Threats to local authorities so serious they are under criminal investigation. A lawman’s vow to take the first-ever mug shot of a former U.S. president. A region known for its violent extremist groups and a state’s lax gun control laws.
These are some of the reasons the security scenarios for Donald Trump’s fourth criminal case, expected any day now in Fulton County, Georgia, could play out far differently than the ones in New York, Miami and Washington, D.C.
The former president already has been through so many indictments that what was once considered historic and extraordinary − his subsequent arrest and criminal arraignment − has now become almost routine: The front-running Republican candidate for reelection in 2024 arrives in his Secret Service motorcade and is escorted with his lawyers into a courtroom under heavy security. He enters a plea of not guilty, gets back in his armored limo and is driven away.
But Fulton County, which includes the state capital, Atlanta, has long been a uniquely critical flashpoint in terms of Trump’s alleged schemes to steal the 2020 election, as well as authorities’ efforts to push back on them and, later, to investigate what happened.
It is also, security analysts say, much more of a hotbed for right-wing extremist groups like the ones that helped foment the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 by riling up a much bigger group of Trump supporters convinced that he had been wronged.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat have established what they say is arguably the biggest preventive security dragnet in the area since the 1996 Olympics. In interviews and public statements, they said they believe the extraordinary level of security they’re putting in place will be enough to handle any contingencies.
In interviews with USA TODAY, county officials and security experts for the most part agreed. But they said authorities are smart to be bracing for trouble at the courthouse and adjacent Fulton Government Center, and on several fronts.
Lockdown, and a “stay alert” warning
On Friday July 28, Willis warned her prosecutors to “stay alert” given the increasing wave of threats she and the office were receiving. One email had the subject line “Fani Willis = Corrupt N*” and said, “You are going to fail, you Jim Crow Democrat whore.”
Trump himself lashed out at Willis at a campaign rally Tuesday, calling her a “young racist in Atlanta” and falsely claiming she had an affair with “the leader of a gang” she was prosecuting. And she now plans to indict him, he said, on bogus charges so she can run for higher office. “What’s going on in this country is…” Trump said, trailing off.
And on Wednesday, FBI agents in Utah shot and killed a man who they say made threats against President Joe Biden and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney who is prosecuting Trump for alleged hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. “CLEANING THE DUST OFF THE M24 SNIPER RIFLE,” Provo resident Craig Deleeuw Robertson, 75, said on Facebook, citing Biden’s visit to Utah Wednesday night, the FBI said.
[10:11 PM] Meyer, Josh
And on Wednesday, FBI agents in Utah shot and killed a man who they say had made threats against President Joe Biden and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney who is prosecuting Trump for alleged hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. “CLEANING THE DUST OFF THE M24 SNIPER RIFLE,” Provo resident Craig Deleeuw Robertson, 75, said on Facebook, citing Biden’s visit to Utah Wednesday night, the FBI said.
statements targeting President Joe Biden.
Here’s why: what’s happening in Fulton County:
An imminent and likely very broad conspiracy indictment
Criminal charges in the case, including for Trump and numerous alleged co-conspirators, are likely.
Willis said a week and a half ago that she’ll announce charging decisions by Sept. 1. “The work is accomplished,” she told CNN affiliate WXIA. “We’ve been working for 2½ years. We’re ready to go.”
In recent days, the road in front of the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta has been closed to traffic. Orange barricades and other barriers ring the building, and local, state and even federal authorities have become a visible presence in the area. On Monday, NBC News reported, a bomb-sniffing dog was brought in to inspect media vehicles.
In another sign of looming indictments, Willis has asked the majority of her staff to work remotely rather than at the courthouse.
More:Witnesses in Georgia Trump probe suspected of lying, raising more questions in closely watched inquiry
Labat, too, has been preparing for the indictment of the former president for months, he said in a recent media briefing. That includes sending representatives to Trump’s indictments in New York and Miami to see how authorities there handled the crowd and potential protests.
Labat’s deputies are working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to make sure normal services remain open and operational at the courthouse and government center “for those we actually service” if and when a Trump arraignment comes.
And Trump would be treated differently in Atlanta than he has been during his past three arraignments – but just the same as any other criminal defendant being processed into the Fulton County criminal justice system, Labat vowed. “It doesn’t matter your status,” he said. ”We have a mug shot ready for you.
“Unless someone tells me differently,” he added, “we are following our normal practices.”
Racist and menacing threats and phone calls
Willis, who is Black, has confirmed publicly that she has received numerous and serious threats – including racist and menacing phone calls – because of her aggressive investigation into Trump and a number of alleged co-conspirators.
By January 2022, “alarming” rhetoric from Trump prompted her to ask the FBI Atlanta field office for a risk assessment of the courthouse. Enhanced security measures were put in, and Willis herself reportedly began traveling with bodyguards.
Across the street from the courthouse is the Georgia state Capitol building, where armed and angry Trump supporters gathered after his 2020 election loss in response to his false claims of fraud.
Trump himself has ratcheted up the rhetoric, pointedly and repeatedly calling Willis a racist, and even “mentally sick.” He has also used his campaign rallies to single out others for criticism and encourage protests, including against Willis.
Labat disclosed at the briefing that his office has investigated dozens of threats, and not just against Willis but against himself and unnamed judges and others, too. “The threats have been many,” he said. “They started via email, via text messages, via personal phone calls.”
“When you make a threat, when you become a keyboard bully, it’s our goal to really come and hold you accountable,” Labat added, for threats against “the DA, the judges and everybody that has received those threats.”
Natalie Ammons, director of communications for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, told USA TODAY she couldn’t discuss details of the status of the ongoing investigations. “They’re doing threat assessments, they’re conducting a criminal investigation, that’s all I can say,” Ammons said in an interview. “Any and all of the threats are being reviewed.”
Ammons said she could not discuss specifics about the nature of the threats, including how many were believed to be ongoing.
In general terms, she said, “they range from hate speech to First Amendment protected comments. Some are actually very threatening. A lot of them have been directed to the DA” for her protection and for possible prosecution.
A potentially broad criminal conspiracy
Willis launched the sprawling investigation in early 2021 into whether Trump and allies in the state, in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere engaged in “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections.”
At the center of that inquiry is a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he asked him to “find” 11,780 votes, or one more than Joe Biden received in winning the state.
Trump and associates also have been linked to numerous other alleged schemes at the center of state and federal election fraud investigations and, in the case of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, a federal indictment on conspiracy charges.
The special congressional committee investigating Jan. 6 concluded that Trump also was implicated in a scheme by his lawyers to create false slates of electors who would cast Georgia’s electoral votes for the former president instead of for Biden, as the state’s voters intended. Eight of the alleged fake electors have since agreed to immunity deals with Fulton County prosecutors, court filings show.
A special grand jury Willis impaneled ultimately heard testimony from at least 75 witnesses and issued a detailed report in which it recommended indicting more than a dozen people, its foreperson said in interviews with various media outlets.
“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, told The New York Times.Asked if jurors had recommended indicting Trump, she declined to answer directly but said: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.” In another interview, she hinted that at least some of those recommended for indictment were household names people would recognize.
In a partial version of the report released in February, the Fulton County jurors also said they found possible evidence of perjury by “one or more” witnesses who testified before them.
Ultimately, it is up to Willis to decide whether there is enough evidence to bring the case to a regular grand jury and seek criminal indictments. She has hinted broadly that she will pursue charges under the state’s RICO laws, short for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act statute that’s often used against organized crime families and other complex and long-running conspiracies.
‘A bigger flashpoint’ than Trump’s previous venues
Trump’s first three indictments and arraignments prompted little in the way of organized protests or mass violence like that in Washington on Jan. 6.
Crowds, in fact, have appeared to be split between supporters and those opposing Trump.
But Amy Cooter, research director for Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism, told USA TODAY she is more worried about an Atlanta arraignment.
First, she said, the district attorney’s investigation into potential election fraud and interference has been very high-profile and has inflamed Trump supporters in the state and surrounding region for more than a year. Many of them believe Trump’s repeated claims that the Georgia investigation, perhaps even more so than the others, is politically motivated given Willis’s stature as a high-profile Democrat.
Cooter, who lurks anonymously in right-wing chat rooms and forums, said she hasn’t seen enough evidence that extremists, including from well-established local and regional militias and neo-Nazi groups, are upset enough about Trump’s legal problems to do anything just yet.
“I’m not watching every corner of the internet or every group, but I think that among the folks I’m watching, they’re less concerned about indictments,” Cooter said. “They’re more concerned about upcoming potential trials, and especially hypothetical guilty verdicts.”
“But that said, I do think Georgia has the potential to be a bigger flashpoint than some of the other indictments just because of the how big of a focus Georgia was during the last election and how so many people there were convinced that the election was stolen and that Georgia was crucial for what should have been a Trump win,” Cooter said.
Cooter said she is also concerned because Trump’s constant claims of a rigged election and his “Stop the Steal” campaign after his loss have turned the region, and Georgia especially, into more of a hotbed of extremism than they already were.
“Historically, we’ve seen more militia activity in the Midwestern states with some other hot spots,” she said. “But in recent years, especially in the latter half of the Trump administration, certain places in the South became more important – I would say Florida as a whole and then Georgia, especially around the whole ‘Stop the Steal’ rhetoric.”
There has been a regional surge in “militia groups across the board,” Cooter said, including local community militia groups and, in the run-up to Jan. 6, members of the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers, some of whom faced charges in connection with the insurrection.
“We’ve also seen various different neo-Nazi groups who have had an apparent resurgence in those places” who could conceivably converge on Atlanta, Cooter said.
“A bigger issue with far-right groups”
Robert D’Amico, a Florida-based former FBI agent, said local, state and federal authorities are working closely together in Fulton County to make sure they can handle anything that comes their way.
“The fact that they sent people down to Miami to look at how they did it shows me that they’re pretty far ahead in their planning” and in gaming out security scenarios, said D’Amico, founder of the security firm Sierra One Consulting. He said that in line with protocol for major events, a 24-hour command post is probably being set up with officials from various law enforcement agencies.
But D’Amico also said the city and surrounding area present a different and potentially more serious set of problems than any of the places where Trump has been indicted and arraigned.
One concern is the relatively lax gun laws in Georgia, made even less stringent last year, that allow potential protesters – or people with worse intentions − to carry concealed weapons even if they don’t have a permit. That could pose a nightmare for security officials, especially if a large crowd turns out.
“There’s definitely a bigger issue with far-right groups in Georgia − maybe not downtown Atlanta, but fairly close” when compared to Miami, New York and Washington, D’Amico said.
A related concern is if some members of these groups rally a larger crowd of protesters, as was the case on Jan. 6. “It’s lighting that fire, that igniting people that probably weren’t there to do anything with intent,” he said. “But they get all fired up, and you have a good speaker who really gets these groups going, and that’s when you can have an issue.”
It’s possible given the makeup of local extremist groups, D’Amico said, that right-wing protesters could clash with left-wing, or Antifa, protesters, as was the case at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
“So I would say there’s definitely concern and there should be concern,” D’Amico said. “But until we have a date and time (of charges filed) you’re not going to be able to really put a good metric on that concern because there’s so many different things that could potentially happen.”
