Legal clouds are gathering over Donald Trump’s political future, and the indictment in New York in the Stormy Daniels case, which already threatens his 2024 race, is not the bleakest. A verdict is expected in Georgia within a month or two at the most, the most serious investigation against the former president and perhaps the only one from which he could finally emerge defeated. For months, a grand jury of three men and two women has been investigating possible interference by the tycoon to overturn the results of the Fulton County vote. In its first public report last month, the special panel revealed that some witnesses may have lied under oath and recommended indicting about 20 key figures without directly naming Trump. Now it’s up to prosecutor Fanny Willis to decide whether to set up another grand jury to continue the indictments.
The former president or anyone convicted of a crime as serious as voter fraud faces five to 20 years in prison. Trump feels his breath on the back of his neck and in his recent speech in Mar-a-Lago he has begun to stretch his hands out, branding the investigation “political manipulation” and accusing the African-American prosecutor of “racism”. In particular, investigators are targeting a phone call in which the former president pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes, one more than we have” to win. An interview that embarrassed the tycoon, but which he described as “absolutely perfect” at the resort’s rally. On the other side of the investigation, Judge Juan Merchan, who presides over the criminal case in New York, said he and his family received dozens of threats after Tuesday’s hearing. Intimidation also against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other senior officials in his office, for whom the metropolitan police have decided to further strengthen their security.
For one threatened judge, another is cheered for accepting luxury travel from a Republican billionaire financier without explaining it. We’re talking about Supreme Court magistrate Clarence Thomas, who has already been criticized for the wife of former Trump operative Ginni Thomas’ contacts with the former president’s staff in the days leading up to the January revolt August 2021. According to ProPublica, which investigated the case, Thomas has accepted luxury travel from Harlan Crow “basically every year” for the past 20 years. Meanwhile, Stormy Daniels continues to give interviews and has indicated to Piers Morgan that he intends to testify against Trump. “It scares me, but I can’t wait. I have nothing to hide,” the actress and director of tough films explained, but admitted that she doesn’t think the tycoon deserves jail time for their affair. “It was a consensual relationship, but if he’s found guilty of all those other things, then he absolutely deserves jail.” The former president’s second wife, former Plyaboy bunny Karen McDougal, also spoke out, who posted a photo of her in Vail, Colorado to her Instagram account with a tongue-in-cheek message: “I was on vacation, let’s hope we didn’t lose anything”.
Read the full article on ANSA.it