8/27/23

By Aditi Jha

On Thursday night, Former President Donald Trump was put in the Fulton County jail on over a dozen charges. He and 18 allies had been indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on fraud, false statements, and conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. He posted his mugshot on X (previously known as Twitter) with a caption of "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and "NEVER SURRENDER!" He was only in Fulton County jail for around twenty minutes, marking the fourth time he's been indicted in the last five months. The first was in April, by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg because of the silencing of adult actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The second was in June, because of his handling of classified material, and there was one in early August on more federal charges related to overturning the presidential election. He had a bail agreement with the court and had to pay $200,000 and sign agreements in order to be free. Those agreements include not committing more crimes, being in court when necessary, and not making a "direct or indirect threat of any nature" against a co-defendant, unindicted co-conspirator, witness or victim. Trump replaced his legal team after the bail, hiring criminal defense attorney Steve Sadow to replace the previous lead attorney, Drew Findling. Sadow released a statement against the arrest, writing that arrests that "advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system." The former president is facing 91 total criminal charges against him, which includes 44 federal charges and 47 state charges. He will also have to be in other trials this year for a defamation lawsuit and a federal class action lawsuit that says the Trump family promoted a pyramid scheme on the show "The Apprentice". Trump has been publicizing his arrest as much as possible, writing on Truth Social on Wednesday, "NOBODY HAS EVER FOUGHT FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY LIKE PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. FOR DOING SO, I WILL PROUDLY BE ARRESTED TOMORROW AFTERNOON IN GEORGIA. GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!" His campaign has raised over seven million dollars selling his mugshot on merchandise, with captions such as "NEVER SURRENDER!" and "FREE TRUMP" on t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and beverage holders. He said on Newsmax that being at the jail was a "terrible" and "very sad" experience, stating that "In my whole life I didn't know anything about indictments and now I've been indicted like four times." 

The first Republican presidential primary debate took place Wednesday night. 38-year-old entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took center stage, arguing with former New Jersey governor Chris Christie over Trump, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley over foreign policy, former Vice President Mike Pence over his experience and more. Ramaswamy is known for incendiary statements; whether tweeting that climate change is a hoax and teacher unions need to be abolished, or proclaiming that there are only two genders in one of his "ten commandments," ten rules that his campaign centers around (including: "God is real" and "capitalism lifts people up from poverty"). Recently, he called Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman elected to Congress to represent Massachusetts, part of "the modern KKK," accusing her of racism. Pressley's team responded on Saturday, stating that "We typically don't engage in these bad-faith attacks but yesterday a line was crossed. A GOP candidate referred to Ayanna as 'a modern grand wizard of the KKK' because she speaks out against racial injustice. This is backwards and harmful, but that is the point." The crowd at the debate booed whenever a candidate spoke out against Trump, jeering loudly when Christie tried to argue against Ramaswamy's pro-Trump rhetoric. Haley pointed out Ramaswamy's lack of experience when supporting the U.S.' defense of Ukraine, declaring, "You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows." 

That's the news for today! Stay safe!