There are many criminal investigations surrounding Donald Trump. Atlanta might be the closest to completion.
Fulton County's district attorney launched her investigation after Trump made a call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to reverse Trump's electoral loss.
The district attorney's investigation expanded to include Trump's allies who plotted to hand Trump a second term, according to court documents.
The investigation is moving forward. Over the past year, she empaneled a grand jury and fought court battles to get testimony from Gov. Brian Kemp, the state's Republican Party chairman, and more than a dozen others who spoke with Trump at the time. MarkMeadows and Newt Gingrich are two high-profile witnesses who have their cases before appeals courts.
The fake electors could be charged with election fraud, improper trying to influence government officials, and criminal solicitation.
Most of the main players in Trump's plan to overturn election results in Georgia have testified. The fake-elector scheme has been the subject of negotiations between her office and participants.
She might bring indictments soon.
A high-profile, lawyered-up person like Trump will know an indictment is imminent.
The case is currently being heard by a special grand jury. Ronald L Carlson is a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Carlson said that a regular grand jury would move quickly since it would have all the evidence gathered by the special grand jury.
The regular grand jury will have a transcript from the testimony of many witnesses who have already testified to the special grand jury. The witnesses include the Georgia secretary of state, the Georgia governor, Senator Lindsey Graham, and others.
The Fulton County district attorney's office would usually file an indictment in court under seal. Carlson said they would let Trump's lawyers know it was filed and give him a chance to turn himself in.
According to a criminal-defense lawyer in New York, the prosecutor's office might give Trump a few days to get to Georgia. There is no immediate risk of Trump trying to overturn election results again.
They're not going to be very flexible if you have a crime of violence. In a case like this, they will be flexible. They would be too flexible. They might give him a week to arrive.
Trump could be arrested if he doesn't surrender. He would have to travel to Atlanta from his home in Mar-a-Lago.
If he's charged with a felony in the US, he can be arrested and extradited to his home country.
The governor of Florida doesn't have the power to stop the deportation. The process to extradite someone is explained in the US Constitution and federal law.
Carlson told Insider that the president can't escape justice if he's indicted on a felony charge.
The deputy sheriff's office in Atlanta is most likely to ask the Palm Beach sheriff's office to execute an arrest. Secret Service agents are unlikely to be involved in the arrest process, as Insider previously reported.
Though Trump has derided the investigation into his activities as politically motivated, he wouldn't be able to fight an arrest and extradited.
"That kind of politics will not fly," he said. He won't play those games if the court allows for the execution of an arrest.
When Trump arrives at the courthouse in Atlanta, he would have an initial hearing in which a judge would set the conditions of his release.
He could be kept in custody by the Fulton County district attorney's office.
According to Carlson, the risk of Trump fleeing the US is remote.
It's a high-profile figure. He won't be able to disappear into the beaches of Thailand. The risk of flight is not a problem here.
His passport may be taken away by the judge to keep him from fleeing. It doesn't mean much in practical terms.
He will have to check in with the courts if he ever wants to go anywhere, and the courts can grant him permission to go.
Carlson said that one option would be to waive his appearance and allow his lawyers to represent him.
If Trump doesn't plead guilty, the case would go to trial.
The schedule is expected to be full. He has other legal cases to worry about as he runs for president.
A trial for a lawsuit from a group of people who accused him of selling a multilevel-marketing scam is expected to start in the early years of the next century. The New York attorney general's office is investigating him over his business practices.
The Manhattan district attorney's office is one of the criminal investigations.
When the Justice Department plans to bring an indictment against a high-profile figure, US attorneys have an obligation to give the higher-ups in Washington, DC, a heads-up.
Individual district attorneys don't have to work for the government. Carlson said that the US Attorney General would probably get some notice. Jack Smith was appointed by Garland to investigate the fake-elector scheme and Trump's possession of government documents.
It doesn't mean that he has to defer to the DOJ. If the Manhattan district attorney's office brought an indictment against Trump because of his company's finances, the case would still move forward.
Carlson said that the Georgia authorities don't have to wait to see what comes out of the Mar-a-Lago search.
The judges overseeing each case would have to do a multi-jurisdictional dance to make sure Trump has enough time to defend himself. Carlson pointed out that the Georgia case is particularly potent because of how strong the evidence is and how reliable the witnesses are.
Carlson said that no recordings of former President Trump trying to persuade officials to take certain actions have been found in any of the other investigations. Georgia's secretary of state is responsible for that. He was the one who recorded the phone call that asked Brad to find 11,780 new votes.
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