Summary
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Donald Trump’s criminal trial for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results will take place on 4 March 2024, the federal judge presiding over the case in Washington ruled, marking a sharp repudiation of the former president who had sought to delay the case for years.
The schedule set by US district court judge Tanya Chutkan means Trump’s first trial defending himself against prosecutors and the special counsel Jack Smith will be the election subversion case – and it will come during the height of the 2024 Republican primary season.
Trump vowed to appeal Judge Chutkan’s decision to start the proceedings on 4 March of next year. “Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff under Donald Trump, testified for nearly three hours in a hearing to move his Georgia election interference case from state to federal court on Monday.
Former Trump campaign lawyer Ray Smith, one of the 19 defendants charged in Georgia as part of the sweeping indictment in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, has waived his arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty, according to a court filing.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has announced $1m for heightened security at a historically Black college, a day after he was booed at a memorial gathering for victims of a deadly racist shooting in his state. DeSantis’s funding measure comes as he faces criticism for limiting Black history education in Florida, a move that many have condemned as racist.
More than three-quarters of respondents in a new US poll said Joe Biden would be too old to be effective if re-elected president next year. But as many people in the survey said the 80-year-old Biden was “old” and “confused”, so a similar number saw his 77-year-old likely challenger, Donald Trump, as “corrupt” and “dishonest”.
Eminem sent a cease and desist letter to Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy asking him to stop using his music on the campaign trail.
In a letter obtained by the Daily Mail, music licenser BMI notified Ramaswamy’s campaign that Marshall Mathers, AKA Eminem, “objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions (the “Eminem Works”) and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem Works from the Agreement.”
The letter, dated 23 August, went on to say that the rapper’s “works are excluded from the Agreement effective immediately”.
BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem Works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach of the Agreement for which BMI reserves all rights and remedies with respect thereto.
The letter comes after Ramaswamy rapped some of Eminem’s song “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair. In an interview with the New York Times, the biotech entrepreneur discussed his love of Eminem and said he used to perform under “Da Vek the Rapper” as an undergrad at Harvard University.
2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy raps Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair. pic.twitter.com/xUxlxUf3TY
— The Recount (@therecount) August 12, 2023
An elected Democratic prosecutor whose removal Ron DeSantis boasted about during the first Republican presidential debate said the hard-right Florida governor and his allies ousted her because she was “prosecuting their cops”.
Law enforcement agencies in central Florida were “all working against me”, Monique Worrell told the Daily Beast, “because I was prosecuting their cops, the ones who used to do things and get away with them”. She added:
They thought that I was overly critical of law enforcement and didn’t do anything against ‘real criminals’. Apparently there’s a difference between citizens who commit crimes and cops who commit crimes.
In Florida, DeSantis has removed two elected Democratic prosecutors: Andrew Warren of Hillsborough county in August 2022 and Worrell earlier this month.
Warren said he would not enforce an abortion ban signed by the governor. The prosecutor sued to regain his job but has so far failed, even though a judge found DeSantis to be in the wrong.
Worrell previously responded to her removal by calling DeSantis a “weak dictator” seeking to create a “smokescreen for [a] failing and disastrous presidential campaign”.
First defendant in Trump Georgia election case pleads not guilty
Former Trump campaign lawyer Ray Smith, one of the 19 defendants charged in Georgia as part of the sweeping indictment in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, has waived his arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty, according to a court filing.
The filing states:
It is counsel’s understanding that by filing this waiver of arraignment, prior to the arraignment date, that Mr. Smith and the undersigned counsel are excused from appearing at the arraignment calendar on September 6, 2023.
From Atlanta’s 11Alive News’ Faith Jessie:
NEW INFO: Attorney Ray Smith requests to waive his arraignment and enter a not guilty plea. His arraignment is currently scheduled for next Wednesday. He is the first of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County election interference case to make this move. #gapol @11alive pic.twitter.com/AJXmqJorbT
— Faith Jessie (@FJessieTweets) August 28, 2023
The anti-Trump group, the Republican Accountability Project, is launching a six-figure ad campaign targeting Donald Trump over his indictment in Georgia.
The group announced that it will run 60-second ads on Fox News in Phoenix, Milwaukee and Atlanta, focusing on the former president’s four indictment, in which he was charged with 13 counts over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
As part of the campaign the group will be putting up a billboard in Times Square featuring Trump’s mug shot with the 91 charges facing Trump scrolling by next to him.
The House Appropriations Committee could consider amendments to a bill that would strip federal funding from prosecutors who are pursuing charges against Donald Trump.
House Freedom Caucus member Andrew Clyde, a member of the committee, announced plans for two amendments to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) fiscal 2024 appropriations bill that would “prohibit the use of federal funding for the prosecution of any major presidential candidate prior to the upcoming presidential election on November 5th, 2024”, a press release said.
Clyde said he intends to “defund” the efforts by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who charged Trump in relation to hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, special counsel Jack Smith, who led dcharges against Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, who charged Trump in relation to his 2020 election subversion efforts in Georgia.
In a statement, the congressman from Georgia said:
Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars have no place funding the radical Left’s nefarious election interference efforts.
Bryan Hughes’ support of HB 3058 signals a new strategy by Republicans to insulate abortion bans from scrutiny by creating narrow exceptions for medical emergencies.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, said:
There’s a feeling that abortion rights supporters are using those medical cases to delegitimize abortion bans altogether.
HB 3058 was first introduced in the aftermath of an explosive lawsuit in which five women denied abortions in Texas, along with two doctors, sued the state after they were refused care despite suffering severe complications with their pregnancies.
The horror stories that emerged from that lawsuit threatened public support of the Texas abortion ban.
Ziegler said:
Republicans can now point to these new exceptions and say, ‘Look, that kind of thing doesn’t happen any more’.
State representative Ann Johnson said that Texas Republicans genuinely wanted to address the problems raised by the lawsuit – even staunch abortion opponents do not want the state’s ban linked to dangerous delays in medical treatment. She said:
That’s hard for people to politically justify.
A Texas law about to take effect on Friday carves out exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.
In June, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, quietly signed HB 3058, allowing doctors to provide abortion care when a patient’s water breaks too early for the fetus to survive, or when a patient is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy.
Crafted by state representative Ann Johnson, HB 3058 appeared to be a rare bipartisan victory in a fiercely conservative state legislature. Johnson, a Democrat who supports abortion access, found an unlikely ally in state senator Bryan Hughes, the Republican who crafted Texas’s infamous “bounty hunter” law, which allows citizens to sue abortion providers as well as anyone who “aids or abets” abortion care.
Johnson and her fellow Texas Democrats welcomed the bill’s passage as a small but important compromise to improve reproductive health in the state.
But abortion rights advocates across the country said HB 3058 offers little help to Texas doctors treating high-risk pregnancies.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, said:
The exceptions in the bill are so narrow, and the penalties for violating the Texas ban are so high, that invariably, a lot of doctors are going to continue not to offer abortion in those situations because they don’t want to get in trouble.
The hearing that will determine whether the trial of Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the Georgia election subversion case takes place in federal court is continuing today, with no decision yet made public. Here’s a recap from the Guardian’s Mary Yang on today’s events and why they’re important, including the significance of Meadow’s surprise decision to take the witness stand:
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff under Donald Trump, has testified for nearly three hours in a hearing to move his Georgia election interference case from state to federal court on Monday.
Meadows was charged alongside Trump and 17 other defendants for conspiring to subvert the 2020 election in a Georgia superior court. He faces two felony charges, including racketeering and solicitation of a violation of oath by a public officer.
But Meadows is arguing that he acted in his capacity as a federal officer and thus is entitled to immunity – and that his case should be heard before a federal judge.
Meadows swiftly filed a motion to move his case to the federal US district court of northern Georgia after Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, handed down her indictment.
According to the indictment, Meadows arranged the infamous call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, where the former president asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to block Biden’s victory.
He also at one point instructed a White House aide to draft a strategy memo for “disrupting and delaying” the electoral certification process on 6 January 2021, according to the indictment. Yet Meadows denied doing that on Monday, calling it the “biggest surprise”.
Meadows testified for about three hours on Monday, surprising legal experts who widely expected him to keep mum.
Trump says he'll appeal 4 March trial start
Donald Trump, whose attorneys proposed holding his trial on federal charges related to overturning the 2020 election in 2026, today vowed to appeal a federal judge’s decision to start the proceedings on 4 March of next year.
“Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” the former president wrote on his Truth social account, referencing the multi-state Republican primary that will take place the day after his trial begins.
Citing legal experts, Reuters reports that trial dates are typically not subject to appeal.
Updated
DeSantis speaks to Biden, puts campaigning on hold to deal with Florida shooting, hurricane
Ron DeSantis has canceled some presidential campaign events and returned to Florida to deal with a racist shooting in Jacksonville and an approaching tropical storm that is expected to turn into a hurricane, Politico reports.
The Florida governor traveled to Jacksonville on Sunday, a day after a gunman who left behind manifestos peppered with racial slurs opened fire at a Dollar General store, killing three people. During an event in which DeSantis was booed, the governor pledge $1m to help a historically Black college improve security, and $100,000 to a charity on behalf of the victim’s families.
Politico reports that DeSantis plans to stay in the state as Idalia, a tropical storm that is expected to become a hurricane, moves closer to the Gulf coast:
10 AM CDT 28Aug: Storm Surge, Hurricane & Tropical Storm warnings for #Idalia have been issued for portions of Florida. Residents in these areas should follow any advice given by local officials. Make sure to stay up to date with the latest information at https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ pic.twitter.com/R1uWF5Eu8f
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) August 28, 2023
Joe Biden said earlier today he has spoken to DeSantis, both to offer support for the expected storm damage, and condolences for the shooting victims. The two men are political rivals, but have in the past made appearances together in the Sunshine state in the aftermath of disasters:
This morning, I spoke with Governor DeSantis to inform him that we've approved the Emergency Declaration for Florida as they prepare for Hurricane Idalia, and FEMA has pre-deployed personnel and assets.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 28, 2023
Florida has my full support as they prepare for Idalia and its aftermath.
I also reiterated my commitment to support the people of Jacksonville following the horrific shooting on Saturday.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 28, 2023
My prayers continue to be with the victims and the families.
Meanwhile, Politico has obtained the schedule of Donald Trump’s federal trial in Washington DC on charges related to overturning the 2020 election:
UPDATE: We have the full trial schedule from Chutkan
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 28, 2023
Oct. 9: Pretrial motions
Dec. 4: 404b evidence
Dec. 11: Disclosure of expert witnesses
Dec. 18: Disclosure of exhibits
Dec. 27: Motions in limine
Jan. 15: Proposed voir dire questions/jury instructionshttps://t.co/YxGJD0IuDo pic.twitter.com/iBh4dRPmk2
The trial itself begins on 4 March 2024, per judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling today.
Atlanta’s 11Alive News has published sketches from inside the courtroom as Mark Meadows testifies in his bid to be tried in federal court:
JUST IN: New sketches are giving us a glimpse inside the federal courtroom where Mark Meadows is making his argument for the removal of his case to Federal court. The former Chief of Staff questioned for hours. #gapol @11AliveNews pic.twitter.com/csATn9UWns
— Faith Jessie (@FJessieTweets) August 28, 2023
No electronic devices are permitted inside the courtroom, hence the employment of sketch artists.
Meadows defends involvement in Georgia elections as part of White House job
In an ongoing hearing where a judge will determine whether to move his trial in the election subversion case to federal court, Mark Meadows has argued that he became involved in Georgia’s 2020 polls in his capacity as White House chief of staff, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
In order to succeed in his bid to have the charges brought against him by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, tried in federal rather than state court, Meadows will need to convince a judge that he was acting in his capacity as a White House official when he traveled to Georgia and spoke with its leaders. Citing legal experts, the Journal-Constitution reports that is “a fairly low threshold to clear if valid arguments can be made”.
“I don’t know that I did anything that was outside my scope as chief of staff,” Meadows testified in an unexpected appearance on the witness stand during what has been called a “mini-trial” in Judge Steve Jones’s court today, who will decide whether to grant his request.
Cross examined by special prosecutor Anna Cross, the Journal-Constitution reports Meadows defended his conduct as part of his role as chief of staff, saying he wanted “to make sure elections are accurate. I would assume that has a federal nexus.”
Jones has not yet ruled.
Updated
Mark Meadows says Trump White House were 'challenging times'
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who has been testifying at his hearing to move his trial to federal court, described his time serving under Donald Trump as “challenging”.
At the federal courthouse in Atlanta, Meadows described his duties as the former president’s chief of staff, which included meeting with state officials. Meadows is arguing that his case should be moved and subsequently dismissed because he has immunity from prosecution for carrying out what he says were his duties as a federal official.
Speaking about his time at the White House, Meadows said:
Those were challenging times, bluntly.
“I don’t know if anyone was fully prepared for that type of job,” he added.
Updated
On Sunday, Ron DeSantis was jeered while speaking at a memorial that drew a crowd of nearly 200 to remember the victims of the Dollar General shooting.
“He don’t care,” an attendee shouted as DeSantis was being introduced, the Hill reported.
At one point, a council member came to DeSantis’s defense and attempted to quiet the crowd, but the booing continued.
“It ain’t about parties today,” said Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman. “A bullet don’t know a party.”
DeSantis referred to the shooter as a “major-league scumbag” in his remarks, adding that Florida opposed racist violence.
“What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has announced $1m for heightened security at a historically Black college, a day after he was booed at a memorial gathering for victims of a deadly racist shooting in his state.
DeSantis said his administration would give $1m to Edward Waters University to enhance its security after the gunman in this weekend’s racist killings at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville tried to enter the historically Black college but was denied entry.
DeSantis said that an additional $100,000 would be given to a charity for the victims’ families. “As I’ve said for the last couple of days, we are not going to allow our HBCUs to be targeted by these people,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to provide security help with them.”
DeSantis’s funding measure comes as he faces criticism for limiting Black history education in Florida, a move that many have condemned as racist.
DeSantis has also come under renewed scrutiny for his support of expanded gun access in his state. The Florida governor signed legislation in April that allows resident to carry concealed guns without a permit.
Updated
Donald Trump saw a slight drop in support among Republican primary voters after skipping the first GOP debate last week, according to a new poll.
The poll by Emerson College, which was conducted 25-26 August, found that 50% of GOP primary voters said they plan to vote for the former president, down from 56% in a pre-debate survey. Trump still maintains a huge 38% lead over his closest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley had the biggest post-debate gain, jumping from 2% to 7%. DeSantis gained two points to 12%.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement:
While Trump saw a slight dip in support, the question from this poll is whether this is a blip for Trump or if the other Republican candidates will be able to rally enough support to be competitive for the caucus and primary season.
After four arrests in as many months, Donald Trump has now been charged with 91 felony counts across criminal cases in New York, Florida, Washington and Georgia. The former president and current frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary faces the threat of prison time if he is convicted.
As Trump attempts to delay his criminal trials, civil lawsuits endanger the former president’s financial and business prospects. A New York jury has already found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E Jean Carroll, awarding her $5m in damages. A separate civil inquiry, led by New York attorney general Letitia James, seeks $250 million that the Trump Organization allegedly obtained through fraud.
Polls shows most voters think Biden too old for second term
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released today brings bad news for Joe Biden: most voters think the 80-year-old is too elderly to serve a second term. They do not feel quite the same way about Donald Trump, even though the former president is only four years Biden’s junior:
77% think Joe Biden is too old to effectively serve as President, including 69% of Democrats. https://t.co/PDlUmWsmPA pic.twitter.com/6v470MXZMk
— AP-NORC Center (@APNORC) August 28, 2023
Biden is the oldest president ever to win the presidency, and would break records if elected to a second term next year. The poll finds voters are well aware of that, with 26% of respondents saying “old” and its synonyms are the first things that come to mind when they think of Biden. When it comes to Trump, 15% say the first thing they think of is “corrupt”, “criminal” or “crooked”. “Liar”, “dishonest” and “untrustworthy” come in second place at 8%. Biden does better here, with only 2% of respondents associating him with those terms.
The day so far
Donald Trump’s trial on federal charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election will begin on 4 March of next year, right in the middle of the Republican primary season, after judge Tanya Chutkan turned down his attorneys’ request for a 2026 start date. Meanwhile, we’ll see the former president in court in Georgia next week, where he will be arraigned along with everyone else accused by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis of plotting to overturn the 2020 results in that state. Speaking of Georgia, Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows made the surprise decision to take the stand as he argues to move his trial on Willis’s charges to federal court from state court.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Meadows’s decision to undergo cross-examination in Georgia shows he may consider moving his case to federal court crucial to his defense, an analyst says.
A Trump spokeswoman fretted over the weekend that the trials in his four indictments would interfere with his campaigning for the White House.
The Georgia election meddling hangs over a rural county that found itself swept up in conspiracy theories.
Per legal analyst Lisa Rubin, Mark Meadows’s appearance on the witness stand as he argues to move his case from Georgia state court to federal court was unexpected, and potentially a sign that he views winning the motion as crucial to his defense:
That a lawyer as experienced as former U.S. Attorney George Terwilliger allowed his client to take the stand tells you two things. First, Meadows and his team believe moving his case to federal court is so critical that it’s worth the risk of his being cross-examined. 2/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
Second, Meadows’s team concluded they had no other way of shouldering their burden of proof that he was acting as a federal officer beyond Meadows’s own testimony. 3/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
And that means either they were unable to convince any Meadows allies with firsthand knowledge of his activities and/or Trump’s directives to take the stand for him—or that because of the secrecy with which they operated, no such witnesses exist. Either one is not a good look. 4/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
Ex-Trump chief of staff takes stand as he argues for moving Georgia trial to federal court
CNN reports that Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff during the period when he carried out a plan to overturn the 2020 based on unfounded claims of rigging, has taken the stand as he argues for his trial in Georgia to be argued at the federal level:
Mark Meadows is testifying at today's hearing where he's trying to move his case from state to federal court, per @KatelynPolantz @MarshallCohen:
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) August 28, 2023
“Those were challenging times, bluntly,” Meadows said. “I don’t know if anyone was fully prepared for that type of job."
More from Meadows on the stand:
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) August 28, 2023
“I would get invited to almost every meeting that the president had,” Meadows testified, describing his close advisory role w/ Trump.
Sometimes people would meet with him so he could “get in (Trump’s) ear and pass along their message,” he said.
Here’s the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell with the full rundown of federal judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to set a 4 March trial date for Donald Trump’s election subversion trial:
Donald Trump’s criminal trial for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results will take place in 4 March 2024, the federal judge presiding over the case in Washington ruled on Monday, marking a sharp repudiation of the former president who had sought to delay the case for years.
The schedule set by US district court judge Tanya Chutkan means Trump’s first trial defending himself against prosecutors and the special counsel Jack Smith will be the election subversion case – and it will come during the height of the 2024 Republican primary season.
Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges filed in federal district court in Washington that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructed an official proceeding and engaged in a conspiracy against rights.
The former president had asked ahead of the hearing for the trial to take place in April 2026, citing the supposed “median time” of 29.2 months that it took to convict defendants in cases that involved the charge of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
But prosecutors had argued in response that using the median time as a benchmark was misleading because it included the time it takes for jury selection, trial, verdict and several months of sentencing deliberation, rather than just the duration of pre-trial proceedings.
Donald Trump’s federal trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election will start just before one of the biggest days in the Republican nominating process.
The trial’s opening coincides with North Dakota’s Republican caucus, but the real event will take place the next day, which is known as Super Tuesday for the sheer number of states that vote.
On 5 March, Republicans in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia will vote in primaries. With his trial kicking off the day before, the stage is set for Trump to once again be at the front of voters’ minds when they head to the polls – for better or worse.
In selecting 4 March as the date for Donald Trump’s trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election, Tanya Chutkan rejected the former president’s request for a trial beginning in 2026, and gave prosecutors almost exactly what they wanted.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had proposed starting in January, and the date Chutkan chose was only a few weeks off from that.
Trump federal election subversion trial scheduled for 4 March 2024
Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has just set Donald Trump’s trial date on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election for 4 March of next year.
Updated
After about an hour and 15 minutes of arguments, judge Tanya Chutkan has called a recess in the hearing that will determine the date of Donald Trump’s trial in the federal January 6 case.
She is expected to rule on the trial date when the hearing resumes.
Donald Trump’s lawyer John Lauro is going back and forth with judge Tanya Chutkan on the date for the formal president’s trial over trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Chutkan remains plainly skeptical of Lauro’s request for a lengthy timeframe in the case. “I will say that, I don’t doubt from it that you’re working diligently, but I will say that you and I have a very, very different estimate of what of the time that’s needed to prepare for this case,” the judge said.
Ex-Trump chief of staff to face 'mini-trial' as he argues to move case to federal court
Attorneys for Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows are today arguing in Georgia that his trial in the election subversion case should be moved to federal court from the state level, where Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis originally brought the charges.
The hearing was scheduled to start at 10 am, but attendees are not permitted to carry electronic devices while in the building, and so we are unlikely to know what’s happening in the courtroom.
As the Washington Post reports, having his case moved to federal court could bring several advantages to Meadows, one of which would be a potentially more conservative jury pool:
If Meadows is able to punt his case to federal court, it could benefit him when it comes time to choose a jury, experts said. The jury pool for a federal case would be composed of residents from across northern Georgia, which is more politically conservative than Fulton County and a potentially friendlier audience for the former Trump official and Republican congressman.
Today’s hearing is seen as something of a “mini-trial”, because Willis’s prosecutors have subpoenaed four witnesses who dealt with Meadows in Georgia after the 2020 election and may testify. These include secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, subject of an infamous phone call from the president following his defeat at the ballot box. But legal analyst Lisa Rubin notes that testimony from Frances Watson, an investigator for Raffensperger’s office, may prove to be the most damning:
More than a week before Trump’s purportedly “perfect call” to Raffensperger, in which Meadows participated, Meadows went to GA to observe the Cobb County, GA signature audit. He even tried to get into the auditors’ work space, only to be stopped by Watson and others. 3/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
Still, while he was there, Meadows arranged a call between Watson and Trump for the next day, 12/23/30, that someone was wise enough to record. That call was a less formal, less pressured dress rehearsal for Trump’s pressing Raffensperger on 1/2/21 to find him 11,780 votes. 4/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
But what matters most is that Watson had direct contact with Meadows first—and at a time Trump likely didn’t know she existed. To the extent anyone is well positioned to show how much freelance political work Meadows was doing, it’s her. 5/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) August 28, 2023
Donald Trump’s attorney John Lauro just made an impassioned argument for delaying his trial to 2026, arguing his legal team needs years to investigate the evidence.
Judge Tanya Chutkan did not seem to buy it. “You are not going to get two more years. This case is not going to trial in 2026,” she said.
Judge Tanya Chutkan signals she disagrees with arguments made by Donald Trump’s attorneys that, based on the “median time” of similar cases, his trial should begin in 2026.
At the hearing, Chutkan said those numbers were misleading because they included the time from commencement to sentencing, not to trial.
The judge also noted that she is overseeing one of the cases cited by Trump’s lawyers in their proposed timeframe, and the delays in that matter were because of Covid-19 and a superseding indictment – none of which applied to the former president.
Federal judge Tanya Chutkan continues her opening remarks by stressing how the Speedy Trial Act exists to also benefit the public interest, and not just the defendant.
She adds that “counsel is not entitled to unlimited preparation time”.
Trump 'will have to make the trial date work' — federal judge
Federal judge Tanya Chutkan is giving opening remarks in the hearing to determine Donald Trump’s trial date in the January 6 case.
She said she planned to question both the former president’s attorneys and prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team, and reiterated that Trump will have to yield to the criminal process – potentially bad new for his hopes to forestall the trial till after the 2024 election.
“Setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant’s personal and professional obligations. Mr Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Chutkan said.
Trump's arraignment in Georgia case set for 6 September - report
Donald Trump will be arraigned in the Georgia election subversion case at 9.30am on 6 September, Politico reports:
ARRAIGNMENT: Donald Trump's arraignment in Fulton County, GA has been set for 9:30am on Sept. 6, per the court docket there.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 28, 2023
The other 18 defendants also appear to be slated for arraignment that day in 15 minute increments.
His 18 co-defendants will also be arraigned the same day:
9:30 Trump
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 28, 2023
9:45 Giuliani
10:00 Eastman
10:15 Powell
10:30 Meadows
10:45 Latham
11:00 Hall
11:15 Chesebro
11:30 Kutti
11:45 Floyd
1:00 Clark
1:15 Lee
1:30 Ellis
1:45 Still
2:00 Smith
2:15 Shafer
2:30 Roman
2:45 Cheeley
3:00 Hampton
Trump and his co-defendants reported to the Fulton county jail last week in Atlanta to be processed and have their mug shots taken after being indicted by district attorney Fani Willis for trying to overturn the state’s election result.
At his arraignment, Trump is expected to enter pleas to the 13 charges he faces in the case.
Updated
Trump's attorney arrive for hearing on January 6 trial date
Donald Trump’s lawyers have arrived at federal court in Washington DC for the hearing that will determine when his trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection will be held.
The former president is not expected to attend. Special prosecutor Jack Smith’s team has asked that the trial begin in January, while Trump’s attorneys have proposed starting in 2026. Federal judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of Barack Obama, is presiding over the hearing.
In Georgia, Donald Trump and 18 others are accused of a carrying out a sprawling plot aimed squarely at disrupting Joe Biden’s election win. But as the Guardian’s Timothy Pratt reports, it also had real consequences for a rural county that found itself entangled in his campaign’s unfounded allegations of vote rigging:
On Saturday afternoon, roughly 70 people gathered on folding chairs in a sweltering church meeting room in the small town of Douglas, about 200 miles (322km) south-east of Atlanta, Georgia. Less than a week earlier, Donald Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in Fulton county for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegedly entering the Coffee county elections office less than a mile away and copying the state’s voter software and other data.
County residents at the town hall raised concerns about the lack of accountability for those who played a role in copying software and other data, and said they felt insecure about the safety and integrity of future elections.
“People think, ‘He’s been indicted in Atlanta, so it’s over,’” 80-year-old county resident Jim Hudson said to the room, referring to Trump. “[But] how do we regroup? How do we become a county not referred to as ‘Crooked Coffee’?”
The Rev Bruce Francis read a message from Bishop Reginald T Jackson, who oversees 500 Black churches in Georgia, referring to “troubling improprieties” that had brought this town of about 12,000 residents to the world’s attention.
“The nation is now aware of the travesty that happened in 2020,” he read. “What do we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”
The “travesty” was what Marilyn Marks, the town hall’s main speaker, called “the largest voting system breach in US history”. It happened in January 2021, when multiple people working on behalf of Donald Trump allegedly entered the Coffee county elections office and copied software and other digital information from the agency’s computers, gaining access to the entire elections system of the state of Georgia, home to about 7.9 million registered voters.
The digital information obtained is now in an unknown number of hands, meaning that future elections could be affected in Georgia and in other states that use Dominion Voting Systems and other equipment made by partner companies. The breach has been publicly reported for more than a year, but was launched into a global spotlight on 14 August, when the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, issued indictments to Trump and 18 others. Several people were indicted for their direct role in the Coffee county breach, and nearly half the group had some kind of involvement in the incident, according to Marks.
Trump ally fears trials will derail campaigning
Court cases are unpredictable, but with Donald Trump facing four different criminal indictments spread over three states and Washington DC, it seems likely he’ll be spending at least some of his time in courtrooms next year. The graphic below outlines what we know of his trials’ schedule so far:
All that court time could conflict with his campaign to win back the White House in next year’s election. Over the weekend, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports that one of his allies said as much, and even went so far as to accuse prosecutors of conspiring to keep him away from his presidential run:
Donald Trump’s legal spokesperson has predicted that forthcoming early trial dates in the former president’s four criminal cases will not hold, and that his multiple cases could clash with the final stages of the 2024 presidential election campaign and voting.
Alina Habba told the Fox News Sunday show that prosecutors’ plans for fast turnarounds in Trump’s two federal criminal cases and the state indictments in New York and Georgia amounted to “unrealistic theatrics”. She said that each of the trials would last from four to six weeks, raising the threat of overlapping schedules.
“No judge is going to say you can be in two trials in two different states, because a lot of these overlap. They are going to have to go into October, November of next year,” she said.
Habba, who acts as general counsel for the Trump-supporting political fundraising group Save America PAC, claimed that the possibility of extending the trials right up to election day, 5 November, next year, was “by design”.
She claimed, without providing evidence, that Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county in Georgia who is leading the prosecution of Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia, and Jack Smith, the special counsel who has spearheaded the two federal indictments, were engaged in a “coordinated effort” with partisan motive.
“We know this is intentional – it’s to tie [Trump] up, it’s definitely political,” Habba said.
Judge to decide date for Trump's January 6 trial in day of high-stakes court hearings
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is expected to have a big day today in not one, but two courtrooms, where judges will consider matters that could have a great impact both on the criminal trials he is facing, and on the broader 2024 campaign. At 10 am eastern time in Washington DC, federal judge Tanya Chutkan will consider when to hold his trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team wants it to begin in January, while Trump’s attorneys have proposed holding off until 2026. If prosecutors get their way, it’ll throw yet another wrench into his plans to spend next year campaigning for the White House.
At the same time in Atlanta, Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff during his final months in office, will be in federal court, arguing that his trial on charges of trying to disrupt Joe Biden’s election win in Georgia three years ago should be held there, and not in its current state court venue. If Meadows prevails, it could aid his defense against the charges brought by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, and potentially apply to Trump and the 17 other co-defendants in the case. We’ll be following both of these hearings as they happen.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Today is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a landmark moment in the civil rights struggle that Biden commemorated with a piece in the Washington Post.
Vivek Ramaswamy has a piece in the American Conservative outlining his foreign policy doctrine, after he was attacked by his fellow Republican presidential contenders at last week’s primary debate.
Ron DeSantis is taking a break from the campaign trail to return to Florida and deal with an approaching storm and the aftermath of a racist shooting in Jacksonville, Politico reports.
