Editor’s Note: Geoff Duncan, a CNN political contributor and Republican, served as Georgia’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023. He is a former professional baseball player and the author of “GOP 2.0: How the 2020 Election Can Lead to a Better Way Forward for America’s Conservative Party.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.
CNN
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Once former President Donald Trump predicted his forthcoming arrest in New York City, attention naturally shifted to the Manhattan district attorney. Yet his more serious legal peril may lie 900 miles south in Georgia, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into the efforts by pro-Trump forces to overturn the 2020 election continues.
It can be difficult to keep the multiple and simultaneous investigations straight, but here is the key distinction between New York’s and Georgia’s. The former involves a probe into Trump’s alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Heavily covered in the media, the episode involves key testimony from star witness Michael Cohen, Trump’s once close ally and personal fixer, a convicted felon and now disbarred lawyer, who paid Daniels $130,000 on behalf of Trump to keep her from going public about an alleged affair with the former president a decade earlier.
CNN reported that the Fulton County investigation is focusing on potential racketeering and conspiracy charges in connection with Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, charges that are more often associated with TV crime dramas like “The Sopranos” than a former president of the United States.
The reaction from Republicans is telling. As the world braced for breaking news in Gotham City, most members of the GOP, from reliable allies like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to potential presidential rivals, rushed to Trump’s defense. House Republicans denounced, “the unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and called for investigations into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The story could not be any more different in Georgia, where Trump’s legal team has been the prominent voice leading the counteroffensive…
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