Addressing a standing-room-only crowd Saturday in Columbus, Georgia at thestate’s GOP convention, Donald Trump called special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the investigation that led to the former president’s federal indictment, “deranged” and a “Trump hater.”
Smith began investigating Trump in August 2022 after documents with classified markings from his administration were uncovered at the former president’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
On Thursday a 44-page indictment was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that alleges Trump “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal retention of classified documents.”
Smith said on Friday that the laws protecting national defense information exist to protect the men and women in U.S. intelligence and in the armed forces as they protected the nation.
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” Smith said.
The former president, who said on Truth Social that he will plead not guilty at his scheduled arraignment Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Miami, told the packed Georgia convention that the indictment “will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country.”
He said the indictment is “baseless,” but at least it’s driving his poll numbers and fundraising.
Trump is charged with 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents, as well as one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, and four other related charges.
Trump said that federal law enforcement should never have been involved in this matter. He railed against the Biden administration, saying on stage that “Biden’s got boxes,” and — though no such evidence has emerged — claimed the current president has “got boxes all over the place.” Trump also alleged that “Republicans are treated far differently at the Justice Department than Democrats.”
Other GOP hopefuls speaking at the convention include former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, who spoke just prior to Trump, addressed the Georgia crowd and said, “We want a Commander in Chief that understands the importance of protecting our secrets and following the law and being respectful.”
Trump supporters who spoke included Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake of Arizona.
Some supporters on the ground agreed with Trump’s statements. One supporter, Leata Gleaton, told CBS News, “I don’t think it’s going to hurt Trump because the indictment is just a hoax.” She said that “God is behind Trump,” and “If you’re a true Republican, you’ll vote for Trump.”
Jackie McCowen told CBS News, “Each president has done that from the past.” She said, “Trump at least had it in a secure spot. It’s not like he was selling information or anything like that.”
Others were not so sure. One attendee, David Callahan, said he’s leaning toward Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Trump did a great job exposing the corruption; he was not very effective in unraveling the corruption,” he said. “I think DeSantis can put a team together to actually unravel the mess in Washington.”
Georgia is expected to be a critical battleground state in 2024, as it was in 2020.
ATLANTA—Urging customers to eat the book cover to cover, a new diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative introduced Thursday by fast food chain Chick-fil-A replaced all chicken with copies of How To Be An Anti-Racist. “In an effort to elevate historically marginalized voices in our country, we have swapped out our famous fried chicken fillets for copies of Ibram X. Kendi’s seminal book How To Be An Anti-Racist,” said CEO Andrew Cathy, emphasizing that the nonfiction bestseller that mixes elements of social commentary with memoir to shine a light on the state of race in modern America would still be soaked in the restaurant’s signature pickle brine, seasoned to perfection, pressure cooked in 100% refined peanut oil, and served on a toasted, buttered bun for that same great taste. “We understand how it was problematic to use only white-meat chicken in our products, and for that we are sorry. But with this new menu item, we are challenging the traditional ideas of what it means to be a sandwich in this country.” At press time, Chick-fil-A was criticized as “woke” after following up the sandwich’s release with White Fragility nuggets, which are served with a Ta-Nehisi Coates–inspired Between The Polynesian Sauce And Me.
Money Is Tight This Week So Here’s A Recipe For Five Tortilla Chips And Ketchup In A Bowl
Georgia officials arrested another set of people Wednesday who have ties to the diverse movement against “Cop City,” adding to its roster of dozens of people facing harsh charges for fighting the giant training facility being built in Atlanta.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Atlanta Police Department arrested three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, an organization that helps bail out arrested activists, the GBI said in a statement on Twitter. Marlon Scott Kautz, Savannah D. Patterson and Adele Maclean were charged with money laundering and charity fraud.
The arrests of the three board members are unprecedented, The Intercept reported, citing Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. The Intercept also called out the “extreme law enforcement persecution” of activists opposed to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — or Cop City, as it’s been nicknamed by critics — and pointed to a SWAT team raiding a house to take the board members into custody.
“When three community organizers who help to run a bail fund are arrested with an entire SWAT team on clearly bogus financial charges, it signals that not only is it illegal to protest, it’s also illegal to try and support people who have been criminalized for protesting,” Hannah Riley, a writer and organizer, told HuffPost.
“If bail funds aren’t safe, what’s next?” she added.
The site is expected to take up at least 85 acres in a historically and environmentally significant forest owned by the city of Atlanta.
The movement to keep the facility from being finished has been persistent and has a national reach. People who disapprove of the facility span age groups and identities and are attracted to the movement through different causes — such as environmentalism or abolition.
As the movement has persisted with numerous protests and events, dozens of people have been arrested by Georgia law enforcement. One protester, Manuel Esteban “Tortuguita” Paez Terán, died after being shot by Georgia troopers nearly 60 times. (Tortuguita’s death marks the first time an environmental activist has been killed by police.)
More than 40 people are facing domestic terrorism charges. And three others who face felonies ― accused of placing flyers on mailboxes naming an officer who shot Paez Terán ― had been placed in solitary confinement.
“Most protest crimes are misdemeanors or ordinance violations, like a traffic ticket,” attorney Lyra Foster previously told HuffPost. “We’ve seen many of those cases since the George Floyd protests” over the May 2020 police killing in Minneapolis. “People need to understand the actions of protesters haven’t changed; the crimes they’re charged with have. This isn’t an escalation in protest, it’s a crackdown on those same First Amendment protected protests as before.”
Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Georgia, both Democrats, have encouraged activists to not resort to violent protests and to lean on reaching out to city officials instead, according to Axios. But nonviolent opponents of the site have still been arrested and charged, and city officials have reportedly largely ignored hours of public comment.
“As we have said before, we will not rest until we have held accountable every person who has funded, organized, or participated in this violence and intimidation,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted Wednesday.
Micah Herskind, also an organizer against the training site, previously told HuffPost that “the literal murder of a forest defender and these incredibly severe political prosecutions” are galvanizing.
“I do think that it makes people more determined to fight than ever and to stop Cop City in Tortuguita’s name and to free all of the political prisoners,” Herskind added.
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office and the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, which are prosecuting the arrestees, did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund also did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request to provide comment for this article.
The remains of a soldier killed in the Korean War and posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor will be laid to rest in Georgia, 73 years after his death.
Army Cpl. Luther H. Story “displayed conspicuous bravery” during a large-scale attack by the North Korean People’s Army near the Naktong River in South Korea on September 1, 1950, according to a joint statement from The White House and The Republic of Korea.
When he was last seen, Story, 19, a member of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, was firing every weapon available to protect his comrades, despite being wounded himself, so his team could advance to the next position and escape further fire, according to the National Medal of Honor Museum.
“Story distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action,” the National Medal of Honor Museum said. “Story’s extraordinary heroism, aggressive leadership, and supreme devotion to duty reflect the highest credit upon himself and were in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the military service.”
On June 21, 1951, Gen. Omar Bradley gave Story’s Medal of Honor to his father, Mark Story, at a ceremony at the Pentagon, according to the National Medal of Honor Museum.
In the months following the combat, Story’s remains could not be found or identified and he was not recorded as a prisoner of war, the joint statement said. In 1954, Story was declared unrecoverable.
More than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Army. It is estimated more than 81,500 Americans remain missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars and other conflicts combined, according to The US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
In October 1950, 11 sets of remains were recovered near Sangde-po, South Korea, and eight were identified. One set, labeled X-260 Tanggok, was thought to be Story, but investigators did not have enough data to positively identify the remains, according to the agency.
The unidentified remains were transported and buried as Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the agency said.
In July 2018, the agency disinterred 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl and in the third phase, the agency disinterred X-260 and sent the remains to its laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis, the agency said.
Scientists used dental and anthropological analysis and mitochondrial DNA to identify Story, the agency said.
On April 26 President Joe Biden announced the discovery joined by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
“Today, we can return him (Story) to his family and to his rest, with all the honors he deserves, because we never forget our heroes,” Biden said in April.
For decades, Story’s family wondered about his whereabouts and believed he would never be found, Judy Wade, Story’s niece and closest surviving relative told The Associated Press. Wade’s mother was Story’s younger sister.
“I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Wade said. “I’m just glad he’s home.”
Story will be buried at Andersonville National Cemetery in Andersonville, Georgia and will receive full military burial honors, according to his obituary.
Your driver’s license is not the right place for a spicy selfie, according to Georgia officials.
The Georgia Department of Drivers’ Services took to Facebook Tuesday to remind drivers to keep their clothes on while taking photos for a digital driver’s license or ID.
“Please take pictures with your clothes on when submitting them for your Digital Driver’s License and IDs,” wrote the department.
“Cheers to technology and keeping things classy,” they added.
Georgia residents can use a digital driver’s license or ID in their Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Apple Watch, according to the department’s website. The digital IDs can “speed up the process at select TSA checkpoints.” The digital document does not serve as a replacement for a physical ID, the website advised.
Several people responded to the Facebook post, asking if it was a joke or if it was really happening. The department responded with memes suggesting it was a real issue.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.
ATLANTA (AP) — Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution announced Thursday they will build a $4.3 billion electric battery plant as part of Hyundai’s new electric vehicle assembly plant in southeast Georgia.
The companies will split the investment, starting production as soon as late 2025.
Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jaehoon Chang said in a statement that the battery plant would “create a strong foundation to lead the global EV transition,” explaining the company wants to speed up efforts to produce electrified Hyundai and Kia vehicles in North America.
“Hyundai Motor Group is focusing on its electrification efforts to secure a leadership position in the global auto industry,” Chang said.
The South Korean automaker said in 2022 it would invest $5.5 billion to assemble electric vehicles and batteries in Ellabell, just west of Savannah. The site is supposed to have 8,100 employees and is slated to begin producing vehicles in 2025.
Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, said the 3,000-job battery plant would be part of the 8,100 overall jobs and the $4.3 billion investment would be part of the previously announced $5.5 billion total.
The Hyundai/LG plant is supposed to be able to supply batteries for 300,000 electric vehicles per year, which is the initial projected production of the adjoining vehicle assembly plant. Hyundai has said the Georgia plant could later expand to build 500,000 vehicles annually.
“This is exactly what we envisioned when Georgia landed the Hyundai Metaplant in May of last year, and this project is the latest milestone in Georgia’s path to becoming the EV capital of the nation,” Kemp said in a statement.
In addition to the assembly and battery plants, auto parts suppliers have pledged to invest more than $2 billion and hire 4,800 people in the region around the Hyundai site.
The announcements are part of an electric vehicle and battery land rush across the United States. Under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, EVs must be assembled in North America, and a certain percentage of their battery parts and minerals must come from North America or a U.S. free trade partner to qualify for a full $7,500 EV tax credit.
Currently, no Hyundai or Kia vehicles are eligible for the tax credit unless they are leased. Hyundai opposed having foreign-made vehicles excluded, in part because it’s building American factories. Kemp has supported that position, but Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff says Hyundai should wait until it is producing vehicles domestically, using American-made batteries.
“As soon as those vehicles are produced in Georgia, they can be eligible for the credits through the incentives in the IRA,” Ossoff told reporters in an online news conference Friday morning. “These manufacturing incentives are attracting and accelerating billions of dollars of investments in jobs and advanced energy and electric vehicle production capacity here in the state of Georgia.”
LG said this would be its seventh battery plant in operation or under construction in the U.S., saying it was concentrating efforts to expand production in the country, in one example of how federal incentives are luring manufacturers.
This is the second huge electric battery plant that Hyundai is partnering to build in Georgia. Hyundai and SK On, a unit of South Korea’s SK Group, announced in December they would jointly invest $4 billion to $5 billion to build a new plant northwest of Atlanta that would supply electric batteries for Hyundai and Kia electric vehicles assembled in the U.S. That plant, in Cartersville, is planned to begin production in 2025 and employ a projected 3,500 people.
Hyundai will need batteries for more than just vehicles made in Ellabell. The company is already assembling electric vehicles at its plant in Montgomery, Alabama, and announced in April it would start assembling its electric Kia EV9 large SUV at the Kia plant in West Point, Georgia.
Partnering with LG and SK also will diversify Hyundai’s supplier base, giving the automaker more than one battery manufacturer from which to buy.
Because the battery plant is part of the overall Hyundai complex, Douglas said no additional incentives would be offered.
The state of Georgia and local governments already have pledged $1.8 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. It’s the largest subsidy package a U.S. state has ever promised an automotive plant, according to Greg LeRoy, executive director Good Jobs First, a group skeptical of subsidies to private companies.
Karima Jiwani, whose newborn baby was discovered abandoned but alive in a plastic bag in 2019, was charged Thursday in Georgia with attempt to commit murder.
At a press conference Friday, Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman detailed how the woman came to be put under arrest four years after her daughter, dubbed “Baby India,” was saved from the woods in a case that made national headlines.
India’s umbilical cord was reportedly still attached on the June night when she was rescued by authorities, who responded to a 911 call from a family who said they heard crying.
“This child was tied up in a plastic bag and thrown into the woods like a bag of trash,” Freeman said during the press conference. “It literally is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.”
The county sheriff’s office had released harrowing body camera footage of the moment she was saved, but India’s identity remained unknown for years. Investigators made a breakthrough about 10 months ago, however, when they found her father via DNA testing.
Jiwani, 40, has now been identified as the girl’s biological mother. Authorities have no reason to believe India’s father was aware of the pregnancy or any plans to abandon her, Freeman said. Jiwani has been held without bond at a local jail, and her first court appearance was scheduled for Saturday.
In addition to one count of attempt to commit murder, Jiwani faces additional charges: cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated assault, and reckless abandonment.
“Four years ago, I said in this room, and I told you, we will bring this person to justice,” Freeman said. “Little did I know it was going to take four years.”
Citing conversations with family and medical workers, Freeman alleged that Jiwani had a “history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births,” adding that she “went to extremes to conceal this pregnancy” with India.
Freeman didn’t suggest any potential motive during the press conference, but he said India was likely born in a car and driven around for a “significant period of time” before being put in the woods.
According to the National Safe Haven Alliance, which promotes laws giving immunity to parents who anonymously surrender their unharmed children to designated providers within certain time frames, 31 babies were discarded in dumpsters and other dangerous locations in 2021.
Watch footage of India’s rescue from 2019. (This video contains graphic scenes and may be disturbing to some readers.)
During the press conference, Freeman added that the sheriff’s office found other children at Jiwani’s residence at the time of her arrest, and it has contacted the state’s Division of Family and Children Services for further action.
Though he did not go into detail about India’s current status, Freeman assured reporters that she is now “prospering.”
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) arrested a man with multiple charges and seized approximately 1.6 pounds marijuana.
According to MCSO, its Drug, Gang, Fugitive Unit, and the U.S. Marshal’s Services arrested Michael Cooper-Bledsoe on May 16 on outstanding warrants. A search warrant was obtained.
Police say, and Cooper-Bledsoe was apprehended on Amour Road. He was taken to the Muscogee County Jail.
MCSO mentioned he had the following charges:
2 counts of felony murder
1 count of malice murder
4 counts of violation of the street gang terrorism prevention act
1 count of tampering with evidence
1 count of giving false statements
1 count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute
Willful obstruction of law enforcement
Theft by receiving stolen property (firearm)
Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime
Trafficking methamphetamine
Violation of probation recorder’s court
Cooper-Bledsoe will also have an additional charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, MSCO added.
Of the 16 fake electors under investigation in Georgia for taking part in a scheme to keep President Donald Trump in office in 2020, eight have accepted immunity deals from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to a brief filed on Friday by the electors’ lawyer, Kimberly Debrow.
In early April, Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor advising the Georgia grand jury appointed to investigate Trump’s election meddling efforts, gave Debrow immunity offers for eight of the ten electors she represented (in total, 16 Republicans took part in the scheme). The two who did not receive offers decided to obtain individual counsel. The filing does not name which of the 16 electors were offered immunity deals.
Friday’s filing comes in response to a motion Willis submitted in April seeking to have Debrow disqualified from the case. Prosecutors say that Debrow didn’t inform her clients of an immunity offer last summer, and that some of the electors she represents have incriminated each other in interviews with prosecutors. Willis called Debrow’s continued representation of the group of electors an “impracticable and ethical mess.”
Debrow shot back in Friday’s filing, calling the DA’s motion “reckless, frivolous, offensive, and completely without merit.” She claimed that the DA only floated “highly generalized, non-individualized ‘offers to offer’ potential immunity” last summer and that her clients were informed of this possibility. Debrow alleged that the DA’s office “knew” their representation of that summer’s immunity conversations was “false” when they filed the April motion. She also maintained that all ten of her current and former clients “remain united in their innocence.”
Willis’s office opened an inquiry into Trump and his allies’ election meddling in February 2021, and in May 2022 convened a special grand jury with the power to subpoena witnesses. In addition to investigating the fake elector scheme, the grand jury also looked into Trump’s demand that George Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger “find 11,780 votes.” Over seven months of work, the grand jury interviewed 75 people, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
In February, portions of the grand jury report were made public. The report recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, though it declined to name any names. However, in an interview with The New York Times, the grand jury’s forewoman strongly hinted that Trump was among them. We won’t know for sure until Willis comes out with the charges, after which the full report will be made public. In late April, Willis said her office is planning on announcing charging decisions “in the near future,” potentially as soon as July.
The Fulton County DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Atlanta authorities are searching for the person who shot five people Wednesday at Northside Hospital Medical in Midtown Atlanta, killing one person and sending four others to the hospital, and then fleeing in a carjacked vehicle, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Wednesday.
A 39-year-old woman died, Schierbaum said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. The injured victims were also all women, ranging from 25 to 71 years old.
The suspect, whom authorities identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson, left the building and is believed to have carjacked a vehicle nearby, the police chief said.
He is still at large and there are active leads in Cobb County and in the city of Atlanta, Schierbaum said. Officers in Cobb County were searching in the areas of Vinings, Cumberland and Truist Park, according to a Twitter post from the Cobb County Police Department.
“We are working diligently to bring this individual into custody,” the police chief added.
The suspect is a former Coast Guardsman.
Patterson “entered the Coast Guard in July 2018 and last served as an Electrician’s Mate Second Class,” a statement from the Coast Guard said on Wednesday. “He was discharged from active duty in January 2023.”
The Coast Guard said they are working “closely” with Atlanta police and other authorities in the investigation of the shooting.
“Our deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families,” the statement said.
Multiple victims were undergoing surgery at Downtown’s Grady Memorial Hospital – Atlanta’s only Level 1 trauma center. Their conditions were not immediately available.
Three of the patients are in critical condition, Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Grady Health System, told reporters in an earlier news conference.
Police issued a “be on the lookout” for the suspect saying he should be considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.
The Atlanta Police Department earlier released images showing the suspected shooter wearing a hoodie, asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to call 911.
A high-level source within the Atlanta Police Department told CNN the suspect and his mother arrived Wednesday for a medical appointment for himself. The man at some point became agitated and started shooting using a handgun. The suspect has a military background, the source said.
Atlanta Police spokesperson Chata Spikes similarly said the man was attending a medical appointment for himself when the shooting occurred. Police declined to further describe the nature of the appointment, citing HIPAA regulations.
The man’s mother, who was uninjured, is currently cooperating with police, Atlanta Police told CNN.
Northside Hospital confirmed the shooting at its Midtown location, saying on Twitter it was cooperating with law enforcement.
“We urge people in the area to shelter in place and follow instructions from law enforcement on the scene,” the hospital system said. “This tragedy is affecting all of us, and we ask for patience and prayers at this time.”
In what has become routine in America, Wednesday’s shooting interrupted daily life in a place many would consider safe. This time, it was in a doctor’s office, but so often it’s been US schools, grocery stores and houses of worship.
Including the shooting at the Atlanta medical facility, there have been at least 190 mass shootings in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.
The Atlanta Police Department tweeted earlier Wednesday it was investigating an active shooter incident inside a building on West Peachtree Street, between 12th and 13th streets, saying multiple people had been injured.
Videos shared with CNN showed police running on the scene as sirens blared. Multiple fire trucks, at least one armored police vehicle and deputies from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office were seen outside the building, which sits in a bustling area of the city, with Google’s offices, hotels, restaurants, apartment buildings and at least two day care centers located nearby.
Atlanta resident Annie Eaveson lives at the Atlantic House apartments a block away and told CNN her building was placed on lockdown as the incident unfolded.
I saw two people taken out on stretchers. Waves of armored officers went inside in shifts almost. You can see medical professionals huddled up in offices.”
More than 20 million people in the Southeast have the potential for severe storms this weekend, including possible tornadoes, waterspouts, hail and damaging winds.
“Yet another round or two of severe weather and heavy rainfall is expected over the weekend,” the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee said. “Still some uncertainty in placement and timing, but the ceiling for this event may be a bit higher than Thursday’s event.”
Florida had more than 40 severe storm reports Thursday, including six tornado reports. Damage was reported in more than a dozen Florida counties, including Liberty County, where a tornado ripped through the town of Hosford Thursday afternoon. There was an additional tornado report in Palm Beach on Friday.
Saturday, there is a Level 2 of 5 slight risk for severe storms for parts of the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia, including Tallahassee and Panama City, Florida, and Valdosta, Georgia.
A marginal risk for severe storms spreads from southeastern Louisiana to coastal South Carolina down to central Florida, including New Orleans, Mobile, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando and Savannah.
“Two rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms are expected across portions of Florida and southern Georgia this afternoon and overnight tonight with damaging winds, large hail, and a few tornadoes possible,” the Storm Prediction Center said Saturday morning. “More isolated severe storms are possible across parts of Mississippi and Alabama with an attendant damaging wind/hail threat.”
For the Sunshine State, Saturday will mark the third day in a row of severe thunderstorms.
It also means the ground across much of the Southeast is so wet, any additional rainfall could lead to localized flooding.
A slight risk for excessive rainfall, Level 2 of 4, has been issued for portions of Florida and Georgia, where rainfall could exceed 3 inches. A Level 1 marginal risk surrounds the area and stretches from coastal Mississippi over through coastal South Carolina.
Parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia could see up to 3 to 6 inches of rain, some of which is welcome with much of the state in drought conditions.
Unfortunately, most of the rain this weekend will be focused across the panhandle including Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Panama City, not the areas needing it most.
More than 65 percent of Florida is under drought conditions according to the latest drought monitor report issued Thursday. Severe drought conditions exist across much of central Florida and include Tampa, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Gainesville, and Naples.
More than 1300 acres have burned across the state of Florida from two separate fires the past few weeks due to dry conditions.
By Sunday, the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms shifts east and south, encompassing more than 25 million people. From Dover, Delaware, down to Savannah, Georgia, as well as central and southern Florida are all at risk of damaging winds, waterspouts, tornadoes and hail.
“The setup could potentially result in hazardous marine and beach conditions during the latter half of the upcoming weekend,” the weather service office in Miami said.
The good news is all the affected areas in the Southeast clear out by Monday with sunnier and drier conditions through at least the middle of the upcoming week.
On the northern side of this system, strong storms are also possible in the Mid-Atlantic where damaging winds and a possible tornado will be the main threats.
“The northern extent of the threat remains uncertain, but modest destabilization appears possible into at least the Delmarva region, where some threat for damaging gusts and possibly a tornado may develop late in the afternoon or evening as the surface low tracks across the area,” the prediction center said.
If there were a silver lining in her son being convicted of high treason, it was that Yelena Gordon would have a rare chance to see him.
But when she tried to enter the courtroom, she was told it was already full. But those packed in weren’t press or his supporters, since the hearing was closed.
“I recognized just one face there, the rest were all strangers,” she later recounted, exasperated, outside the Moscow City Court. “I felt like I had woken up in a Kafka novel.”
Eventually, after copious cajoling, Gordon was able to stand beside Vladimir Kara-Murza, a glass wall between her and her son, as the sentence was delivered.
Kara-Murza was handed 25 years in prison, a sky-high figure previously reserved for major homicide cases, and the highest sentence for an opposition politician to date.
The bulk — 18 years — was given on account of treason, for speeches he gave last year in the United States, Finland and Portugal.
For a man who had lobbied the West for anti-Russia sanctions such as on the Magnitsky Act against human rights abusers — long before Russia invaded Ukraine — those speeches were wholly unremarkable.
But the prosecution cast Kara-Murza’s words as an existential threat to Russia’s safety.
“This is the enemy and he should be punished,” prosecutor Boris Loktionov stated during the trial, according to Kara-Murza’s lawyer.
The judge, whose own name features on the Magnitsky list as a human rights abuser, agreed. And so did Russia’s Foreign Ministry, saying: “Traitors and betrayers, hailed by the West, will get what they deserve.”
Redefining the enemy
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, hundreds of Russians have received fines or jail sentences of several years under new military censorship laws.
But never before has the nuclear charge of treason been used to convict someone for public statements containing publicly available information.
A screen set up in a hall at Moscow City Court shows the verdict in the case against Vladimir Kara-Murza | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
The verdict came a day after an appeal hearing at the same court for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who, in a move unseen since the end of the Cold War, is being charged with spying “for the American side.”
Taken together, the two cases set a historic precedent for modern Russia, broadening and formalizing its hunt for internal enemies.
“The state, the [Kremlin], has decided to sharply expand the ‘list of targets’ for charges of treason and espionage,” Andrei Soldatov, an expert in Russia’s security services, told POLITICO.
Up until now, the worst the foreign press corps feared was having their accreditation revoked by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. This is now changing.
For Kremlin critics, the gloves have of course been off for far longer — before his jailing, Kara-Murza survived two poisonings. He had been a close ally of Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in 2015 within sight of the Kremlin.
But such reprisals were reserved for only a handful of prominent dissidents, and enacted by anonymous hitmen and undercover agents.
After Putin last week signed into law extending the punishment for treason from 20 years to life, anyone could be eliminated from public life with the stamp of legitimacy from a judge in robes.
“Broach the topic of political repression over a coffee with a foreigner, and that could already be considered treason,” Oleg Orlov, chair of the disbanded rights group Memorial, said outside the courthouse.
Like many, he saw a parallel with Soviet times, when tens of thousands of “enemies of the state” were accused of spying for foreign governments and sent to far-flung labor camps or simply executed, and foreigners were by definition suspect.
Treason as catch-all
Instead of the usual Investigative Committee, treason cases fall under the remit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, making them uniquely secretive.
In court, hearings are held behind closed doors — sheltered from the public and press — and defense lawyers are all but gagged.
But they used to be relatively rare: Between 2009 and 2013, a total of 25 people were tried for espionage or treason, according to Russian court statistics. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, that number fluctuated from a handful to a maximum of 17.
Former defense journalist Ivan Safronov in court, April 2022 | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
Involving academics, Crimean Tatars and military accused of passing on sensitive information to foreign parties, they generally drew little attention.
The jailing of Ivan Safronov — a former defense journalist accused of sharing state secrets with a Czech acquaintance — formed an important exception in 2020. It triggered a massive outcry among his peers and cast a spotlight on the treason law. Apparently, even sharing information gleaned from public sources could result in a conviction.
Combined with an amendment introduced after anti-Kremlin protests in 2012 that labeled any help to a “foreign organization which aimed to undermine Russian security” as treason, it turned the law into a powder keg.
In February 2022, that was set alight.
Angered by the war but too afraid to protest publicly, some Russians sought to support Ukraine in less visible ways such as through donations to aid organizations.
The response was swift: Only three days after Putin announced his special military operation, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office warned it would check “every case of financial or other help” for signs of treason.
Thousands of Russians were plunged into a legal abyss. “I transferred 100 rubles to a Ukrainian NGO. Is this the end?” read a Q&A card shared on social media by the legal aid group Pervy Otdel.
“The current situation is such that this [treason] article will likely be applied more broadly,” warned Senator Andrei Klimov, head of the defense committee of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament.
Inventing traitors
Last summer, the law was revised once more to define defectors as traitors as well.
Ivan Pavlov, who oversees Pervy Otdel from exile after being forced to flee Russia for defending Safronov, estimates some 70 treason cases have already been launched since the start of the war — twice the maximum in pre-war years. And the tempo seems to be picking up.
Regional media headlines reporting arrests for treason are becoming almost commonplace. Sometimes they include high-octane video footage of FSB teams storming people’s homes and securing supposed confessions on camera.
Yet from what can be gleaned about the cases from media leaks, their evidence is shaky.
Instead of the usual Investigative Committee, treason cases fall under the remit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, making them uniquely secretive | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
In December last year, 21-year-old Savely Frolov became the first to be charged with conspiring to defect. Among the reported incriminating evidence is that he attempted to cross into neighboring Georgia with a pair of camouflage trousers in the trunk of his car.
In early April this year, a married couple was arrested in the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil for supposedly collaborating with Ukrainian intelligence. The two worked at a nearby defense plant, but acquaintances cited by independent Russian media Holod deny they had access to secret information.
“It is a reaction to the war: There’s a demand from up top for traitors. And if they can’t find real ones, they’ll make them up, invent them,” said Pavlov.
Although official statistics are only published with a two-year lag time, he has little doubt a flood of guilty verdicts is coming.
“The first and last time a treason suspect was acquitted in Russia was in 1999.”
No sign of slowing
If precedent is anything to go by, Gershkovich will likely eventually be subject to a prisoner swap.
That is what happened with Brittney Griner, a U.S. basketball star jailed for drug smuggling when she entered Russia carrying hashish vape cartridges.
And it is also what happened with the last foreign journalist detained, in 1986 when the American Nicholas Daniloff was supposedly caught “red-handed” spying, like Gershkovich.
Back then, several others were released with him — among them Yury Orlov, a human rights activist sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp for “anti-Soviet activity.”
Some now harbor hope that a deal involving Gershkovich could also help Kara-Murza, who is well-known in Washington circles and suffers from severe health problems.
For ordinary Russians, any glimmers of hope that the traitor push will slow down are even less tangible.
Those POLITICO spoke to say a Soviet-era mass campaign against traitors is unlikely, if only because the Kremlin has a fine line to walk: arrest too many traitors and it risks shattering the image that Russians unanimously support the war.
Some harbor hope that a deal involving Gershkovich could also help Kara-Murza, who is well-known in Washington circles | Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE
And in the era of modern technology, there are easier ways to convey a message to a large audience. “If Stalin had had a television channel, there would’ve likely not been a need for mass repression,” reflected Pavlov.
Yet the repressive state apparatus does seem to have a momentum of its own, as those involved in investigating and prosecuting treason and espionage cases are rewarded with bonuses and promotions.
In a first, the treason case against Kara-Murza was led by the Investigative Committee, opening the door for the FSB to massively increase its work capacity by offloading work on others, says Soldatov.
“If the FSB can’t handle it, the Investigative Committee will jump in.”
In the public sphere, patriotic officials at all levels are clamoring for an even harder line, going so far as to volunteer the names of apparently unpatriotic political rivals and celebrities to be investigated.
There have been calls for “traitors” to be stripped of their citizenship and to reintroduce the death penalty.
And in a telling sign, Kara-Murza’s veteran lawyer Vadim Prokhorov has fled Russia, fearing he might be targeted next.
Аs Orlov, the dissident who was part of the 1986 swap and who went on to become an early critic of Putin, wrote in the early days of Putin’s reign in 2004: “Russia is flying back in time.”
Nearly two decades on, the question in Moscow nowadays is a simple one: how far back?
DENVER (AP) — Fox News’ nearly $800 million settlement of a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit marks the first milestone in a larger legal strategy designed to combat the false claims and conspiracy theories about elections that have rippled through the United States for nearly three years.
Several similar lawsuits are teed up against those who have spread election lies, including another against Fox. The plaintiffs range from a different voting technology company to Georgia election workers who were falsely accused of tampering with the vote count in that state. The defendants include close advisers to former President Donald Trump and a conservative group that funded a film last year alleging widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
“Lies like these, that inflict serious harms on our democracy, have been costless,” said Rachel Goodman, a lawyer with the group Protect Democracy who is representing the Georgia election workers along with plaintiffs in other libel claims against election conspiracists. “This litigation creates accountability and makes clear that there are steep costs to recklessly or intentionally spreading fiction for political or personal profit.”
Yet even if the legal challenges keep generating eye-popping settlements or damage awards, it’s not clear they will change behavior or counter the attacks on democratic institutions.
“I personally do not regard a libel suit to be a good mechanism to deal with the disinformation problem,” said Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota. “I keep coming back to this fear that we’re trying to put a square peg in a round hole here.”
The lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., from Dominion Voting Systems was one of the first defamation claims filed after Trump and his allies spent weeks falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen. One of the initial conspiracy theories they floated was that the Denver-based voting machine company was part of an international cabal that threw the election to Biden.
Dominion sued Trump adviser and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and others who helped spread the false theory. Dominion also sued the right-leaning news networks that repeatedly featured the theory in their coverage — two insurgent, pro-Trump channels, Newsmax and One America News Network, and the nation’s most-watched cable news network, Fox.
The Fox News case has generated the most attention. That’s because the litigation moved faster than others and also because it unearthed a trove of internal documents that showed Fox’s executives and prominent personalities were privately dismissive of Trump’s election claims but aired them anyway. Star hosts such as Tucker Carlson also expressed disdain for Trump in texts with colleagues.
Shortly after a Delaware jury was empaneled to hear the case Tuesday, Fox and Dominion agreed to settle the lawsuit for $787.5 million, which is more than half the profits Fox reported last year.
There is no requirement in the settlement that Fox admit airing inaccurate information. The network itself made a brief reference to “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” but made no apologies or other marks of contrition in its statement. That statement also said: “This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”
Some Fox critics were upset that the settlement didn’t include an admission of wrongdoing from the network.
“What’s most frustrating — it’s downright infuriating — about this outcome is how little accountability it demands from Fox News,” tweeted Andy Kroll, a journalist who wrote a book about conservative conspiracy theories surrounding the 2017 killing of a Democratic National Committee staffer, whose parents sued Fox.
Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania’s former top voting official, in an interview hours after the settlement, recalled crying during her deposition in the Dominion-Fox case when she recounted the death threats she received after the 2020 election. She said those threats spiked after Fox aired segments amplifying false accusations of mass fraud.
Boockvar said she was cheered by the settlement, even if it didn’t include an admission of wrongdoing.
“It would ideally be better to have part of the settlement include admissions of their knowingly broadcasting lies,” Boockvar said. “However, the very substantial amount of this settlement and the strong language from the judge last week speak volumes, and I believe it will help deter future flagrant disregard of the truth of this severity.”
In his ruling allowing the lawsuit to go to trial, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations Fox aired about Dominion were true. Dominion CEO John Poulos said that while the settlement did not require an apology from Fox, the company felt the court system forced accountability on the network.
“For us, it was never really about Fox, per se. It was about telling the truth and the media telling the truth,” Poulos told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “And I think that what was important for us, is for people to be held to account for when they recklessly and knowingly tell lies that have such devastating consequences.”
Justin A. Nelson, Dominion’s lead attorney, said the size of the settlement will matter.
“There’s a long way still to make my client right,” Nelson said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We still have six more suits to go out there. But this was, as I say, just a tremendous victory. And when they’re paying nearly $800 million, three quarters of a billion dollars, that speaks to it.”
Still, Fox has continued to air misleading segments about the 2020 election and the threat to democracy posed by election lies, even as the Dominion case hurtled towards its conclusion. Last month, Carlson aired a segment playing down the severity of the Jan. 6 attack, drawing condemnation even from some Republican senators.
Fox faces more legal peril from a similar defamation claim filed by the voting company Smartmatic, which was briefly conflated with Dominion during the lies spread by Trump’s allies after the 2020 election. Additional lawsuits target other players in the conservative media world: The Georgia election workers filed a claim against Gateway Pundit, a popular right-wing website that has spread numerous conspiracy theories about 2020.
Goodman and Protect Democracy also are representing a Georgia man suing the conservative group True The Vote for including a video image in their film “2000 Mules” that shows the man legally dropping off ballots in 2020. That film falsely alleges widespread fraud by people illegally stuffing drop boxes.
Kirtley, however, noted that some of the other targets may not have the same internal documentation and standards of Fox, which retains a robust stable of reporters and positions itself as a straightforward, objective news organization.
Speaking about some of the other defendants in libel lawsuits, Kirtley said, “They don’t even have the veneer of being a journalistic enterprise.”
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said some fake electors for Donald Trump have implicated each other in potential criminal activity and is seeking to disqualify their lawyer, according to a new court filing.
The district attorney’s office is requesting that attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow be disqualified from representing a group of 10 Republicans who served as electors for the former president in Georgia – a state Trump lost to President Joe Biden. The DA’s office also accused the lawyer of failing to present an immunity deal to her clients last year, according to the filing.
The new filing offers the latest indication that immunity offers could still be in the works months after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested charging decisions were “imminent.”
It notes that investigators interviewed some of the fake GOP electors this month and there is jockeying behind the scenes ahead of the announcement on who, if anyone, will face charges in the long-running probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
“The statement of some of her clients that directly implicate another client in additional crimes shows that Ms. Debrow’s continued participation in this matter is fraught with conflicts of interest that rise to the level of her being disqualified from this case in its entirety,” the district attorney’s office wrote in the filing.
During the April 2023 interviews, “some of the electors stated that another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to these additional acts,” according to the filing.
Amid a fight last year to compel the fake electors to testify, the court instructed two attorneys, including Debrow, to inform their clients with potential immunity deals. The attorneys told the court that they spoke to their clients and none of the clients were interested, according to filing. Now the DA’s office is claiming those offers were never presented to the clients.
“Additionally, in these interviews, some of the electors represented by Ms. Debrow told members of the investigation team that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought to them in 2022,” the filing states.
Debrow slammed the latest motion in a statement.
“The DA’s Motion is baseless, false, and offensive,” Debrow said. “None of my clients have committed any crimes, and they necessarily have not implicated themselves or each other in any crimes.”
No one has been charged yet in the Georgia case, though several people – including the 16 fake electors and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – were informed they were potential targets of Willis’s probe.
A special grand jury investigating the matter concluded its work late last year and recommended more than a dozen people should face charges, the foreperson for the panel said in interviews.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Three officials at the Fulton County, Georgia, jail have stepped down amid an investigation into the death of an inmate whose family said was housed in a filthy, bug-infested cell that “was not fit for a diseased animal.”
The Fulton County Jail’s chief jailer and two assistant chief jailers submitted their resignations at the request of Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat during an executive staff meeting over the weekend, a statement from the sheriff’s office said without naming them.
“It’s clear to me that it’s time, past time, to clean house,” Labat said in the Monday statement announcing “sweeping changes” at the facility.
The resignations come as the family of Lashawn Thompson demands a criminal investigation into his September 2022 death at the jail in Atlanta and for a new facility to be built.
Thompson’s family said his death was the result of unsanitary conditions at the jail and complications from insect bites. “The cell he was in was not fit for a diseased animal. This is inexcusable and it’s deplorable,” family attorney Michael Harper said at a news conference last week while holding photos that purportedly showed the conditions of Thompson’s jail cell.
“The manner and cause of death was listed as ‘undetermined’ by the county medical examiner. A full investigation was launched into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death,” the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday.
Due to health privacy regulations, the sheriff’s office couldn’t share any information about Thompson’s health condition when he was arrested, “or what decisions he made regarding his right to accept or refuse medical care,” the statement said.
Labat asked for the jail officials’ resignations after reviewing preliminary evidence gathered during the internal investigation, he said in the Monday statement.
“Collectively, the executive team that’s been in place has more than 65 years of jail administration and law enforcement experience. When leveraged at its very best, that experience can be invaluable. However, it can also lend itself to complacency, stagnation & settling for the status quo,” the statement read.
Additionally, the sheriff’s office is “reviewing all legal options to change medical vendors and enter into a new contract with a provider that can effectively, consistently and compassionately deliver the best standard of care,” the statement said.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office said “several immediate actions” had already been taken, including a $500,000 emergency expense “to address the infestation of bed bugs, lice and other vermin” within the jail. A process to transfer more than 600 inmates to other counties “in an effort to help relieve overcrowding, at an average cost of approximately $40K/day,” had also begun, the sheriff’s office said.
Thompson had been at the jail for about three months prior to his death and was housed in the psychiatric wing because he suffered from mental health issues, Harper, the family attorney said. He was being held on a misdemeanor assault charge.
The 35-year-old was born in Winter Haven, Florida, and had been living in Atlanta off and on in recent years, his brother, Brad McCrae, said at the news conference. Thompson loved listening to music and cooking, McCrae said.
When asked by a reporter what he thought when he saw images of his brother’s body and the conditions of his cell, McCrae said, “It was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. Nobody should see that. But the first thing that entered my mind was Emmett Till.”
The internal Office of Professional Standards investigation and one being conducted by the Atlanta Police Department, which was the responding agency, are underway, the sheriff’s office said Monday. “Once those investigations are completed, the full investigative package will be handed over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations for review,” the statement read.
“The final investigative report will not ease the family’s grief or bring their loved one back, but it is my hope and expectation that it provides a full, accurate and transparent account of the facts surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death so that it provides all of the answers they are seeking and deserve,” Labat said in the statement.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has a message for his fellow Republicans looking to win back the White House: “We cannot get distracted.”
“We have to tell people, No. 1, what we’re for. No. 2, that we’re going to be focused on the future and what we’re going to do for the voters in our state or the American people. And then, No. 3, we have to do a simple thing: We have to win,” Kemp told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Trump, currently seen as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has repeatedly argued since leaving office that Republicans cannot succeed – either at the ballot box or legislatively – if they turn a blind eye to the past. But candidates who backed his false election claims did poorly in the midterm elections last fall in key swing states Trump will need to win back the White House in 2024.
“I can’t control what the judicial branch is doing or what a local prosecutor is doing in many ways, but what we can control … is what we’re focused on,” Kemp said Sunday.
“If we get distracted and talk about other things that the Democrats want to talk about, like these investigations – regardless of what you think about the politics of those – if we get distracted every day and let the media just talk about that, that only helps Joe Biden,” he added. “It does not give us a path for Republicans to win.”
Asked by Tapper if Trump was unelectable nationwide, Kemp demurred.
“That’s for the people to decide,” he said.
Tension between Trump and Kemp has been simmering for years. When Kemp refused to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia, Trump made the governor his No. 1 enemy, publicly railing against him throughout 2021 and recruiting former US Sen. David Perdue to challenge Kemp in a GOP primary. Through it all, Trump failed to draw Kemp into a fight, and the governor won his 2022 primary overwhelmingly before handily defeating Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams in the November general election.
Kemp said Sunday that Republicans will need to draw a distinction with what he referred to as “the disaster of the Biden administration” to win next year, pointing to border security, high inflation and energy policy.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of good candidates that, if they focus on those things, we have got a great chance of winning the White House in 2024,” the governor said.
A large fire which erupted at a plastics plant in Brunswick, Georgia, on Saturday prompted officials to issue a shelter-in-place order for the entire city.
In a news conference Saturday evening, Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson said that along with the shelter-in-place order, all residents within a half-mile of the Pinova plant were under a voluntary evacuation order.
“As you can see, the wind continues to change, direction continues to change, and we want every part of our citizenry to be safe,” Johnson said.
Laurence Cargile, assistant chief for the Brunswick Fire Department, told reporters that the flames were “contained” and “under control.”
A fire burns at a plastics plant in Brunswick, Georgia. April 15, 2023.
Myra Perkins/Storyful
At the height of the fire, cell phone video showed a massive black cloud of smoke billowing hundreds of feet into the air above the city. There was no report of any injuries.
Cargile explained that a fire had initially sparked on Saturday morning. It was extinguished, but then it “rekindled” in the afternoon.
The Pinova plant, which is operated by Pinova Solutions, manufactures rosin and polyterpene resins, according to the company’s website.
The fire department for the city of Jacksonville, Florida, was one of several agencies from across the region who dispatched personnel to assist in combatting the blaze, Johnson said.
Brunswick, in southeast Georgia, is located about 70 miles north of Jacksonville. The Glynn County Board of Commissioners said that, along with crews, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department also sent aircraft and helicopters.
“We appreciate Jacksonville bringing their expertise as well,” Johnson said.
There was still no word on the cause of the fire.
“At this time, there is no known origin,” Cargile said.
An evacuation order has been issued for those within a half-mile radius of a plant fire that reignited Saturday afternoon in Brunswick, Georgia, according to the Glynn County Board of Commissioners.
The fire at the plant, which delivers specialty rosin and polyterpene resins, initially broke out Saturday morning, with the board saying on Facebook nearly three hours later that it had been contained and there was no immediate concern for public safety.
Later Saturday, the board said in another Facebook post that the fire had reignited and issued a shelter-in-place order for a one-mile radius around the plant. The post added that personnel from Jacksonville Fire Department in Florida had arrived to assist.
Nearby roads will be closed for a period Saturday night while air drops are conducted at the site, Glynn County officials said on Facebook, adding that “planes and choppers” are on their way to the fire.
Kimberly Michele Edmond, who was advised to shelter in place, told CNN the fire was still burning around 5 p.m. ET and that she could smell it from her mother’s house about a mile away. Edmond said she felt a bit lightheaded when she went outside, but didn’t describe the smell in the air as especially bad.
Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Glynn County.
Without naming Trump, Kemp’ said at a private Republican National Committee donor retreat in Nashville that “not a single swing voter in a single swing state will vote for our nominee if they choose to talk about the 2020 election being stolen.”
“To voters trying to pay their rent … make their car payment … or put their kids through college … 2020 is ancient history,” Kemp said, according to his prepared remarks, which were obtained by CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Trump, who announced his reelection campaign last fall, has repeatedly argued since leaving office that Republicans cannot have a successful future – either at the ballot box or legislatively – if they turn a blind eye to the past.
Tension between Trump and Kemp has been simmering for years. When Kemp refused to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia, Trump made the governor his No. 1 enemy, publicly railing against him throughout 2021 and recruiting former US Sen. David Perdue to challenge Kemp in a GOP primary. Through it all, Trump failed to draw Kemp into a fight, and the governor won his 2022 primary overwhelmingly before handily defeating Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams in the November general election.
Also in the midterm elections, candidates who backed Trump’s false election claims did poorly in key swing states the former president will need to win back the White House in 2024.
Further complicating Trump’s bid is a cloud of legal woes. In New York, a hush money payment to an adult-film star shortly before the 2016 election has resulted in his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in the scheme – the first time in American history that a current or former president faces criminal charges.
Kemp made direct mention of these investigations Saturday, according to his prepared remarks, calling the probes distractions that could take the Republican Party off course and away from issues voters care about.
“Being distracted by what is happening at the Manhattan and Fulton County district attorney offices is not going to win us back the White House in 2024,” Kemp said. “The media and Democrats would love nothing more than for us to talk about this from sun-up to sundown until next November.”
“But here’s the truth: Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg’s investigations into allegations of the past don’t help hardworking Americans battling high grocery prices, growing pain at the gas pump or violent crime plaguing their neighborhoods,” he continued, referring to the district attorneys of Fulton County, Georgia, and Manhattan respectively.
“In fact, the person they help the most is Joe Biden.”
