Fulton County DA Fani Willis remains disqualified from Trump’s Georgia election interference case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)
(ATLANTA, Ga.) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will remain disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case against President Donald Trump and others, after the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear her appeal of the matter.
“Members of the public may well be interested in the case underlying this petition for certiorari,” the concurring opinion read. “But our focus in assessing whether to grant review under our certiorari jurisdiction is on the law of Georgia.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Carla McMillian wrote the case “warrants reconsideration, and the issue is likely to recur.”
Tuesday’s ruling on the criminal racketeering case appears to put an end to the nearly two-year legal saga that derailed the prosecution, which began in January of 2024 after Willis was first accused of misconduct by Michael Roman, one of Trump’s codefendants, over her relationship with one of the prosecutors on the case.
An independent body — the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia — will now be tasked with assigning an independent prosecutor to take over the case and determine its fate.
In a statement, Willis said “I disagree” with the decision, but said she would begin the process of turning the case over to the council.
“I hope that whoever is assigned to handle the case will have the courage to do what the evidence and the law demand,” Willis said.
An attorney for President Trump, Steve Sadow, celebrating the ruling, saying the court “correctly denied review.”
“This proper decision should bring an end to the wrongful political, lawfare persecutions of the President,” Sadow said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty in August 2023 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.
The charges, which were brought following Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to win the state, allege that the defendants solicited state leaders throughout the country, harassed and misled a Georgia election worker, and pushed phony claims that the election was stolen, all in an effort for Trump to remain in power despite his election loss.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Trump has blasted the district attorney’s investigation as being politically motivated.
Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is seeking an expedited deposition from News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch within the next 15 days as part of his defamation lawsuit against Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal.
Trump filed the $10 billion suit earlier this month after the Journal reported that Trump allegedly sent Epstein a bawdy letter in 2003 that was included in a book made for Epstein’s 50th birthday, which Trump has denied.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, was convicted in 2008 for sex trafficking of minors then was arrested again in 2019 and died by suicide in jail shortly thereafter.
In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s attorneys said they are seeking the expedited deposition in part due to Murdoch’s “age and health,” noting he is now 94 years old.
The filing also reiterated their claim that Trump reached out directly to Murdoch before the article was published to tell him the letter was fake, and that Murdoch allegedly replied that “he would take care of it.”
Murdoch’s direct involvement, Trump’s attorneys say, “further underscores Defendants’ actual malice and intent behind the decision to publish the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements about President Trump identified in the Complaint.”
“Because Murdoch is a director and majority owner of News Corp, he sits in the unique position of having readily available all documents, communications, and other information related to the Article and the decision to publish it,” the filing states.
“Moreover, if the purported letter in the Article somehow actually exists, which it does not, and the Defendants have it in their possession, which they do not, Murdoch has easy access to it,” says the filing.
The filing says Trump’s lawyers communicated their request to Murdoch’s attorneys via phone.
The judge ordered Murdoch to file a response to Trump’s motion by Aug. 4.
In response to the suit, a spokesperson for Journal owner Dow Jones said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
In this image released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the sign for Staunton State Park is shown in Colorado./Colorado Parks and Wildlife
(DENVER) —A manhunt entered its second day on Wednesday for a suspect who stabbed a ranger at Staunton State Park in Colorado in what is now believed to be a targeted attack, according to police.
The stabbing unfolded around noon local time in the nearly 4,000-acre park southwest of Denver, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have reason to believe this was a targeted attack and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
A shelter-in-place order for residents near Staunton State Park has been lifted, authorities.
The victim, a seasonal Colorado Parks and Wildlife ranger, was taken by emergency aircraft to a hospital, where he underwent surgery, the sheriff’s office said. The ranger was listed in serious condition on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The suspect fled on foot after stabbing the ranger.
A motive for the stabbing remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office did not disclose why they believe the stabbing was targeted.
The suspect’s name has not been released.
Aerial footage on Tuesday from Denver ABC affiliate KMGH showed heavily armed officers searching the park.
Due to the ongoing search for the suspect, Staunton State Park was closed on to the public on Tuesday and police evacuated visitors from inside the park, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s administration is pausing over $6 billion of congressionally-appropriated federal funding for after-school, student support, teacher training, English language and other education programs, according to a Department of Education memo obtained by ABC News.
In a letter to Congress from the agency’s office of legislation and congressional affairs Monday afternoon, the DOE said a notification would be sent to certain grantees alerting them that funding for the upcoming school year would be reviewed on July 1 and decisions concerning this academic year have “not yet been made.”
“The department will not be issuing grant award notifications obligating funds for these programs on July 1 prior to completing that review,” the memo reads in part. “The department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities and the department’s statutory responsibilities.”
The statutorily mandated special education funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have been awarded to states on time, according to a DOE source.
But school budgets for the year are typically approved in May or June and are ready to be allocated by July 1, according to education finance experts. The abrupt messaging from the administration gave scant details on how the key programs would be impacted moving forward and comes just weeks before many state education agencies return students to the classroom.
The 2024 National Teacher of the Year Missy Testerman, an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor in Tennessee, told ABC News any withholding of funds will affect schools.
“School budgets are already very tight, so withholding funds for required programs — such as those for English learners — will certainly place a burden on school systems,” Testerman wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“This likely will mean that systems will face the difficult decision to make budget cuts in other areas, affecting students. In rural systems like mine, this could mean a reduction in overall staff or the elimination of crucial supports for students such as afterschool and tutoring programs,” Testerman added.
House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., called the move to withhold the appropriated funds a violation of federal law with potentially devastating consequences.
“The halting of these critical funds harms the students, educators, and schools that strive to provide quality public education with the meager funds and challenges they face,” Scott wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“Cash-strapped school districts, particularly those in low-income and rural areas, cannot afford this delay and will likely be forced to either lay off staff or cut back on programs and services while the White House Office of Budget and Management ‘reviews’ the funding,” Scott said.
State attorneys general are expected to sue the administration over the reviews, according to a source familiar with the matter. Parents groups and education advocates decrying the decision are also mounting lawsuits against the administration, the source confirmed. Advocates accuse the administration of undermining public education in a “cruel betrayal” of students.
“Schools are already grappling with severe teacher shortages, burnout and under-resourced classrooms, and here comes the federal government ripping resources away from public schools. It is outrageous and unconscionable,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle.
“Educators and parents will not be silent while students are undervalued, unheard and unsupported,” Pringle wrote in a statement, adding, “We will stand up, speak out and take action to ensure every classroom is a place of dignity, opportunity and respect.”
Education providers are sounding the alarm about the funding that impacts millions of students, teachers, and families, telling ABC News they fear that low-income students and families will be left in a bind with no other options of care for their children.
The Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit organization, said, “If these funds are not released very soon, we will quickly see more children and youth unsupervised and at risk, more academic failures, more hungry kids, more chronic absenteeism, higher dropout rates, more parents forced out of their jobs, and a less STEM-ready and successful workforce as our child care crisis worsens dramatically.”
The pause comes as efforts to dismantle the Department of Education have been blocked by lower courts. The Supreme Court is also expected to weigh in on the firing of nearly 2,000 employees at the agency.
The DOE referred additional questions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
An OMB spokesman told ABC News the pause is due to an “ongoing programmatic review” of education funding, adding no decisions have been made yet.
Many of the programs “grossly misused” government funds to promote a “radical leftwing agenda,” the OMB spokesperson added. In some cases, the programs allegedly promote illegal immigration advocacy and queer resistance in the arts, according to the spokesman.
