This week on the gray area, will our institutions keep working in 2024 and beyond?

I don't think this election itself is the end of American democracy, like it spells the formal abolition of it.

I do think it is the beginning of the greatest test American democracy has seen since the Civil War.

Listen to the gray area with me, Sean Elling. New episodes every Monday, available everywhere.

Hey, everyone, Ellie here, wishing you a happy Friday. Well, this week we're going to check in on the Fulton

County District Attorney's case against Donald Trump down in Georgia. We've talked about this

every handful of months over the last really three years. Of course, there's big new developments.

I think, and I make the argument here, that the focus has been a little bit misplaced. I'm not so

much interested in. Was there a

romantic relationship between the DA and this outside prosecutor? I'm more interested in the

mechanics of this. What does this mean? Really, regardless of whether there was a romantic

relationship or some other relationship. As you'll see, I think this is a very serious issue and

we've got some real problems down there. But always interested to hear what you all think. Love to hear your

feedback. So send me your thoughts, questions, comments to letters at cafe.com.

For over a year now, Fulton County District Attorney Fonney Willis has quietly but surely been guiding her prosecution of former President Donald Trump right towards the shoals.

These past few weeks, the wind has picked up. Willis has unfurled the sales, and now she threatens to run the whole case aground. It's already ugly down in Georgia, and it's about to get worse.

The DA's racketeering indictment landed in August 2023 to wild fanfare.

Willis hailed her own case as the salvation of democracy itself.

One media outlet gushed in an op-ed about the DA's, quote,

ingenious prosecutorial tactics,

while another hyperventilated overquote Fannie Willis's Grand Slam indictment.

Turns out it's easier for a prosecutor to write the check than to cash it.

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