This is special edition of TPM’s Morning Memo entirely devoted to Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia. As the song goes: “He was in a bind ’cause he was way behind/And he was willin’ to make a deal.” Sign up for the email version.

Good Morning!

The action in Atlanta came a day earlier than expected.

After a marathon session Monday, a Georgia grand jury returned a monster 41-felony-count, 97-page indictment against a total of 19 defendants, including former President Donald Trump; Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis; and Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark.

It was a strange day of uncertainty and expectation, with moment-by-moment reporting from the Fulton County courthouse. The duty judge would poke his head into the courtroom of waiting reporters to do check-ins. Grand jury witnesses scheduled to testify today made public that they had been called in a day early and offered regular updates as to where they stood in the line of witnesses paraded before the grand jury. The presentation of the indictment to the duty judge was televised live. Reporters were taking photographs from the inside of the clerk of court’s office as they waited an agonizing couple of hours for the paperwork to be processed and the indictment made public.

The day was punctuated by what appeared to be the accidental posting then quick takedown from the clerk’s website of a document seemingly related to the case that listed Trump as a defendant. That sparked an initial round of excitement and panic, then confusion. The clerk’s office later issued a statement calling the document “fictitious.” But it remained unclear exactly what had happened and why.

As the drama stretched deep into the evening, it became increasingly clear that District Attorney Fani Will was pushing to finish the indictment the same day. The duty judge kept the courtroom open late to accept the indictment, should it come. It finally did, just before 9 p.m. ET. The indictment became public just before 11 p.m. ET.

Watch Fani Willis

Shortly after the indictment became public late Monday night, Atlanta DA Fani Willis spoke to the press:

"The grand jury issued arrest warrants for those who are charged. I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday the 25th day of August, 2023"pic.twitter.com/3HylSALOIg

— The Messenger (@TheMessenger) August 15, 2023

Great Breakdown

It’s easy to get lost in big sweeping indictments like this one, so breaking down the structure can help you absorb it. This is spot on:

The basic structure here: 1 count of RICO applied to all 19 defendants. 161 overt acts, of which DA has to prove only 2, in furtherance of the conspiracy. 40 of those are crimes, and those are charged separately, re only those defendants who committed them as counts 2-41.

— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) August 15, 2023

The structure, including the overarching RICO count, is actually tight and focused, even if the overt acts alleged and the geographic and temporal reach of the indictment is sweeping.

The Counts

Typically I would outline each of the counts by defendant, but it’s too unwieldy this time. I would just refer you to the first four pages of the indictment, which breaks it down succinctly.

To be clear though, the overall thrust of the indictment is familiar. It tells the story we already know of the election interference effort in Georgia. But it is broad and all-encompassing, reaching into overt acts committed in other states and mirroring much of what we know about the national-level conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election.

This is not the narrow focused Jan. 6 indictment only of Trump with which Special Counsel Jack Smith started. This is whole enchilada, or close to it, but with a Georgia-specific angle.

All About Trump

The former president is mentioned 193 times in the indictment. And then there’s this gem:

12 of the 161 overt acts listed in the RICO portion of the indictment are Trump tweets

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) August 15, 2023

The Alleged Conspiracy Stretched Into September 2022

The indictment charges that the conspiracy began on Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the election, and didn’t end until Sept. 15, 2022, when Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley allegedly committed perjury in front of the special grand jury.

Nice To See You Again

Five of the six unindicted and unnamed co-conspirators in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 indictment of Trump are actually indicted in the Georgia case. The identity of the sixth co-conspirator remains a bit of a mystery.

One BIG Trial

Fani Willis announced that she plans to try all of the defendants together.

What Comes Next?

The 19 defendants have until noon, Friday, August 25 to voluntarily surrender. Willis said she would be seeking a trial date of about six months out.

A Brand-New Judge

The Trump indictment has been randomly assigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, a former prosecutor and state inspector general appointed to the bench by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and sworn in this past … February.

Let Me Be Earnest For A Moment

Among the most striking moments of the last 24 hours:

• The former president indicted for the fourth time this year, the second for trying to stay in power unlawfully. And of course there were two impeachments tied to his effort to unlawfully remain in power.
• A Black woman DA surrounded by a diverse staff in a plurality-Black county bringing down a rancid racist like Trump, whose Big Lie was drenched in racial grievance and stereotyping. Never forget Ruby Freeman.
• The power of the state to deprive a citizen of their liberty still comes down to a plodding, bureaucratic, paper-pushing process of making things official, memorializing formal acts, and doing so in a public way. I mean all of that in the best possible way. The fact that much it was televised (and that this trial will be televised) is a bonus.

Ironies Abound

I really wouldn't be sad if someone offered a prize for the best rendition of "Rudy Giuliani brought down by RICO charges brought by a Black DA."

I GET the irony. I just want to read about it in detail over and over.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 15, 2023

Behold

The front page of today’s @ajc: pic.twitter.com/PheESFj9LY

— Patricia Murphy (@MurphyAJC) August 15, 2023

Memory Lane

The above AJC front page is a far cry from this 2007 glamour shot at an event for the long-since-defunct glossy mag Atlanta Peach:

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A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop.

That didn’t take long.

After U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan made explicit Friday that she will do whatever is necessary to protect the integrity of the proceedings in the Jan. 6 case of U.S. v. Trump, the former president resumed his public attacks on her and her proceedings.

In posts and reposts on his Truth Social platform, Trump impugned Chutkan, her motives, and the proceedings against him. Not surprising or unprecedented to anyone who has paid even a smidge of attention to Trump’s history of acting out in legal matters, but no less damaging or destructive or corrosive to the rule of law.

The latest attack last night:

An earlier repost by Trump from the weekend:

What will be done about it? What can be done about it?

Judge Chutkan can haul him into court and read him the riot act, she can impose further restrictions on his out-of-court statements, and she can ultimately hold him in contempt, even remand him into custody pending trial.

I don’t expect dramatic action from Chutkan immediately for reasons that mostly make sense in this particular moment: she might not want to escalate this fight too quickly but rather leave herself room to ramp up down the road when it might really be needed, she doesn’t want to get bogged down in First Amendment fights over a gag order, she doesn’t want to feed Trump’s narrative of this all being a personal attack on him.

But Trump’s ability to spend 77 years on this planet without being held to real account is largely because each new person he encounters attempts to give him the benefit of the doubt, or to play the long game with him, or makes a transactional calculation to just grin and bear it in order to get what they need out of the interaction.

So we see in this latest round of boundary-setting followed immediately by Trump’s boundary-pushing the pattern that has played out over and over for decades. He can no more break that pattern – which has been marvelously successful for him – than he can stop breathing.

Now, whatever calculation Chutkan makes here and now regarding these statement, I have the sense from reading the accounts of Friday’s hearing that she knows the pattern. She’s no fool. She won’t be played. But she will pick her spots. Is this her spot? I don’t know. But I’ll be watching to see if:

• Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team brings these posts to her attention formally;
• Chutkan sua sponte raises them before the next scheduled hearing in the case; or
• Chutkan waits until the case comes before her again in a scheduled hearing later this month.

Or she may decide to keep her powder dry. But I suspect she and Trump are on a collision course that can’t be avoided indefinitely.

This Is The Week In Georgia

All signals are pointing to a state grand jury indictment tomorrow (Tuesday) in Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis’ long-running investigation of Trump’s interference in her state’s 2020 election. Here’s a good rundown on why we expect indictments tomorrow:

The Fulton County DA is set to bring charges related to her 2020 election probe.

I’ve chronicled legal events related to the probe in neurotic detail for more than a year @lawfare.

I’ll be at the courthouse in the coming days as the case enters a new phase: the indictment🧵👇

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) August 14, 2023

Willis May Have More New Stuff Than We Thought

CNN:

Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, sources tell CNN. …

They have gathered evidence indicating it was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software, according to people familiar with the situation.

Trump Feeling The Pressure?

For good measure, Trump launched a new attack on Fani Willis, too:

Countdown In Atlanta

• The Guardian: ‘He’s going to be very surprised’: Georgia DA Fani Willis prepares to face off with Trump
• AP: How Fani Willis oversaw what might be the most sprawling legal case against Donald Trump
• MSNBC: Online hysterics suggest Trump now expects indictment in Georgia
• NYT: Two Months in Georgia: How Trump Tried to Overturn the Vote

California Cutting Eastman No Slack

Authorities pursuing the disbarment of Trump coup plotter John Eastman are opposing his request to delay the proceedings. He argues that he’s facing potential criminal charges; they argue that that ain’t new news.

Michigan Watch

Your occasional update on the state-level prosecution of Trump’s fake elector scheme in Michigan:

• The Messenger: ‘They’re Going to Shoot Someone’: Michigan Republicans Warn of Civil War at Pool Party Fundraiser for Fake Electors
• Michigan Advance: Michigan fake electors arraigned in Lansing court
• Bridge Michigan: Records: Michigan voting machines exchanged at mall, ‘manipulated’ in hotels

Aileen Cannon Made A Doozy Of An Error

The Daily Beast: Inside One ‘Egregious’ Mistake From Trump’s Florida Judge Aileen Cannon

What Happened In the Hunter Biden Case Exactly?

I can tell you what happened, but I’m still puzzling over exactly how we ended up here:

• After the Hunter Biden plea agreement blew up in court, the parties failed to arrive at a resolution in subsequent negotiations.
• U.S. Attorney David Weiss, apparently anticipating that he would now have to bring the case against Hunter Biden to trial in a jurisdiction outside of Delaware, asked Attorney General Merrick Garland last Tuesday to confer on him special counsel powers.
• On Friday, Garland announced he was acceding to Weiss’ request.
• Soon after, Weiss asked the Delaware federal court to cancel the briefing scheduled in the case because there’s no longer a plea agreement.
• For his part, Hunter Biden is arguing that there very much was a plea agreement already entered into and binding upon the parties and seems to be making noises about trying to enforce it.

It’s a confused and strange situation, but rest assured that political reporters are seizing on the comfort of false equivalency to compare this to the Trump indictments and tut-tut over the bind this puts Joe Biden in.

Alabama Redistricting Heads Back To Court

A three-federal-judge panel will this week consider Alabama’s latest redistricting map, which rebuffs a Supreme Court order by defiantly drawing a single majority-Black congressional district.

Ammon Bundy Arrested

The far-right provocateur was arrested on an outstanding warrant for contempt of court.

Arkansas Nixes AP African American History

With classes about to start in the new school year, the state of Arkansas reportedly:

• won’t award credits for the course for credit any longer;
• won’t pay for the cost of students to take the AP test.

“Teachers were reportedly told they could still offer the class, but the state will not recognize it on the same level as other AP courses,” the Arkansas Times reports.

Maui Death Toll Nears 100

The fire that destroyed historic Lahaina now ranks as the worst in the United States in more than 100 years.

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