Barricades have started to be erected outside of the Fulton County courthouse in Georgia as local law enforcement prepare for a high-profile “announcement” widely expected to be another round of indictments against former President Donald Trump.
Barricades erected outside the Fulton County courthouse now. Looks like preparation for some big legal news… pic.twitter.com/3QOccQOMnf
— Charles Bethea (@charlesbethea) July 27, 2023
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat received a letter earlier in the year from District Attorney Fani Willis urging him to beef up security for high profile legal action that would be coming within the first two weeks of August.
“In the near future, I will announce charging decisions resulting from the investigation my office has been conducting into possible criminal interference in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 General Election,” Willis wrote in the letter that was hand-delivered to the sheriff.
“I am providing this letter to bring to your attention the need for heightened security and preparedness in coming months due to this pending announcement,” she added.
Willis began investigating Trump weeks after a phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging the local official to investigate what appeared to be irregularities and possible fraud.
A special grand jury was empaneled and recommended indictments earlier this year, but, as Fox 5 Atlanta reported, did not have the power to issue the indictments. A regular grand jury, which was seated July 11, will decide.
“Open-source intelligence has indicated the announcement of decisions in this case may provoke a significant public reaction,” the first-term district attorney continued. “We have seen in recent years that some may go outside of public expressions of opinion that are protected by the First Amendment to engage in acts of violence that will endanger the safety [of] our community” — a possible reference to the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
She told the sheriff, “As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to prepare.”
The Georgia prosecutor, who has spent two years investigating Trump and his associates, has indicated that her team will be working remotely and has advised Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville to not schedule trials and in-person hearings from the last day in July through Aug. 18.
Within recent days, The Guardian learned from two people briefed on deliberations among the prosecutorial team that authorities have been weighing bringing charges for computer trespass crimes against multiple people close to the former president who the DA’s office alleges were “involved in accessing voting machines and copying sensitive election data in Coffee county.”
