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.
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.
