Trump news today: Trump’s Georgia trial to be televised and live-streamed

“Just think of a mayor charged with massive embezzlement, and he says, Well, it’s a year and a half to the election; let’s put that on hold, while I’m running for reelection. It’s silly,” said the former Trump administration attorney general.

“The idea that this is interfering with the election is simply wrong.”

A prominent member of the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys who federal prosecutors argued played an instrumental role in propelling the group towards political violence has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Joe Biggs, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy earlier this year alongside three other members of the group for their roles on January 6, had called the assault at the US Capitol a “warning shot” to the government in its aftermath. He now faces one of the longest prison sentences to date among hundreds of people charged in connection with the attack.

Alex Woodward has been following the case.

So far, Mr Trump has been criminally indicted four times – two of which are on the federal level and two are on the state level. This is on top of two civil lawsuits the ex-president is involved in New York City.

Though Mr Trump’s legal team has continuously pushed judges to delay trial dates until after the 2024 election, nearly all of the dates for his criminal indictments have been set for next spring.

Here are the trial dates for Mr Trump thus far.

Her first day as the chief prosecutor for Fulton County came with news that then-President Donald Trump attempted to pressure Georgia’s top election officials to reverse his loss in the state during the 2020 presidential election.

A phone call between Mr Trump and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was published by The Washington Post late at night on 3 January, 2021.

Hours later, Fani Willis would walk into her first day on the job as Fulton County’s district attorney, an office that is now spearheading a criminal investigation into Mr Trump, with the phone call serving as a central damning piece of evidence against him.

“As long as I’m governor, we are going to follow the law and the Constitution – regardless of who it helps politically,” the governor said.

More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.

Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn. Some point to former President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen and spreading conspiracy theories about election workers. Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the Justice Department to do more to protect election workers.

Without the privileges and prestige of the presidency to protect him, Mr Trump is facing serious lawsuits and criminal indictments across New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington.

Federal officials, local prosecutors, and individuals are going after him for everything from his private conduct to his political maneuvering during the 2020 election. If even just one of these efforts are successful, the US could see its first-ever former president in prison.

Here, The Independent explains each major case:

Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election in Georgia will be televised and live-streamed, a judge has ruled.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the criminal racketeering case against the former president, said he would allow a YouTube stream, to be operated by the court, as well as permission for pool coverage for television, radio and still photography.

It is the first of Trump’s four criminal trials where filming has been confirmed. Photographers were briefly allowed into a New York court at the beginning of Trump’s first hearing there.

Donald Trump has moved to sever Georgia case from the defendants seeking a speedy trial, arguing that it would violate his right to a fair process.

“President Trump moves the Court to sever his case from those of his co-defendants who have demanded a speedy trial … and who have a scheduled trial date of October 23, 2023,” lawyer Steven Sadow wrote in a filing on Thursday.

Gustaf Kilander has the details.