Barricades go up outside Fulton County courthouse as DA nears decision on indicting Trump

Barricades went up outside the Fulton County courthouse on Thursday as District Attorney Fani Willis reportedly nears a decision on whether to indict Donald Trump over allegations the former president tried to undermine the results of Georgia’s 2020 election, New Yorker staff writer Charles Bethea reported from Atlanta.

Bethea posted video on social media showing a long column of orange barriers lined up on the edge of a one-way street in front of the courthouse.

“Barricades erected outside the Fulton County courthouse now,” Bethea tweeted. “Looks like preparation for some big legal news…”

Willis in May suggested that a decision on whether to indict Trump was likely in August. The Atlanta prosecutor sent a letter to county Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville requesting that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during the first three weeks of August, CNN reported.

Sheriff Pat Labat was among 20 officials copied on the letter, according to the report.

The Daily Beast on Wednesday reported that the Fulton County case could turn out to be “the most consequential — and imminent” case the former president is facing.

Joe Pagliery wrote for The Beast that, “An Atlanta prosecutor’s probe into the former president’s attempts to rig the 2020 election in Georgia is expected to shortly culminate in Trump’s third indictment — or his fourth, if Jack Smith indicts Trump again before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.”

Pagliery added that, “While any of the charges against Trump could land him in jail, the Atlanta case is especially damning and threatening.”

The report notes a story from The Guardian last week indicating Fulton County prosecutors are preparing racketeering charges in connection with the Trump probe.

Hugo Lowell wrote for The Guardian that, “The racketeering statute in Georgia requires prosecutors to show the existence of an ‘enterprise’ – and a pattern of racketeering activity that is predicated on at least two ‘qualifying’ crimes.”

“In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said.”