election supervisor Misty Hampton (she also allegedly posted a viral video claiming Dominion Voting System machines could be manipulated), and bail bondsman Scott Hall. Trump maintains that he did nothing wrong and that Fulton County is simply using the legal process to cover up a flawed election. They maintain that criticizing the results of a disputed election and alleging election fraud is constitutionally protected free speech. Tuberville’s charge that the indictments against former President Trump are a witch hunt mirrors Republican congressmen’s claims that the Democrats’ two impeachment charges against Trump, as well as the Steele dossier allegations against then-candidate Trump in 2016, were a witch hunt. Despite the growing legal maelstrom around Trump, he remains the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary field for 2024. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Former Barbour County Sheriff Leroy Upshaw sentenced for ethics offense
On Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) announced that former Barbour County Sheriff Leroy Davis Upshaw had been sentenced for using his office for personal gain. Upshaw, age 52, lives in Eufaula. He was sentenced to 10 years split to serve three years in the Alabama Department of Corrections for violating Alabama’s Ethics laws. The court ordered that Upshaw serve his three-year sentence in Barbour County Community Corrections – avoiding prison time. The court also ordered him to pay a $30,000 fine. Upshaw pled guilty to the Ethics charge on June 27. In March of 2021, a Barbour County Grand Jury indicted Upshaw following an investigation by the Alabama Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division. Upshaw served the people of Barbour County as Sheriff for twelve years from January 2007 to January 2019. He lost a re-election bid in 2018. At the sentencing hearing, a Special Agent with the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division testified that Upshaw stole $32,135.85 by writing checks to himself and having a subordinate write checks to him. Prosecutors say that these checks were then drawn off Sheriff’s Office funds meant for law enforcement purposes and for the care of the inmates of the Barbour County jail. The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts originally found Upshaw personally liable for $29,000 and told him to repay it. Instead of coming up with the money to pay the debt personally, Upshaw repaid the Sheriff’s Office with $29,000 of Sheriff’s Office funds. The Alabama Ethics Commission referred the case to the AG’s office for prosecution. The theft and subsequent cover-up formed the basis for Upshaw’s conviction and the sentence Upshaw received last week. The Attorney General thanked the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts for their assistance in this case. General Marshall also commended the Special Agents of his Special Prosecutions Division, who investigated the case, as well as Assistant Attorneys General Jasper B. Roberts, Jr., James R. Houts, and Nathan W. Mays, who prosecuted it. Marshall’s office has also successfully prosecuted former Clarke County Sheriff William Ray Norris and former Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely. Steve Marshall has been attorney general since his appointment by then-Governor Robert Bentley (R) in 2017. He was subsequently elected as attorney general in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. Marshall served as the district attorney for Marshall County prior to his service as AG. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Steve Flowers: Big Jim Folsom’s run for Congress
We will continue this week with the saga of Alabama’s most colorful governor, the legendary Big Jim Folsom. Jim Folsom Jr. shared a story about his father’s early political life. Big Jim always knew that he wanted to go into politics, so he jumped right in. His hometown of Elba in Coffee County was in the sprawling old, third congressional district, which encompassed the southeastern part of the state. It was referred to as the “Wiregrass” district. The venerable and dignified Henry Steagall of Ozark had represented the Wiregrass district for 20 years when Big Jim decided to take him on. Steagall had become a powerful and well-known congressman. He was chairman of the House Banking Committee and had authored the famous Glass-Steagall Act, which revised national banking laws during FDR’s New Deal. As you can imagine, Chairman Steagall enjoyed the fruits of his labors. He hobnobbed with New York bankers. The big banking lobbyists were wining and dining Steagall and taking him to Broadway shows. He was living the high life in Washington. When he came home to the Wiregrass, he wore Brooks Brothers suits even when he was quail hunting. You could say, and many did, that old Henry had lost touch with the folks in the Wiregrass. The aloofness and “Washingtonitis” had created an opening for political challengers, and Big Jim was one of the four who challenged Stegall in 1936. All four of his opponents jumped on Steagall’s lifestyle. They accused him of living the grand life. They said he was not only eating pheasant under glass with New York bankers, but he was also cavorting with young girls in Washington. In this era, Alabama politics was conducted mostly through campaign rallies in the courthouse square. Even in a small town, it was not unusual for 500 people, including many farmers in their overalls, to gather on the square during campaign season for a political rally. Every candidate for every office would show up to speak. The local candidates would talk, and then the gubernatorial candidates, and then the Congressional candidates. They would draw straws to set the order in which they would speak. On this particular day, all of the candidates for Steagall’s seat were there, as well as the congressman. Every one of the challengers jumped on Steagall’s personal life. They lambasted his fine dining and especially harped on the old man’s fooling around with young women. Except for Big Jim, who was 26, all the other candidates were middle-aged. When it finally became Big Jim’s time to speak, he made it short and sweet. He said, “Folks, I’ve been listening to all my opponents talk about Mr. Steagall’s lifestyle in Washington, especially his liking and running with young women. Sounds like to me, if that’s the job of a congressman in Washington, you ought to bring Old Henry home and send a young man up there to take his place. I believe I could do a better job with fine dining and young women. Y’all vote for me.” Big Jim ran second to Steagall that year, but he carried that town. In that same campaign, Big Jim was politicking down a dirt road in rural Geneva County. He stopped by a farmhouse at the end of the dirt road. The farmer and his wife visited with the young candidate. They gave young Jim Folsom several large glasses of buttermilk to drink while they sat on the porch and visited. Big Jim and the farmer bonded. The old farmer lamented that he wished somebody would pave his road so that he could get his produce to market no matter what the weather. Big Jim lost that race for Congress, but he never forgot that old farmer in Geneva County. When Big Jim became governor a decade later, the first dirt road he paved in his famous Farm-to-Market road-building program was that one in Geneva County. It is called the Buttermilk Road. Big Jim got a lot of things said about him on the campaign trail while he was governor, but he had a unique way of disarming and diminishing the effect of the mud being slung at him. He would rear back and tell his rural audiences, “My mama used to tell me that if someone threw mud at you and it landed on your new white starched shirt, you simply ignore it. Don’t try to wipe it off right away while it is still wet because if you do, it will just smear all over your shirt. But if you ignore it and let it dry for a few days, you can just thump it off.” See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
How the Georgia indictment against Donald Trump may be the biggest yet
The fourth indictment of former President Donald Trump may be the most sweeping yet. The sprawling, 98-page case unveiled late Monday night opens up fresh legal ground and exposes more than a dozen of Trump’s allies to new jeopardy. But it also raises familiar legal issues of whether the First Amendment allows a politician to try to overturn an election. Already, Trump and his supporters are alleging the indictment is the product of a politicized, corrupt process to hobble him as he competes for the GOP nomination to face President Joe Biden next year. Here are some takeaways from Monday’s indictment: THE BIG ONE This may be the last of the Trump indictments, but it was the big one. The indictment lists 18 defendants in addition to Trump, all joined together by Georgia’s unusual anti-racketeering, or RICO, law. Many of the defendants aren’t even based in Georgia. The better-known defendants include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell, who appeared in numerous hearings and on television spreading false claims about unfounded incidents of purported election fraud. Giuliani and Powell were among the unnamed co-conspirators in the federal indictment against Trump for his push to overturn the election that was released earlier this month. Others, however, had to date escaped mention in charging documents, like Trump’s then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was on the call during which Trump urged Georgia election officials to “find” him the votes he needed to be declared winner of the state. Other defendants include Mike Roman, a Trump campaign official who the indictment alleges helped arrange slates of fake Trump electors whose votes Congress could count rather than those of the actual appointed ones for the winner of the election, President Joe Biden. Another person charged is Jenna Ellis, who has become a prominent conservative legal personality after working on the Trump campaign and helping spread Trump’s false allegations of widespread fraud. The charges also fall upon several Georgia players, including Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley, lawyers working for Trump in Georgia, and David Shafer, then the state GOP chairman, for serving as a fake Trump elector along with fellow co-defendants Shawn Still, then the state GOP finance chairman, and Cathleen Alston Latham. A WIDER APPROACH Critics may argue this is an overreach for a local prosecutor’s office. But the Georgia RICO statute gives Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office the ability to construct a wide-ranging narrative by citing and charging other players in the alleged wrongdoing, even those out of state. Some legal analysts think that Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who filed the earlier charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election, didn’t charge people identified as co-conspirators in his case, like Giuliani, because he is aiming for a trial as quickly – and with as much time as possible before the 2024 presidential election — as feasible. Willis, on Monday night, said she hoped for a trial date in six months. But her office is taking a notably different, more sweeping approach from the more streamlined federal indictment. She vowed that she would seek to try all 19 defendants together. THE FIRST AMENDMENT ARGUMENT Trump is expected to employ a similar defense in both the earlier federal indictment and the Fulton County case. He and his supporters contend he’s being charged simply for speaking up against what he saw as an unfair election and practicing politics as usual. But it’s not clear that defense will work. Indeed, some of the 161 acts that prosecutors contend were part of the conspiracy to overturn may sound like protected political machinations in isolation – emails and texts about meetings of people contending to be Trump electors, tweets about alleged voter fraud, even the filing of a lawsuit in Georgia challenging the election outcome. But the indictment argues they were all steps in what it calls “a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” For example, it alleges that those fake elector meetings were part of an attempt to convince Georgia state lawmakers to “unlawfully” appoint the phony Trump electors, rather than the Biden ones they were bound to by law. The indictment contends the tweets about phony voter fraud and even the lawsuit were part of a similar scheme. And, finally, it says some of the lies trying to persuade Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Gov. Brian Kemp to declare Trump the victor could be considered another crime under state law, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. DOCUMENT DRAMA A document briefly posted to the Fulton County Clerk’s Office website earlier Monday snagged the day’s proceedings and gave Trump a window to further disparage the case against him. People were still waiting to testify before the grand jury when Reuters reported on a document listing criminal charges to be brought against Trump, including state racketeering counts, conspiracy to commit false statements, and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. Reuters, which later published a copy of the document, said the filing was taken down quickly. A spokesperson for Willis said the report of charges being filed was “inaccurate,” but declined to comment further. A statement subsequently released by the Fulton County courts clerk called the posted document “fictitious,” but failed to explain how it got on the court’s website. Trump and his allies immediately seized on the apparent error to claim that the process was rigged. Trump’s campaign aimed to fundraise off it, sending out an email with the since-deleted document embedded. “The Grand Jury testimony has not even FINISHED — but it’s clear the District Attorney has already decided how this case will end,” Trump wrote in the email, which included links to give money to his campaign. “This is an absolute DISGRACE.” Trump’s legal team said it was not a “simple administrative mistake.” Rather, it was “emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception,” said lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little, and Marissa Goldberg.
