Fulton County prosecutors have a another recording of Trump trying to pressure a Georgia official in 2020

16 March 2023

In an article published by The Nation on March 7, attorney Elie Mystal — who has often appeared as a legal analyst on MSNBC — laid out some reasons why former President Donald Trump could face a criminal indictment in the months ahead but still win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and possibly even end up back in the White House on January 20, 2025.

It remains to be seen whether or not such an indictment will come about, or whether the Republican Party's next presidential nominee will be Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (assuming that he runs) or someone else. But Trump is facing a variety of legal problems, both criminal and civil, as he campaigns for his party's nomination — some at the federal level, some in individual states. Trump-related investigations are being conducted not only by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and special counsel Jack Smith, but also, by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis.

Willis is probing Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, one of the states that Democratic now-President Joe Biden won. And according to reporting in CNN and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton County investigators have obtained a recording in which Trump encouraged the late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican, to hold a special session for the purpose of overturning Biden's victory in that state.

CNN reporters Kristen Holmes and Jason Morris, in an article published on March 15, explain, "(A) Fulton County special grand jury, which investigated Trump's actions in the state after the 2020 election, heard the recording of Trump's call to David Ralston, according to five of the jurors who spoke anonymously to the AJC. A source confirmed to CNN the existence of the recording, which hasn't been made public…. It's the third audio recording of the former president's phone calls to Georgia officials that is known to exist."

After losing Georgia to Biden, Trump tried to bully Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into helping him "find" enough votes to reverse Biden's win in the Peach State. But Raffensperger, a conservative Republican, refused to go along with it and maintained that Biden won Georgia fair and square.

That Fulton County grand jury, Holmes and Morris note, "recommended multiple indictments, according to the foreperson." But Willis has the option of either following or not following the jurors' recommendations.

Ralston was 68 when he died in Atlanta on November 16, 2022. Almost two years earlier, during a December 2020 interview with BKP Politics, Ralston said of Trump, "Well obviously, he would like a special session of the Georgia General Assembly. He's been clear on that before, and he was clear on that in the phone conversation yesterday. You know, I shared with him my belief that based on the understanding I have of Georgia law, that it was going to be very much an uphill battle."

The United States' 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be intense. If former Trump ally DeSantis runs, the battle between the two of them could get really ugly. And if Trump receives the GOP nomination, the general election would no doubt be ugly as well.

Should Trump end up back in the White House on January 20, 2025, a federal prosecution would be unlikely at that point. First, Trump would no doubt want a total loyalist for U.S. attorney general. Second, DOJ has a longstanding policy against indicting a sitting president.

But DA Willis is not part of DOJ. She is a prosecutor for the State of Georgia, not the United States' federal government.

In an article published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on March 15, reporters Tamar Hallerman and Bill Rankin offer a detailed description of the publication's interview with five of the Fulton County jurors. According to one of the jurors, Ralston "basically cut the president off" and "just basically took the wind out of the sails."

Read CNN’s full report at this link.

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