Atlanta braces for new Trump indictment as soon as next week

ATLANTA — Donald Trump and officials in Atlanta are bracing for a new indictment that could come as soon as next week in a Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has said he’s in meetings “every day” to prepare for a possible indictment. In anticipation of potential charges, his deputies erected barriers last week along the block in front of the main courthouse. The street was closed this week, and parking is prohibited on nearby streets. Those measures are to remain in place through the end of next week, Labat’s office said.

Trump has said he expects to be indicted a fourth time by next week and has begun stepping up his criticism of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has spent two years leading the election probe into Trump and his allies. Speaking to supporters in New Hampshire on Tuesday, the Republican former president launched highly personal attacks on Willis and called the 52-year-old Democratic prosecutor, who is Black, “a young woman, a young racist in Atlanta.”

“She’s got a lot of problems. But she wants to indict me to try to run for some other office,” Trump said.

A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment on Trump’s criticism. Her office hasn’t said whether charges against Trump will come next week.

Willis told law enforcement and local government leaders in a letter in April that she expected to announce charging decisions by the end of the current court term, which ends Sept. 1. She advised law enforcement to prepare for “heightened security,” noting that the announcement of charges “may provoke a significant public reaction.”

A few weeks later, she seemed to narrow that window further in a letter to the chief judge of the county superior court. She indicated that she planned to have much of her staff work remotely for most days during the first three weeks of August and asked that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during part of that time, notably on the days when grand juries meet.