Trump likely to face indictments from DOJ and Georgia this summer: legal expert
A Georgia prosecutor’s announcement of a timeline for a decision in connection with an investigation of Donald Trump suggests the former president’s legal troubles are likely to grow this summer, a prominent legal expert said on Friday.
Ryan Goodman, a NYU law school professor and former special counsel at the Department of Defense, said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ announcement that any grand jury indictments would come during the first three weeks of August suggests an indictment in the Georgia election interference case is a foregone conclusion, and that special counsel Jack Smith is likely to slap the former president with indictments, too.
Willis indicated that she plans to have most of her staffers working remotely and asked judges not to schedule trials and in-person hearings during an Aug. 7-18 window, along with heightened security.
Goodman during an appearance on CNN’s Out Front with Erin Burnett said Willis’ announcement is a “strong indication that there will be an indictment of the former President Trump during that period because these are security measures of a scale that it's difficult for me to conceive of any other explanation, it’s the best explanation and it's difficult to conceive of another one.”
Goodman also said it’s more likely that Smith, who is investigating Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the former president’s handling of classified documents, will go first.
“I think it makes it much more likely that the DOJ will go beforehand because now they have a pretty good window. They have an exact date that they know which is the mark. And I would imagine that their incentives are to go first, that they want to if they can,” Goodman said.
“Especially because of the Alvin Bragg situation,” Burnett interjected.
“Exactly. So that avoids that kind of situation again. They would like to have the narrative be about whatever it is that they want to present, they don't want the narrative, I would imagine, to be confused with some other kind of case, and whatever that comes with whatever baggage that comes with, present their case, to the public has what on its own terms. Now they have enough space to do that.”
Watch: 'Locked in': Legal expert details why Fani Willis' letter to judge is very bad news for Trump
According to MSNBC legal analyst, a letter sent by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to Fulton Superior Court chief judge Ural Glanville on Thursday explaining unusual staffing plans for August means not only is a possible Donald Trump indictment coming, but also that, with the letter, she has put herself in the position of facing the judge's ire if she changes her mind.
Speaking with host Ana Cabrera, the criminal defense attorney stated the Thursday letter which announced plans for 70 percent of her staff to work remotely during a three-week period up to August 18, with her office only populated by herself, top aides and armed investigators is a sign that she has "locked in" the dates for a Trump indictment announcement.
He also told the host that the specifics of the letter mean Willis has put herself in an awkward position if she postpones her plans for that time frame.
Noting that Willis has also asked the judge to not have any trials going on at the courthouse during the definitive period, Cevalos explained, "Fani Willis is asking the court to devote, clear its resources, clear the calendar, that can only mean that she plans on big news."
"Whether that means an indictment of Trump himself or Trump-adjacent individuals, we obviously still don't know, but that is a very clear message that she has set a deadline," he continued.
"I mean, she's almost locked herself into that deadline," he remarked. "Imagine if she asked judges, judges who she works with every day in and out, to clear their calendar for one month and then she doesn't indict or use those resources that month, and instead does it a couple of months later; those judges would not be very happy."
"She must be pretty certain that she's not going to burn them, not going to burn the courts and that she's going to stick to this deadline. It's a rather large window, three weeks, but it is a window she's committed to," he added.
