Background Briefing: August 15, 2023

On By gram

Fani Willis’s 98-Page indictment With 19 Defendants Including Trump Who Faces 13 Charges

We begin with an analysis of the latest charges against Donald Trump in the 98-page indictment which includes 19 defendants with Trump facing 13 charges brought last night by Fani Willis the DA in Atlanta. Joining us is a leading criminal defense attorney who represented Rudy Giuliani and turned down representing Trump, Jon Sale, who served as an Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor under Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski, and was included in Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.” He was the chief prosecutor in U.S. v. Fedorenko, a civil denaturalization proceeding against a World War II guard at the Nazi death camp at Treblinka, Poland.

 

An Expert on Election Law on the Latest Indictments

Then we speak with an expert on election law which is at the center of Trump criminal racketeering charges to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Joining us is Richard Hasen, Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a nationally-recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, and is co-author of a leading casebook on election law. He is the author of a number of books including The Voting Wars, Plutocrats United, The Justice of Contradictions, and Election Meltdown. His latest book is Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics―and How to Cure It and we will discuss his latest article at Slate, “The Biggest Difference Between the Georgia Indictment and the January 6 Indictment.”

The Real World Consequences of Trump’s Incitement of Violence

Then finally we explore the real world consequences of Trump’s incitement to violence as lone wolf MAGA fanatics like the police chaplain from Illinois who attacked the Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman act out against those Trump singles out for abuse with Fox News and right wing media the echo chamber vilifying and demonizing. Joining us is Barbara Walter, a professor of political science and Rohr Chair in Pacific International Relations at the University of California San Diego. She served on the CIA advisory panel Political Instability Task Force and is the author of How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them and yesterday her new TED talk “Is the U.S. Headed For Another Civil War?” was posted.