August 10, 2023 -The latest on the Trump-related investigations

Federal prosecutors have proposed a January 2, 2024, start date for a criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in the special counsel’s case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump’s lawyers still must weigh in with their proposed date, and a judge will ultimately decide. That date would add to an already busy trial schedule for Trump as the former president faces a multitude of legal challenges.

This is his schedule so far:

• October 2023 – New York attorney general’s civil case alleging fraud
• January 2024 – Another defamation case from columnist E. Jean Carroll
• March 2024 – Manhattan DA’s criminal case stemming from hush money scheme
• May 2024 – Federal criminal case in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

These dates could change as proceedings continue.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office said that evidence in the 2020 election subversion case against former President Donald Trump may include a “small amount” of classified information — a development that adds a layer of complexity to the pre-trial process.

Smith raised the issue in a court filing that came just minutes after a separate trial schedule proposal from his office. He stressed that any extra steps that need to be taken under the Classified Information Procedures Act — which sets out the protocols for resolving how classified material can be used in public court cases — should not derail the January 2024 trial date he’s recommending. 

The prosecutors asked US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to discuss the matter on August 28, when a hearing in the case is already scheduled. They emphasized that the amount of classified information that may be subject to discovery is “minimal” and noted that one of Trump’s attorneys has already received an interim security clearance.

How to handle the classified materials in the separate Mar-a-Lago documents case that Smith brought against Trump has already become a sticking point in that prosecution, which is unfolding in Florida. 

The parties are still dueling over what rules should be imposed on the defendants for accessing the classified evidence — which is an early step in the CIPA process and one that must be resolved before the production of classified discovery begins.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge in the documents case, built in several weeks in the case’s schedule for resolving that dispute. Chutkan, however, has signaled she intends to move very quickly in settling certain disagreements between the parties.

Federal prosecutors who’ve brought the 2020 election interference criminal case against former President Donald Trump are seeking to start to the trial on January 2, 2024, days before the anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol and the Iowa caucuses.

The special counsel’s office said in a filing Thursday that its presentation of evidence in the trial would take “no longer than four to six weeks,” meaning that Trump may need to spend his weekdays in court before a jury in the crucial first two months of a presidential election year, as primary voting begins for Republicans.

“A January 2 trial date would vindicate the public’s strong interest in a speedy trial – an interest guaranteed by the Constitution and federal law in all cases, but of particular significance here, where the defendant, a former president, is charged with conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens’ legitimate votes,” prosecutors wrote.

The Iowa caucuses are scheduled for January 15.Judge Tanya Chutkan of the federal court in Washington, DC, will ultimately decide the trial date, a decision she is likely to make by the end of this month. 

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the federal court in Washington, DC, ultimately will decide the trial start date, a decision she is likely to make by the end of this month.

Trump’s team won’t need to tell the court their preferred date for a trial until next week. But in Trump’s other federal case related to classified records in Florida after his presidency, they wanted a trial to be put off until after the presidential election. That trial date has been set for May, and Trump has other trial dates in lawsuits and a New York criminal case related to his business records set throughout the first half of next year.

The January 6 federal case may ultimately be a quicker road to trial than the Florida federal documents case, given that Trump is the only defendant at this time and much of what’s charged in the indictment is already public and not classified.

Prosecutors say that Trump “was determined to remain in power” after losing the 2020 election, and that he and six unindicted co-conspirators orchestrated a plot to overturn the results on and leading up to January 6, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The prosecutors are also asking the federal court to try to select a jury for Trump in December this year, before the winter holidays.

That would put the beginning steps of a trial just four months away — an aggressive schedule in the DC federal court. 

The special counsel's office says it is ready to turn over "the majority" of evidence it has collected to Trump's legal team for their trial preparations. That will include grand jury transcripts, witness interview records, evidence gathered through search warrants and information obtained from the US Secret Service as well as the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Trump's team has already signaled they plan to raise legal challenges in the case related to the First Amendment and the presidency.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek more than a dozen indictments when she presents her case regarding efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia before a grand jury next week, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Willis, a Democrat, has been eyeing conspiracy and racketeering charges, which would allow her to bring a case against multiple defendants.

Her wide-ranging criminal probe focuses on efforts to pressure election officials, the plot to put forward fake electors and a voting systems breach in rural Coffee County, Georgia. 

Trump acolytes who took part in each of those schemes believe they will face charges in Georgia next week, people familiar with their thinking said. Trump also believes he will be charged in the case, CNN has reported.

Willis' office declined to comment. 

The witnesses Willis has subpoenaed when she presents her case include former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former Georgia Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan and independent journalist George Chidi. All of them previously testified before a special purpose grand jury that was tasked with investigating the Trump case and heard from more than 75 witnesses.

More about the probe: Willis launched her investigation into Trump in early 2021, soon after he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured the Republican to "find" the votes necessary for Trump to win the state. 

At a campaign event Tuesday, Trump continued to insist it was a "perfect phone call." 

Willis has been reportedly weighing racketeering charges in the Trump case. RICO is a statute the district attorney has spoken fondly of and used in unorthodox ways to bring charges against teachers as well as musicians in the Atlanta area.

Willis' team has forged ahead with plans to make charging announcements in the coming weeks, even as special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four federal counts related to his efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential election. 

A large chunk of the conduct in the indictment was related to efforts to flip the election results in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case.

The former president's legal team believes he is likely to face his fourth indictment in the coming days, people familiar with the matter told CNN.

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Trump complained about the cases stacking up against him, adding, "I probably have another one."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp criticized former President Donald Trump on Thursday after the GOP frontrunner said he won't sign the Republican National Committee's loyalty pledge, which Kemp likened to "political games."

"Every Republican running for President would be better than Joe Biden," Kemp said in a statement Thursday. "Any candidate who does not commit to supporting the eventual nominee is putting themselves ahead of the future of our country. 2024 is too important for political games."

Tension between the former president and Kemp has been simmering for years. When Kemp refused to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia, Trump demonized him and recruited former Sen. David Perdue to challenge Kemp in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary.

Those efforts failed and the governor won the primary overwhelmingly before handily defeating his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams. 

Kemp also testified last year before the Atlanta-area special grand jury probing efforts by Trump to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek more than a dozen indictments as part of her investigation into Trump's attempts to reverse his defeat in the Peach State with a public and private pressure campaign targeting Georgia election officials and other lawmakers.

Trump said Wednesday night that he wouldn't sign the pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is because "I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president."

Despite that, Kemp recently told CNN he will “certainly” endorse the 2024 Republican nominee, even if it is Trump.

According to a GOP source, the following GOP candidates have signed the Republican National Committee's loyalty pledge that is required to participate in the presidential primary debate at the end of the month:

• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Ron DeSantis
• Nikki Haley

CNN's Dana Bash contributed reporting to this post.

The 16 Michigan Republicans who served as fake electors in 2020 have pleaded not guilty to the first-of-their-kind felony charges stemming from the Trump-backed election subversion plot.

Nine of the defendants were arraigned on the state charges Thursday at a virtual court hearing in Lansing. The other seven defendants already pleaded not guilty in the past few weeks.

The group of GOP activists were hit with state charges last month over their role former President Donald Trump’s seven-state plan to subvert the Electoral College and overturn the 2020 election results by supplanting lawful Democratic electors with fake Republican electors.

Each of the fake Michigan electors were charged with eight state felonies, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and publishing a counterfeit record. Some of their defense attorneys have already said they’ll challenge the novel prosecution and will try to get the charges dropped. The case is unfolding in Ingham County District Court.

The defendants were released on a $1,000 bond, after state judges determined that they weren’t a danger to the community and didn’t pose a flight risk. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 18, where prosecutors will need to show probable cause of the crimes.

The defendants include current and former Michigan Republican Party officials, a member of the Republican National Committee, a mayor, a school board member and a town clerk. Some have said they were tricked into signing the fake elector certificates and didn’t intend to break the law, while others are still peddling the lie that Trump won a second term.

Remember: Two weeks after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the state charges, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on federal charges stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The sweeping indictment accused Trump of trying to “subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes” with the fake elector plot.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment, which was filed in Washington, DC.

Some of the Michigan defendants have claimed Nessel, a Democrat, is wrongly targeting political opponents. She has denied these allegations, and instead argues it would have been “political” if she hadn’t filed the charges despite “overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has recently been assigned additional security protection near her Georgia residence, according to a source with direct knowledge of Atlanta law enforcement movements.   

Willis, who is investigating former President Donald Trump and his associates for interfering with Georgia’s 2020 election results, has recently urged local officials to stay vigilant about possible security threats. 

In an email less than two weeks ago obtained by CNN, the Fulton district attorney shared a racist and sexualized message she received and said similar obscene messages had been left via voicemail. 

Trump once again attacked Willis on Tuesday at his New Hampshire campaign event, calling the black District Attorney a "racist," while defending his actions in Georgia around the 2020 election. 

Willis previously said that security concerns have been escalated by Trump’s rhetoric.  

In early 2022, she asked the FBI for help in providing security for buildings and staff one day after Trump called prosecutors investigating him “racists.” The former President asked his supporters to hold “the biggest protests we have ever had” in cities like Atlanta if the prosecutors “do anything wrong or illegal.”

Willis is likely to present her 2020 election interference case to a grand jury next week and could seek several racketeering indictments against Trump and his associates for their actions in Georgia following the 2020 election.  

Donald Trump’s body-man Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty to new criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, while the arraignment for his co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira has been postponed because he still doesn’t have a Florida lawyer.

The former president previously waived his appearance in court and his lawyers officially entered a not guilty plea.

De Oliveira, the property manager at Trump’s Florida resort, and Nauta appeared in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida. They have been charged with multiple offenses related to Trump’s allegedly unlawful retention of documents after leaving office, including classified material.

Trump and Nauta were first indicted in this case in June. De Oliveira was added as a co-defendant in a superseding indictment last month, along with new charges against Trump and Nauta.

De Oliveira is now scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, August 15.

More background: The charges Nauta and De Oliveira face include making false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing documents.

According to the superseding indictment, in the summer of 2022, Nauta – at Trump’s direction – helped to conceal documents from a grand jury subpoena by moving boxes, some of which contained classified information, out of a storage room which was later searched by a Trump attorney to comply with the subpoena.

The special counsel investigation into Donald Trump secured a search warrant of the former president’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, according to a newly unsealed court filing.

The search was so secret that Twitter was initially barred from telling Trump the search warrant had been obtained for his account, and the company, now known as “X,” was fined $350,000 because it delayed producing the records sought under the search warrant.

The search warrant special counsel Jack Smith obtained sought “data and records related” to Trump’s account, and ultimately, the platform was allowed to share some information about the search warrant with the former president.

The special counsel’s office, which is now working on the criminal case against Trump in DC District Court related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, sought the warrant in January 2023.

Twitter ultimately produced the records, according to the filing, now public in the US Circuit Court of Appeals.

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