ATLANTA – A group of conservative Republicans opposed to Donald Trump released a $2 million ad campaign in Georgia and 11 other states Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the former president’s bid for “absolute immunity” from prosecution.
The campaign by Republicans for the Rule of Law features testimonials from more than 25 self-identified conservatives arguing why any ruling in favor of Trump would place any president above the law for crimes committed while in office.
Under such a ruling, a president would even be entitled to order the assassination of his political opponent, as Trump’s legal team argued before the court.
“Our constitutional system is predicated on legal accountability and equal justice under the law, even for presidents and past presidents,” said Sarah Longwell, the group’s executive director.
“Conservatives feel this in our bones: No man or woman is above the law. In this case, that means rejecting the ‘absolute immunity’ claim.”
Trump’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to prohibit Special Counsel Jack Smith from prosecuting the former president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and on charges of retaining classified documents at his Florida home after leaving office.
Two other criminal cases against Trump – his conviction last week in New York of falsifying business documents to cover up hush-money payments in connection with a sexual relationship with a former porn actress and a pending election interference prosecution in Georgia – involve state charges.
The ads will air on digital and streaming platforms, including YouTube and Hulu, through June 23. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of its term late this month or early in July.
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents Thursday named a veteran of the university system as the sole finalist for president of Augusta University.
Russell Keen has worked in the system for the last 22 years, including the last nine years as the university’s executive vice president for administration and chief of staff to AU President Brooks Keel, who will retire at the end of this month.
Before 2015, Keen served in several administrative positions at Georgia Southern University, his alma mater. He also worked as the major gifts officer at the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia.
“As a native of the Augusta area, Dr. Keen understands the challenge of maintaining AU’s momentum in the climb from good to better to best as a research university and innovator in medical higher education,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said.
“Russell has a tremendous history within our system and is dedicated to fiscal management and student success. His combination of skills and energy will keep the university on track to being a world-class institution.”
“My time on campus and in Augusta has prepared me for a seamless transition into this role, and I would be honored to continue the legacy of a president I consider a mentor,” Keen added. “I’m wholeheartedly vested in advancing the university’s success through its current initiatives and into its next chapter.”
Keen holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Georgia Southern. He earned a doctorate in higher education management from UGA.
The regents will take a final vote on the AU position no sooner than five days from Thursday’s naming of a sole finalist.
JEKYLL ISLAND – Inflation will drive support for former President Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones predicted Thursday.
“2020 was the personality vote,” Jones, the first Georgia elected official to back Trump’s first campaign for president in 2015, said during a luncheon speech at the Georgia Press Association’s annual conference. “2024 is going to be a pocketbook vote.”
Jones cited the high price of gasoline and other necessities under President Joe Biden as more important to voters in the 2024 election cycle than the concerns over Trump’s character that marked the Republican’s narrow loss to Democrat Biden four years ago.
Indeed, 29% of 1,203 registered Georgia voters who responded to a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this week said the economy is the most important issue in determining how they will vote for president. The state of the economy outranked preserving democracy in the United States and immigration, rated most important by 23% and 14% of those surveyed, respectively.
Jones, who presides over the state Senate, also highlighted a couple of bills the General Assembly passed during this year’s session after years of failure.
He said a private-school vouchers bill Republican leaders steered through the legislature will give parents with children living in neighborhoods with low-performing public schools a chance to send them to a private school if they choose.
“Even the best public schools might not be the best fit for every child,” he said.
Jones also praised lawmakers for passing long-awaited legislation to reform Georgia’s “antiquated” Certificate of Need (CON) process governing the construction of new health-care facilities and the provision of new medical services.
He said rural communities looking to expand health-care access have been blocked repeatedly by the need to undergo an expensive, cumbersome CON review at the state level that forces them to demonstrate a need for a new hospital or medical service in their area.
“I watched a lot of these communities hindered around the state,” Jones said. “Everybody was shocked that we got it done.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia Court of Appeals declared Wednesday that it will not move forward with an election interference prosecution of former President Donald Trump until after deciding whether to disqualify Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis from the case.
The one-page ruling came just two days after the appellate court set a hearing date of Oct. 4 on the appeal, virtually guaranteeing the case won’t go to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election pitting Trump in a rematch against incumbent President Joe Biden.
Lawyers for Trump and eight of the co-defendants in the election interference case sought Willis’ removal after she admitted a prior romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade, who she hired to lead the prosecution. The relationship first came to light last January in a motion filed by Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer from Cobb County representing Republican political operative and Trump ally Mike Roman.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled in April that Willis could remain on the case but only if Wade stepped down, which he did several hours after the decision was handed down.
A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump and 18 codefendants last August, charging the Republican with participating in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry the Peach State in nearly 30 years.
With the Georgia case on hold, Trump’s conviction last week for falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme appears to be the only one of four criminal cases against the ex-president likely to be tried before the election.
Two other cases charging Trump in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and with retaining classified documents after leaving office are moving through the legal system so slowly they also aren’t expected to go to trial before November.
ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump holds a 5-point lead over President Joe Biden in Georgia, according to a poll Quinnipiac University released Wednesday.
The survey of 1,203 self-identified voters found Trump at 49% to 44% for Biden in a head-to-head matchup.
In a six-way hypothetical race that includes other candidates, Trump leads with 43% support to 37% for Biden, 8% for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3% for Libertarian Chase Oliver, 3% for independent Cornel West, and 2% for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
Trump’s conviction last week on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to an ex-porn star to cover up a sexual relationship appears to make little difference to the poll’s respondents, who were surveyed from May 30-June 3.
When asked how the guilty verdict would affect their vote, 22% said it makes them less likely to vote for Trump, but 23% said it makes them more likely to support the former president. Fifty-four percent said Trump’s conviction makes no difference in how they plan to vote. Half of the voters surveyed (50%) said they agree with the verdict, while 44% said they disagree.
Not surprisingly, Democrats backed Biden in large numbers, while Republicans did the same for Trump. Democrats also overwhelmingly agreed with last week’s verdict, while a slightly lower percentage of Republicans disagreed.
Independents were evenly divided among Biden and Trump in a head-to-head matchup, with 45% supporting each candidate.
Trump held a strong lead among men who responded to the poll, with 56% backing Trump to 37% supporting Biden. The president enjoyed a smaller lead over Trump among women, 50% to 43%.
When broken down by age, Biden leads only among voters between ages 50 and 64. Among that group, Biden drew support from 51% of those surveyed to 46% for Trump.
The former president dominated among those ages 35 to 49 and those age 65 and older, with double-digits leads over Biden in both cases. Trump held a 1-point lead among voters 18 to 34, within the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 points.
Poll respondents also gave Trump the edge over Biden when asked which candidate would do a better job handling issues including responding to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, immigration, the economy, and preserving democracy in the United States. Biden only outpolled Trump on abortion, with 47% saying the Democrat would do a better job handling that issue to 45% for Trump.
