Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump has decided not to seek to move his election interference trial from Fulton County to federal court, his lawyer said Thursday. In a surprise, two-page notice filed in Fulton Superior Court, attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little said Trump based the decision “on his well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial.” In order to move his case, Trump would have had to show he was operating as a federal official — rather than a political candidate — as he attempted to overturn the results...

Former President Donald J. Trump said he hoped Mark Meadows — his final White House chief of staff and a co-defendant in a sweeping racketeering indictment in Georgia stemming from efforts to thwart the 2020 election — was still “loyal” to him. Mr. Trump made his comment during a lengthy interview with Kristen Welker, the new moderator of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” broadcast on Sunday morning. Mr. Trump has been warned by the federal judge in a case also stemming from his efforts to stay in office, brought against him by the special counsel Jack Smith, to avoid saying anything...

The early defense strategies being pursued by former President Trump and his 18 co-defendants in Georgia are quickly complicating prosecutors’ aim to go to trial next month. District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is attempting to keep all of the co-defendants together for a singular trial beginning Oct. 23, but several legal maneuvers already underway pose deep challenges to Willis’s goal, which legal experts have called extraordinarily ambitious. So far, five defendants have attempted to move their charges to federal court, two have demanded a speedy trial and a majority have aimed to sever their charges from fellow co-defendants. Fulton County...