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Georgia election probe enters new phase with search warrants

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(AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his allies broke the law trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state is seeking search warrants in the case, a sign that the wide-ranging probe has entered a new phase.

The revelation came Monday in a court order filed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury seated to help the investigation. In an order sealing any search warrants and related documents from being made public, McBurney wrote that District Attorney Fani Willis’ office is “now seeking to obtain and execute a series of search warrants, the affidavits for which are predicated on sensitive information acquired during the investigation.”

Disclosure of the information could compromise the investigation, McBurney wrote, “by, among other things, causing flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, and intimidation of potential witnesses.” It could also result in risks to the “safety and well-being” of people involved in the investigation, he wrote.

It wasn’t immediately clear who the targets of the search warrants are or whether any search warrants had yet to be approved by a judge. To obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must convince a judge they have probable cause that a crime occurred at the location where authorities want to search.

As Willis’ investigation ramps up, the public court filings in the case have provided a rare window into the workings of a special grand jury that meets behind closed doors.

Willis, a Democrat, opened the investigation early last year, shortly after the release of a recording of a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

In addition to the Trump-Raffensperger call, Willis confirmed early on that she was investigating a call that Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina made to Raffensperger, the sudden departure of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in early January 2021 and statements made during legislative committee meetings by people pushing debunked claims casting doubt on the legitimacy of the state’s election.

Court filings in recent months have also shown that Willis is interested in a slate of fake electors who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. She said in a court filing that the 16 Georgia Republicans who signed that certificate have all been notified they are targets of the investigation, meaning they could face criminal charges.

Attorneys for Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and Trump lawyer, say their client has also been notified that he’s a target of Willis’ investigation. He appeared at state legislative committee hearings in December 2020 and made claims of election fraud in Georgia. Giuliani was also involved in coordinating the fake elector plan, Willis wrote in a court filing. He testified before the special grand jury in August.

Willis’ investigation has also expanded into a breach of voting equipment at the elections office in a rural Georgia county, some 200 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Documents, emails, security video and deposition testimony produced in response to subpoenas in a long-running lawsuit have shown that lawyer Sidney Powell and other Trump allies hired a computer forensics team to go to Coffee County to make complete copies of data and software on elections equipment there. Willis is seeking testimony from Powell and has also requested documents from the company that employs the computer forensics team.

Another thread Willis seems to be pursuing is alleged attempts to pressure a Fulton County election worker. A petition filed last month indicates she wants to question Harrison Floyd, a director of Black Voices for Trump. Willis said in the petition that Floyd and Trevian Kutti, whom Willis described as a Chicago-based “purported publicist,” tried to pressure Ruby Freeman. Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, were election workers falsely accused by Trump allies of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during ballot counting.

As the investigation has progressed, a number of people who have been summoned to testify have tried to avoid testifying. Most have been unsuccessful.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who’s facing a reelection challenge from Democrat Stacey Abrams, managed to delay his testimony until after next month’s election.

Graham’s attempt to fight his subpoena is currently pending before a federal appeals court. Willis has said in a court filing that she wants to talk to Graham about calls he made to Raffensperger and his staff in which he reportedly asked about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.” Graham has denied any wrongdoing and said his status as a senator shields him from having to testify.

A number of high-ranking Georgia state officials, including Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, have already testified before the special grand jury. Others in Trump’s orbit who’ve undergone questioning include attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro. And the panel is still expecting testimony from others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Willis has indicated she could seek to compel testimony from Trump himself. The former president has hired a legal team in Atlanta and last month disparaged the investigation as a “strictly political Witch Hunt!”

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Team Biden-Harris Launches Latinos con Biden-Harris

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Today, Team Biden-Harris is launching Latinos con Biden-Harris, a national organizing program to engage and mobilize Latino voters, communities, and leaders across the country. Latinos are among the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country, and Latinos con Biden-Harris will ensure the campaign meets Latino voters where they are with trusted messengers and by organizing directly in their communities to earn their vote — in small businesses, dining room tables, and through social media.

Later today, President Biden will officially kick off Latinos con Biden-Harris in Arizona alongside Latino organizers. The President’s Arizona event will kickstart a series of efforts and events both online and in-person to engage, train, and mobilize Latino supporters on messaging and relational organizing to reach their friends and families about the President, his story, and the choice Latinos will face in this election. Throughout the week, the campaign will also hold events — including organizing events, volunteer trainings, and house parties — in battleground states, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

“The Latino vote was critical to the President’s victory in 2020, and 2024 will be no different,” said Biden-Harris 2o24 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “Latinos con Biden-Harris will be essential to activating and mobilizing Latinos across the country, and importantly, is another way we are making clear with action that we are investing aggressively into earning the Latino vote. Our community has deep roots in organizing, and we are excited to harness that skillset to fight for our families, our communities, and against Donald Trump’s anti-Latino agenda. There’s too much at stake in this election.”

To launch Latinos con Biden-Harris, Campaign Co-Chair Congresswoman Veronica Escobar shared a video about the important role Latinos will play in reelecting President Biden and Vice President Harris, and the stakes of this election for the Latino community.

The launch of Latinos con Biden-Harris builds on the campaign’s aggressive and tailored strategy to reaching Latinos:

  • Vice President Harris just completed a swing across Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado focused on reaching Latino voters.
  • First Lady Jill Biden recently traveled to Nevada where she met with Latina mothers to discuss the stakes in this election and the importance of Latino voters to the Biden-Harris coalition.
  • Alongside the launch of Latinos con Biden-Harris, the campaign will engage and coordinate closely with leaders and stakeholders from across the country, focusing on different and critical segments of the Latino community like young Latinos and Latino men.
  • Building off of the 2020 campaign’s efforts to tailor and target its efforts to the many different backgrounds of Latinos in this country, Latinos con Biden-Harris will include grassroots-led efforts to reach individual diasporas like Mexicanos con Biden-Harris, Venezolanos con Biden-Harris, Boricuas con Biden-Harris, and more.
  • In the past few days alone, both President Biden and Vice President Harris have participated in six Hispanic media interviews, including two nationally syndicated interviews with President Biden airing this morning to correspond with the program’s launch.

Today, Team Biden-Harris will also announce its first Latino creative as a part of its $30 million spring paid media buy. “Only One Choice”or “Una Opción” is a direct-to-camera video from President Biden in Spanish, English, and Spanglish that outlines his commitment to delivering on lower costs and more opportunities for Latino families — in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who has demonized Latinos throughout his political career and is pursuing an agenda that hurts Latinos. This ad and this buy build on Team Biden-Harris’ historic 2023 paid media buy that was both the largest and earliest investment in Hispanic media for a reelection campaign in history.

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Vice President Harris Opens NAACP Image Awards by Urging People Across America to Register to Vote

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WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris opened the 55th NAACP Image Awards on Saturday night by urging people across the nation to register to vote or check their registration status. During a surprise video that kicked off the ceremony, the Vice President asked Queen Latifah to remind viewers to go to Vote.Gov.

“Remind people about how important this election is coming up in November,” Vice President Harris urged Queen Latifah. “If you can ask people to go to Vote.gov to register to vote or to check their registration status, that would mean a lot.”

The Vice President has consistently led efforts to protect voting rights and advance voter registration. Last month, she convened her second meeting of 2024 with leaders who are on the frontlines of protecting voting rights and registering communities to vote. During the roundtable conversation, she announced new steps that the Biden-Harris Administration is taking to ensure Americans have the information they need to vote, promote voter participation for students, protect election workers, and fight voter suppression laws. In January, she was in Atlanta, GA for a roundtable conversation on voting rights where she called out extremists across the country for their full-on assault on the freedom to vote at a time when more than 300 anti-voter bills were introduced last year.

Since being sworn in, Vice President Harris has been working with President Biden to ensure that the voting rights of Americans are protected and advanced. In addition to her work on pushing for federal legislation, the Vice President has consistently convened a broad coalition of voting rights champions to strategize about what we must do to ensure that Americans have access to the ballot. She has consistently brought together leaders from the Black community, Latino community, Asian American and Pacific Islander community, Native American and Tribal community, voters with disabilities, youth, poll workers and election officials, and democracy advocacy groups.

In addition to these convenings, Vice President Harris has continued her leadership on voting rights and in the fight for fundamental freedoms:

  • In January, the Vice President traveled to South Carolina to mark the third anniversary of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by delivering the keynote speech at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society’s annual retreat. Her address focused on the full-on attack on hard fought, hard-won freedoms.

 

  • In the fall, the Vice President launched a nationwide “Fight for Our Freedoms” college tour in which she energized more than 15,000 students and young leaders. The Vice President took questions from students on a range of issues – including voting rights – and called on students to register to vote, organize, and stay involved in the fight for our freedoms.

 

  • Last year, the Vice President also held a Summer of Action in which she traveled to 17 states to hold a series of events. During these events, the Vice President spoke about voting rights and how the Administration is fighting back against attacks on fundamental freedoms. For example, she visited the Gila River Indian Community where she spoke about the need for the Native American Voting Rights Act.

 

  • In July, the Vice President convened a roundtable discussion on the Americans with Disabilities Act that focused on voting rights and built on an earlier convening about making voting more accessible for those with disabilities.

 

  • In March of 2022, the Vice President delivered remarks commemorating the President’s Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.

 

  • The Vice President has regularly held meetings about voting rights with state legislators and members of Congress across the country. This includes traveling to Tennessee after Rep. Jones and Rep. Pearson were expelled, speaking with Texas legislators who were working to block voter suppression efforts, and holding a listening session in Michigan.

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Military Funeral Service Held For South Carolina Army Veteran Ronnie Smith

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BENNESVILLE, SC. (FNN) – A military funeral was held for U.S. Army veteran Ronnie Smith. He was laid to rest at Bera Memorial Garden in Bennettsville, Saturday, March 16, 2024.
SC State Representative Pat Henegan deliver remarks about Sgt. Ronnie Smith who served three years in the U.S. Army and 24 years in the South Carolina National Guard.
– Bethea Funeral Home

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