The Jan. 6th House Select committee’s primetime hearings have taken a summer break. Now, all eyes are on Attorney General Merrick Garland and if the Department of Justice will move on formal charges against former President Donald Trump. Garland has stated that Trump is not above the law but indicated that an investigation would not happen before the midterm elections occur. A legal expert believes there’s a better chance for an indictment in the current investigation happening in Georgia, Newsweek reports.
Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched an investigation last year looking into the tampering with the 2020 Presidential election. Two focus points of Willis are the fake electors plot or Trump’s call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” votes. Willis also has been issuing subpoenas to individuals in Trump’s circle. Professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University Lawrence Tribe believes action will come from Georgia’s side first.
“Even now the proof is there, for example, with respect to strong-arming Raffensperger to steal the votes of Georgia, that’s already there,” Tribe told CBS News on Wednesday, assessing whether or not there is enough evidence to charge Trump with a crime related to the 2020 election and his efforts to overturn his loss.
“That’s why I expect an indictment from Fani Willis in Fulton County, Georgia, even before an indictment from the Department of Justice,” the legal expert said.
Given the scope of what the Justice Department has to prove in court, Tribe believes there is wrongdoing, but not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Attorney Norman Eisen echoed Tribe’s claims because there are clear examples of violations of Georgia state election law on the books.
“I do believe that the great likelihood is that he’s heading towards an indictment,” Eisen told the Times, referring to Trump. “There is powerful proof of violations of Georgia law in the form of the smoking gun tape of him demanding 11,780 votes, when it is perfectly clear from that tape that he knows those votes do not exist,” the legal expert explained.