Breakdown - S9, Ep. 3: Is there a criminal case?

S9, Ep. 3: Is there a criminal case?

07/04/22 • 43 min

3 Listeners

Is there a criminal case to be brought against former President Donald Trump and his allies for what happened in Georgia following the 2020 presidential election?

The third episode of “The Trump Grand Jury,” the ninth season of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast, explores that possibility. A Fulton County special purpose grand jury that is investigating the issue will ultimately recommend whether criminal charges should be brought.

In a letter to top state officials, District Attorney Fani Willis listed a half dozen laws the former president and others may have broken. They are: solicitation of election fraud, giving false statements, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and making threats related to the administration of the state’s elections.

In Breakdown’s third episode – “Is There A Criminal Case?” – legal experts discuss a number of incidents, including Trump’s Jan. 2, 2020, call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; his lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s testimony before state legislative committees; and the slate of fake electors who met in secret at the state Capitol the same day Democrats cast Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes for Biden.

As to whether Trump broke the law, it depends on who you ask.

John Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University, doesn’t think it’s a close call.

“Looking specifically at the Trump situation, when I read and then heard the actual tape recording of the conversation, it jumped out at me as being about as clear and specific and unambiguous evidence of a crime,” he said.

But Atlanta lawyer Randy Evans, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg, doesn’t see it that way.

“If we narrow down to the particulars of what I understand the DA to be looking into, which is whether there’s any criminal or illegal conduct, I don’t even think it’s really close, to be fair,” he said.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

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Is there a criminal case to be brought against former President Donald Trump and his allies for what happened in Georgia following the 2020 presidential election?

As to whether Trump broke the law, it depends on who you ask.

John Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University, doesn’t think it’s a close call.

But Atlanta lawyer Randy Evans, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Luxembourg, doesn’t see it that way.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

S2 Ep. 18: A Momentous Decision

This is the murder case against Justin Ross Harris, who left his 22-month-old son Cooper to die in a hot car on June 18, 2014.

Harris, a Home Depot web developer, took Cooper that morning to Little Apron Academy, the in-house daycare center at work. They stopped at a Chick-fil-A for breakfast. But when they leave, Harris doesn’t make the turn to the daycare. Instead, he drives to work, parks his car and walks in to the office. Within hours, Cooper is dead of hypothermia.

The intense publicity of the case went worldwide when it was disclosed at a preliminary hearing that Harris was sending sexually explicit texts to other women shortly before and after he left Cooper in the parking lot. It would be disclosed he was having extramarital affairs, sleeping with prostitutes and exchanging graphic texts with underage girls.

Harris would be indicted for Cooper’s murder and other crimes. Because of intense pretrial publicity, the trial was moved from Cobb County to Glynn County in coastal Georgia. The jury in Brunswick would convict Harris of Cooper’s murder and he would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Before and during the trial, Harris’ defense lawyers said what Harris did was a tragic mistake because he loved his son. They also tried to keep evidence of Harris’ deviant sexual behavior from being presented to the jury, arguing it was unfairly prejudicial. Prosecutors contended it showed Harris’ motive — to life a child-free life so he pursue sexual relations.

Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark sided with prosecutors and let it all in. The jury heard days of testimony about the affairs, the graphic texts and the prostitutes.

This became a major thrust of Harris’ appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court in his bid for a new trial. The case was argued this past January and the court released its decision on June 22.

Breakdown’s Episode 18 of “Death in a Hot Car; Mistake or Murder?” covers the court’s momentous ruling and the aftermath.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

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Next Episode

S5, Ep. 12 The Tex McIver Case: Georgia Supreme Court strikes again

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast drops a special episode on Friday for Season 5: “The Tex McIver Case.”

McIver, an Atlanta lawyer, was convicted of murder during a trial in Fulton County for killing his wife on Sept. 25, 2016.

The killing happened when Tex and Diane McIver returned home to Atlanta from their 84-acre ranch in Putnam County. Diane McIver’s best friend, Dani Jo Carter, was driving the Ford Expedition. Diane McIver was sitting in the front passenger seat, her husband sitting behind her in the back seat.

After they exited the downtown connector on Edgewood Avenue, Tex McIver asks for his .38-caliber handgun that’s in the center console. He later says he thought they had come upon a Black Lives Matter protest.

They leave the area without incident and drive along Piedmont Avenue toward Buckhead, with McIver still holding the revolver in his lap. When they get to an intersection, McIver fires a bullet through the backseat. It hits his wife in the back and she later dies during surgery at Emory University Hospital.

McIver tells police that it was a tragic accident, that the gun went off after he had fallen asleep and was suddenly awakened. But he is eventually indicted for murder and convicted of it during a 2018 trial.

Returning to Breakdown’s fifth season, Episode 12 follows the McIver case through its appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court which issued its opinion on June 30. Just eight days before, the state high court had reversed another high-profile murder case against Justin Ross Harris who had left his 22-month-old son Cooper in his hot car to die.

This time, the court overturns McIver’s conviction in another momentous decision.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices