It is expected that former President Donald Trump will be indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis any day now, but it appears as though a Georgia court may have jumped the gun and prematurely released the charges.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by attorneys Viva Frei and Peter Tragos to react to the breaking news and what it will mean for public perception of the case.
The Reveal and Removal
Around 1pm ET on Monday, Reuters obtained a two-page docket that was briefly posted and then removed from the Fulton County court’s website that seemed to inadvertently reveal the charges prosecutors plan to bring against the 2024 GOP hopeful in connection with his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the Peach State.
The document, which was dated August 14 and named Donald John Trump as the defendant, lists 13 counts including a violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, and filing false documents.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said in a statement to Reuters that no charges had been filed against Trump. “The Reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment,” a spokesperson for the DA’s office said.
The Investigation
Willis has been investigating Trump for two years now. The probe was triggered by a phone call then-President Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, in which he emphasized the need to “find 11,780 votes.” That figure would have been enough to secure his victory in the state over Joe Biden.
A grand jury convened by the Fulton County DA has been hearing testimony in the case and was rumored to be bringing charges this week. On Monday, jurors heard from two former Democratic state lawmakers who attended a December 2020 hearing where Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani made claims about widespread election fraud and its effect on the election result. Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is scheduled to testify on Tuesday.
An indictment in the Georgia case would be the fourth issued against Trump this year. He is currently facing a combined total of 78 criminal counts, including four brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in federal court earlier this month in connection with January 6 and election interference.
In June, Smith brought 40 counts for the alleged mishandling of classified documents in Florida. Trump’s first indictment came down in March 2023 when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the forty-fifth president on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to alleged hush money payments paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
What Comes Next?
Whether it was a mistake or intention, Megyn said the leak is “unbelievable” and called out the DA. “This is just disgustingly sloppy, if it’s not politically motivated to just get the news cycle going on,” she said. “There is nothing, as far as we know, that has been handed down from the grand jury, so they post something and then they pull it on one of, if not, the most important state case in the country right now?”
Frei said the incident is “corruption to the core” and “an abuse of the process” that will have ramifications down the line. “It is what will cause people to have absolutely no faith in the legal judicial process for decades to come,” he noted. “It’s become a joke.”
While Frei said the “idiot talking head, blue check mark fools on Twitter” may think these indictments show evidence of wrongdoing, he believes they actually reflect a problem with the justice system. “[It is] evidence of a system gone totally crazy in an attempt to try to punish Trump for being public enemy number one,” he shared. “The more indictments that come down doesn’t mean Trump is guiltier; it means that the system is, perhaps irreparably, broken.”
In his view, that’s what will be on the ballot in 2024. “People need to start understanding it in order to start remedying it,” Frei concluded. “They’ve lost their ever loving minds and there has to be some political blowback for it. Hopefully, that comes in the 2024 election.”
You can check out Megyn’s full Kelly’s Court with Frei and Tragos by tuning in to episode 607 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.