DA Fani Willis appeals her disqualification from Trump’s Georgia election interference case
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(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday filed an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court asking them to reverse her disqualification from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others.
The Georgia Court of Appeals last month disqualified Willis from her prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants due to a “significant appearance of impropriety,” leaving the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.
In her filing Wednesday, Willis argued that the appeals court “erred” when it disqualified her from the case based only on the appearance of a conflict of interest, which stemmed from her relationship with a prosecutor on the case.
“No Georgia court has ever disqualified a district attorney for the mere appearance of impropriety without the existence of an actual conflict of interest,” the filing stated, asking the higher court to review the decision.
The filing also claimed the lower court’s opinion was an “overreach” and “created a new standard for disqualification” that it did not have the authority to enact.
“The opinion ignored precedent and created a new, mechanical standard for disqualification uniquely applicable to public prosecutors, usurping authority properly reserved to this Court while ensuring confusion and uncertainty to follow,” the filing stated.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
The case has been on pause while Trump and his co-defendants have pursued Willis’ disqualification.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted Thursday to approve new rules requiring all wireless carriers to implement georouting for calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in a move it says will help “save more lives.”
“Time and again, across many different communities, I have heard stories of how important the 988 Lifeline is for individuals in need of support,” Commissioner Anna Gomez said during the FCC’s Thursday meeting. “Today we affirm the experiences of these individuals and take steps to enhance the lifesaving capability of this service.”
“Doing everything we can to ensure that individuals in a crisis can receive the support they need saves lives and is simply good policy,” she added.
When a person calls 988, that call is routed to one of the Lifeline’s 200-plus crisis centers around the United States. The new rules will require carriers to route calls based on where the call was placed, allowing for a more localized response. Since the three-digit number launched in July 2022, it has been using area code-based call routing.
“This is a mismatch I have long believed we should fix — and I believe we can save more lives if we do so,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said during the Thursday meeting. “Because if we get more people connected to the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, to resources that are local, we can help more people with more meaningful assistance in more places.”
Rosenworcel explained that when the original 10-digit Lifeline number was created in 2005, most calls came in on landlines, so area code routing made sense. Now, she said, almost 80% of calls come from cellphones, creating the need for georouting to provide localized care.
Advocates have called for georouting to be implemented for years, saying callers would benefit from localized follow-up care, though there have been some concerns about caller privacy. Under the new georouting system, calls will be routed based on the location of the cell tower that originates the call, as opposed to the precise location of the caller — a move meant to protect privacy, according to the FCC.
The order passed Thursday only requires georouting for phone calls to the Lifeline. There is currently no requirement for text contacts to the Lifeline to be georouted. However, the FCC also voted to propose and begin seeking comments on a rule that would require georouting for texts.
Phone calls accounted for about 72% of contacts to the Lifeline for the month of August, according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data. Texts accounted for about 19% of August contacts. The remaining contacts come from web-based chat services, the data showed.
“We’re not going to stop working to improve the Lifeline until everyone gets access to the local help and resources that they need,” Rosenworcel said.
Last month, wireless carriers Verizon and T-Mobile implemented voluntary georouting for 988 calls placed on their networks — a move that accounted for about half of all calls to the Lifeline, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Around 80% of calls to the 988 Lifeline are done through wireless phones, and many people have phone numbers with different area codes from where they live, work or visit,” T-Mobile President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson said at the time. “Georouting ensures that those seeking help will reach the available crisis center nearest their location for support. It’s about making sure help is there when and where it’s needed most.”
All national carriers will have 30 days to implement georouting for their 988 calls. Smaller providers will have 24 months.
Since the 988 launch, the Lifeline has fielded more than 10 million contacts.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises, or are worried about a friend or loved one, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.
(NEW YORK) — Though Jimmy Carter was a U.S. president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of a global organization, The Carter Center, to his more than one dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he was a grandfather first and foremost, his grandson Jason Carter told “Good Morning America.”
“He’s an interesting guy, but he really was a grandfather to me first,” Jason Carter said in a live interview Tuesday on “GMA,” just days after the former president’s death on Dec. 29, at age 100.
“He was my grandfather so I have a lot of memories, like others do, of him taking me fishing or sitting around and talking about what I should do in my life,” Jason Carter continued. “When I graduated from college, he and I sat down and I said, ‘What would you do if you were me?,’ and he said, ‘I would go to Africa and join the Peace Corps,’ and so I did that.”
Jimmy Carter is survived by four children and around two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the Jimmy Carter Library.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96.
Jason Carter, the son of the Carters’ eldest child, John William “Jack” Carter, described his grandparents’ decades-long marriage as “one of the great American love stories.”
He said a photo of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter kissing each other amid the backdrop of the U.S. presidency shows who they really were at heart, two people who remained in love after meeting in the small town of Plains, Georgia.
“He spent eight years in politics, and the other 92 years he spent at home in Plains, Georgia,” Jason Carter said of his grandfather. “Obviously, working around the world, doing things for The Carter Center and otherwise, but really, he was a small-town guy who lived out that faith that is reflected in that picture and the love that is reflected in that picture.”
Jason Carter, who plans to deliver a eulogy at his grandfather’s funeral on Jan. 9, said he sees his grandfather’s legacy as one of someone who stayed true to himself even while reaching the highest heights of power.
During his own political career, including a run for Georgia governor in 2014, Jason Carter said he tried to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps in that way.
“He’s one of those people who demonstrates that you can be in politics and not change who you are, that you can be an honest person, a person who lives out his faith and love in the real world, and still be in politics, and I think that was my hope,” he said. “Our politics is messy, and he was always one of those rare people who was able to reach the highest levels of it without compromising who he was, and we talked about that aspect of it a lot.”
Now, as his family moves forward after the death of their patriarch, Jason Carter said they are reflecting on the annual New Year’s family vacation that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter hosted every year and sharing memories of sipping champagne together on New Year’s Eve.
As they look ahead to the new year, Jason Carter said he and his family want to continue their grandfather’s work at The Carter Center, which describes itself as a “nongovernmental organization that helps to improve lives by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy and preventing diseases.”
“He built this remarkable organization over 40 years that’s really been his life’s work,” Jason Carter said of The Carter Center, of which he has served as chair of the board. “There’s 3,000 employees that work all over the world … and of those 3,000 employees, only a couple hundred are in the U.S., and the rest are in Ethiopia or Sudan or Mali or Chad or Bangladesh, the places where the center can do the most good for the most people.”
(SMITHFIELD, VA)– A Virginia man allegedly had a cache of weapons, a “go box” and used a photo of President Joe Biden for target practice, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors this week.
Brad Spafford was charged earlier in the month on a gun violation, but in a detention memo filed on Monday, prosecutors in Virginia outlined something allegedly more alarming.
When FBI agents raided Spafford’s home, they allegedly found 150 IEDs which were assessed by authorities as pipe bombs, with some marked “lethal,” a “go-bag” in the event something happened, and more pipe bombs in his room “unsecured.”
The court documents point out that Spafford had his two young children living in the house with him.
The government also found a jar with potentially explosive material kept in the fridge labeled “do not touch,” documents said.
Spafford came on the government’s radar in 2023 when a confidential source told investigators that he blew off parts of his hand while allegedly making a homemade IED in 2021, according to court documents.
The detention memo was filed to prevent Spafford from being released pending trial, which was granted, according to court records.
The Justice Department also found that he allegedly supported political assassinations.
“The defendant has used pictures of the President for target practice, expressed support for political assassinations, and recently sought qualifications in sniper-rifle shooting at a local range,” prosecutors wrote. “His release poses an extreme danger to those he lives with, the general community, and also the pretrial officers who will be tasked with periodically inspecting his residence for firearms including dangerous and unstable explosives.”
Spafford is on bond pending trial but DOJ is moving to have him locked up.
