By Russ Bynum
Authorities in Georgia said Thursday they're investigating threats targeting members of the grand jury that indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat's office said investigators are working to trace the origin of the threats after the names of grand jury members and other personal information were posted online. The sheriff's office said other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were assisting.
“We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty,” the sheriff's office said in a statement.
A Fulton County grand jury returned a 41-count indictment Monday charging Trump and 18 others with illegally conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Though the grand jury proceedings were secret, the unredacted names of the grand jury members were included in the indictment. That's standard practice in Georgia, in part because it gives criminal defendants a chance to challenge the composition of the grand jury. The indictment itself is a public record.
The American Bar Association condemned any threats as well as the sharing of other personal information about the grand jurors online.
“The civic-minded members of the Georgia grand jury performed their duty to support our democracy,” the association's statement said. “It is unconscionable that their lives should be upended and safety threatened for being good citizens.”
Amid a rise in violent rhetoric directed toward public officials, the Georgia grand jurors aren't the only ones to face threats over their involvement in the four pending criminal cases against Trump.
A woman in Texas has been charged with making an Aug. 5 phone call threatening to kill U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal case against Trump in Washington. And FBI agents on Aug. 9 killed an armed Utah man facing arrest on charges of making violent threats against President Joe Biden and law enforcement officials involved in prosecuting Trump.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
