On Tuesday, the justice department indicted Donald Trump over an alleged conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election in his favour.
The federal indictment devotes significant time to actions prosecutors say Mr Trump and his associates took in Georgia to challenge his loss.
An indictment in a state-level inquiry by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could arrive in August. In a telling sign, officials recently erected barricades outside the county courthouse in Atlanta.
Trump faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Six co-conspirators are also named in the indictment but were not charged. CNN has established that they include Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and constitutional attorney John Eastman.
Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, attacking the investigations as politically motivated and a "witch hunt". He has received fundraising bumps each time he is indicted, and has explicitly used the investigation to rally support from his base.
In Trump’s third appearance in a courtroom as a criminal defendant, the magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya will set a schedule for pre-trial motions and discovery. Both sides are likely later to file motions seeking to shape what evidence and legal arguments will be permitted at trial, which could be many months away. The former president stands accused of “obstructing a bedrock function of the US government – the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”.
Mr. Trump is currently the clear front-runner in the Republican Party's contest to pick its next presidential candidate.
Congressional Republicans have been rallying round him, arguing that the latest indictment shows the US has become a "banana republic" and echoing the former president's claim that the prosecutions amount to election interference.
The cases against Mr. Trump could proceed at both the state and federal level simultaneously, said Mr. Cloud.
Mr. Trump's lawyers, meanwhile, will probably argue the former president never explicitly asked Georgia officials to tamper with the votes. The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
He has hired experienced lawyers in Georgia that have filed a number of motions to block various aspects of the investigation, including attempts to remove Ms. Willis or change jurisdictions.
"I think they're going to be very creative and very aggressive," Mr. Cloud said.
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