Trump Criminal Charges Possible as Soon as Monday in Georgia

ATLANTA — Court proceedings began to move more quickly than expected on Monday in Fulton County, Ga., where District Attorney Fani Willis this week is presenting to a local grand jury the findings of her two-plus year probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Late Monday afternoon, McBurney, who is presiding over the proceedings, addressed reporters in the public gallery saying he was going to check in with the district attorney’s office on whether he’d keep the court open past 5 p.m.

“I want to get you out of here,” McBurney said. “So when I know that my day is over — normally presiding stops at five, and about 4:59, you say no more. But I've been asked this week to have presiding, just to be flexible.”

Shortly before 4 p.m., McBurney poked his head back into the courtroom, gave a deputy some instructions on some regular business and then turned towards the reporters seated in the gallery. "You all may want to get dinner," he said.

Signs that the proceedings were moving quickly on Monday included testimony from some witnesses that came ahead of schedule.

“Change of plans. I'm going to court today,” independent journalist George Chidi, who was called to testify, said in a social media post Monday afternoon. “They're moving faster than they thought.”

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who was expected to testify Tuesday, was also called to testify Monday instead, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Also on Monday, a court document inadvertently became public listing 13 criminal offenses Trump may face if he is indicted in the case. Fulton County officials quickly removed the document, but it was obtained and published by the Reuters news agency.

Under Georgia law, at least 12 grand jurors must vote in favor of handing up a true bill of indictment that formally accuses a defendant of criminal offenses.

Trump’s efforts to take Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes, even though he lost the state to Biden, included a recorded phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, in which he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”

In January 2022, Willis requested a special grand jury to investigate efforts to interfere with the electoral results in the state. Special grand juries are not empowered to return indictments, but the reports that they issue can be used as guideposts for other grand juries.

That special grand jury probe concluded with a final report issued in February. In an interview with CNN at the time, special grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs said the list of recommended indictments is “not a short list. It’s not.”