Trump Georgia trial date proposed as woman arrested over Jan 6 judge ‘death threats’

While it’s unlikely that the former president will be sentenced to hundreds of years in prison, the risk of some prison time is very real.

Gustaf Kilander breaks down the numbers.

Donald Trump has been accused of considering not attending the first Republican primary debate because he’s supposedly scared of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has vowed to come after Mr Trump.

Matt Lewis appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe after writing a Daily Beast column entitled Showing Up to the GOP Debate Would Be the Ultimate Trump Flex.

“I’m curious to see if Donald Trump is afraid of Chris Christie, so afraid of Chris Christie that he doesn’t show up, that he uses excuses such as, ‘I’m not going to sign the pledge, the RNC pledge,’ or whether Donald Trump is just an egomaniac who craves attention, who loves attention, and who now feels that he has a bigger chip on his shoulder, has to unburden himself and play the victim again that he shows up in Milwaukee,” he said, according to Mediaite.

“And I think I’m leaning toward the latter. He may not fully appreciate the danger that Chris Christie specifically poses.”

Gustaf Kilander has more.

It was the URL heard around the world.

On Monday, a document seemingly announcing 13 counts against Donald Trump was briefly published online on a Fulton County web system – before being deleted just as quickly – kicking off rampant speculation about the looming indictment and instantly fuelling claims of foul play from the former president.

The initial charge sheet seemed to show an extensive list of criminal charges against Mr Trump stemming from the long-running Georgia investigation into his attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, according to Reuters, which first reported the document.

It was published hours before the grand jury eventually voted to indict the former president and a group of his closest allies for running a criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 election in the state and keep Mr Trump in power.

The document, which can still be viewed on the Reuters website, was quickly taken down.

Josh Marcus explains what happened.

A special prosecutor is likely to be appointed to investigate one of 30 unnamed and “unindicted co-conspirators” inside a sweeping racketeering indictment in Georgia targeting Donald Trump and 18 of his allies.

The state’s current Republican Lt Governor Burt Jones, who was a sitting state senator at the time of the alleged crimes, was one of 16 “alternate” electors who falsely swore that Mr Trump won the state in the 2020 presidential election.

He also pushed for a special legislative session to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

But he was not among the 19 defendants in the grand jury case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was barred by a judge from indicting him.

A biographer who wrote the book on the life and career of “America’s Mayor” has a new theory for why Rudy Giuliani remains so doggedly loyal to Donald Trump.

Andrew Kirtzman, the author of Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor, explained that the major turning point in Mr Giuliani’s political life came in 2008 when he failed to deliver a competitive performance in that year’s presidential primary race.

“[H]e entered as a front runner and ended it in humiliation with just one delegate,” Mr Kirtzman told MSNBC.

“[I]t was at that moment in 2008 when things kind of crashed around him, when he lost his 9/11 halo, was left in kind of the political wilderness. There was Donald Trump.

“And Donald Trump literally took him into Mar-a-Lago right after his failure in 2008 and kind of shielded Giuliani when he was, kind of fell into a depression.”

A new video has emerged that appears to show Republican consultant Roger Stone working to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The video aired by MSNBC yesterday was obtained by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen for his 2023 documentary A Storm Foretold.

“Although state officials in all 50 states must ultimately certify the results of the voting in their state … the final decision as to who the state legislatures authorise be sent to the Electoral College is a decision made solely by the legislature,” Mr Stone can be heard saying to an associate working on a laptop on 5 November 2020.

He continued: “Any legislative body may decide on the basis of overwhelming evidence of fraud to send electors to the Electoral College who accurately reflect the president’s legitimate victory in their state, which was illegally denied him through fraud.

“We must be prepared to lobby our Republican legislatures … by personal contact and by demonstrating the overwhelming will of the people in their state—in each state—that this may need to happen,” he added.

The former president’s followers were quick to comfort him, push conspiracies and call for retaliation after a Fulton County grand jury indicted him Monday on 13 counts including racketeering, filing false documents and attempting to coerce public officers to violate their oaths.

Many of the users launched direct attacks on the grand jurors – going so far as to share their names and details about their purported social media profiles.

Kelly Rissman has the details.

South Carolina senator and Republican presidential 2024 hopeful Tim Scott joked in Iowa that he is asking everybody to caucus for him — even a nine-year-old.

“When you’re desperate for every single vote, you’ll ask everybody. Just assume that right now I’m asking each and every one of you,” he said at Story County’s annual dinner on Tuesday, The DailyMail reported.

Mr Scott discussed his time at the Iowa State Fair when a nine-year-old girl gave him a bracelet and told him: “I want you to be president.”

He then asked the child if she would caucus for him, he recounted jokingly; she was confused, Mr Scott said.

A Texas woman has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill the federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump and a member of congress.

Abigail Jo Shry called the federal courthouse in Washington and left a threatening message using a racist term for US district judge Tanya Chutkan on 5 August, according to court records.

Investigators traced her phone number and she later admitted to making the threatening call, according to a criminal complaint.

In the call, Ms Shry told the judge: “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”

Prosecutors alleged that Ms Shry also said, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you,” and she threatened to kill US rep Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat running for mayor of Houston, according to court documents.

Alex Woodward explains what we know about the 30 individuals who were not named in the Fulton County indictment.