Former President Trump on Monday appeared to warn former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan against testifying before the Fulton County grand jury in the state's 2020 election probe.
Driving the news: "I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Monday.
- "He shouldn't. I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia."
- Duncan, who criticized Trump's false election fraud claims in 2020, said Saturday that he had been told to appear Tuesday before the Fulton County grand jury.
- "Republicans should never let honesty be mistaken for weakness," he wrote in a post on X.
What's next: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears poised to issue a charging decision on Trump's alleged efforts to subvert election results.
The big picture: Trump's Monday Truth Social post comes days after the judge overseeing a separate trial — the federal probe into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election — warned against making "inflammatory statements" that could intimidate witnesses in that trial.
- U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said during a Friday hearing that any appearance of witness tampering would increase the need for a speedy trial.
- Trump already faces three criminal trials: In D.C. over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, in Florida over his retention of classified documents and in New York over an alleged hush money payment.
What is it actually going to take to put this fucker in jail? Does he need to intimidate 20 witnesses first? I hate that the justice system feels they need to walk on eggshells around this wanna-be dictator cry baby.
Why 20? Why not 50, or 500? Why not let him stage a coup and attempt to overthrow the government of the United States of America? Oh right, he already did all that stuff and is still walking free.
How do you provide a secret service detail to someone in jail?
Logistics and stupid wording of laws never intended to protect someone so blatantly corrupt, will keep him from ever seeing the inside of a cell. Would be nice if he could be under house arrest with no visitation/internet access though.
You still have to get fed. Can't have a person in solitary shouting classified information through the food slot at the guard who doesn't have a security clearance.
A while back I actually looked into this question.
Former presidents are afforded several things by law, including a salary, a stipend for an assistant, and office space rental, and, of course, Secret Service protection for their lifetime.
However, the protection provided by the USSS is described as a duty to protect the (former) President. It doesn't describe, what that looks like, how many agents are involved, or so on. It does allocate, though, up to $1,000,000 every fiscal year to provide that protection.
Hypothetically, if Trump were convicted and the punishment included imprisonment, more likely than not, the USSS would simply arrange for the individual to be isolated from any threats inside the prison and hand custody over to the prison. This might look like a member of the USSS being stations at the prison, essentially, as a guard, supervisor, monitor, etc.
I suspect the realistic scenario would look like the individual being put in an isolated wing or some sort of maximum-security facility, and the USSS checking in on a weekly or even daily schedule, and, in exchange, the prison would be allocated some portion of that annual $1,000,000.
Just get one of those cages he used for the Mexican kids and put it right in the secret service office. Boom, problem solved. They don’t even have to leave their desks.
Someone’s gotta change his diapers
ADX Florence was built for exactly this kind of situation.
Would be a dogshit posting for his detail, but Secret Service is Trumpland anyway so I assume he'll still have lackeys lining up to get the spot.
You don't. You throw his ass into solitary confinement since he can't be in gen-pop, just like you would any other high-profile prisoner.
Depriving him of publicity woul be the worst punishment for this waste of skin.
I assure you, being in solitary confinement, wearing an orange jump suit, and eating prison food is worse. He'll still lose his publicity too.
With you.
Just regular prison guards would do
He's an old white dude with millions of dollars. He will go to "Club Fed" or more likely some kind of house arrest or probation. Honestly you don't want him in a real badass prison because that makes him a martyr. If he's just convicted and ignored that's a worse punishment as he'll slide into obscurity.
Just strip him of his citizenship and dump him at the border. Preferably next to the wall on the US side. Tell him he has 1 hour to climb the wall to Mexico or the dogs will be unleashed.
Who cares? They can do time with him if they want I guess.
House arrest with no internet or phone.
The thing is that the prosecutors have to play by the rules to get him, which takes time, but recently the claws definitely seems to be closing in on him, and the prosecutors have bemig weapons and trump can't stop the system.
Right now it's like a tank going very slowly toward Trump, sure it takes time but if the tank operator does everything right, it will get there eventually.
I feel like the whole “the jaws of justice are slowly closing around trump” comment is the narrative version of that looping gif of the truck almost running into the bollard. Academically, I agree with you. But I’m pretty sure the dude is going to be dead from one of the innumerable heath issues he faces before he sees any real consequence. Time will tell I guess, but like others, I’m not holding my breath. If there were any real justice in the world, trump would have died from Covid. That would have at least been poetic justice for his role in that colossal tragedy.
I totally feel what you're saying and that is scary, but the big difference now is that there are trial dates, we are not in the "at some point" phase anymore.
And allowing witnesses to be intimidated is like allowing trump to have a Javelin in your tank analogy. For the cases to be prosecuted correctly, the necessary witnesses need to give their testimony without fear of retaliation. He needs to be put into pre-trail detainment.
We need to wait until it's normalized.