Usually you get only three strikes, but when you are a star, apparently you get four. Donald Trump has already had the first three strikes, one pitched by Alvin Bragg and two pitched by Jack Smith. Now Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis gets to try for a fourth one. It's not going to be easy for her. She is already getting racist threats, and she hasn't done anything yet. Just wait until she does.
The idea of a Black woman trying to put their favorite president in prison is something that seems to rub some of Trump's supporters the wrong way and they are letting her know about it. She apparently expected this and told her employees about it. She also told them it is going to get worse. But she is not going to back down. She said: "I took an oath. No one other than the citizens of Fulton County put me in this seat. I have every intention of doing my job." Trump filed a lawsuit to get her off the case but a judge ruled on Monday that there is no reason to remove her. Willis asked Fulton County authorities to increase security around the courthouse so when she shows up there, possibly as early as tomorrow or next week, they will be prepared for trouble. We haven't seen any stories about Jack Smith receiving any racist or other threats, but maybe that is because the prosecutor there is a middle-aged white man with a beard who grew up in a small town in upstate New York and later moved to Tennessee. He could have been a Trump supporter, but he missed his chance.
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat held a press conference on Tuesday and said that if Trump were to be indicted, he would not receive any special treatment. He would be booked and a mug shot taken, the same way as every other defendant is. Normally, the procedure is done at the county jail, but Labat also said that if the Secret Service, which is guarding Trump, wants to change the booking procedure, that could alter his plans. Labat also said that he was aware of the dozens of threats made against Willis and local judges. He additionally noted that some of them were being investigated and one person has been arrested.
The Georgia case could be potentially quite different from Smith's case, which is only against Trump, at least for the moment. Rumors about Willis' case suggest that as many as 20 people may be indicted, probably including the 16 fake electors, Rudy Giuliani, and a couple of others. Many of the electors are just Republican officials or activists and were not expecting to be indicted when they signed up as fake electors. We suspect that most of them are going to be wetting their pants shortly and are prime candidates for singing like canaries.
Labat's plans to treat Trump like a common criminal are in contrast to what happened in the New York case brought by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg. There Trump was handled with kid gloves and no mug shot was taken. (V)