OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Georgia prosecutor who may be bringing criminal charges against former President Donald trump has made a new move that has many believing indictments are forthcoming.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked members of her staff to work remotely from July 31 through August 18 and also sent letters to judges in an Atlanta courthouse to not schedule any trials between the dates of August 7 and August 14, The New York Times reported.
The moves suggest that [Willis] is expecting a grand jury to unseal indictments during that time period. Ms. Willis outlined the remote work plan and made the request to judges in a letter sent on Thursday to 21 Fulton County officials, including the chief county judge, Ural Glanville, and the sheriff, Pat Labat,” the Times reported.
Willis, who has already requested that the FBI help provide security in and around the courthouse, noted in the letter: “Thank you for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time.”
The Times added:
Ms. Willis had said in a previous letter that any charges related to the Trump investigation would come in the grand jury term that runs from July 11 to Sept. 1. Her letter on Thursday appears to offer more specificity on timing.
Her timetable, however, has already been pushed back as she has sought to hammer out cooperation deals with some potential defendants.
In an effort to derail the case, Trump’s legal team has submitted a motion in March with the intention of invalidating a significant portion of the collected evidence and requesting the removal of Willis from the case even before any charges are formally brought forward, the Times noted.
The case made national attention when the foreperson on the jury went on a media tour talking about the case, prompting the judge in the case to speak out in February.
Judge Robert C. McBurney said to ABC News that jurors “can talk about the final report” but that it can get “problematic” if they start to “synthesize the testimony.”
“McBurney said in an interview that after the grand jury submitted its report in January, he held a “farewell session,” at the request of the district attorney, in which he “reminded them of their oath, which is a statutory obligation that they not discuss with anyone outside their group their deliberations — that’s the one word that’s in the oath,” ABC News reported. “McBurney emphasized that ‘it’s important for people to understand that witness testimony is not deliberations.'”
“I explained you don’t talk about what the group discussed about the witnesses’ testimony, but you can talk about witness testimony,” the judge said. “You could talk about things that the assistant district attorneys told you. … And then finally, you can talk about the final report because that is the product of your deliberations, but it’s not your deliberations.”
Legal experts believe that former President Trump may have caught a huge break in a case involving a grand jury investigation for alleged election tampering in Georgia following the 2020 election.
The foreperson for the grand jury, Emily Kohrs, did several interviews with various left-leaning media outlets and appeared to express extreme bias against the former president with some of her remarks, leading experts to question whether she has now tainted the entire process.
In a giddy interview with MSNBC, for instance, Kohrs expressed that she thought it would be “awesome” and “really cool” to subpoena Trump for testimony and swear him in:
“Did you personally want to hear from the former President?” asked the MSNBC interviewer.
“I wanted to hear from the former President, but honestly, I kind of wanted to subpoena the former President because I got to swear everybody in, so I thought it would be really cool to get 60 seconds with President Trump, of me looking at him and being like ‘do you solemnly swear’ and me getting to swear him in, I just feel like that would have been an awesome moment,” she said.
