August 16, 2023 - Your Daily Digest

DA Willis turns up the heat, latest updates on Ukraine, and more

Today is August 16, 2023 and here are three key stories that you may have missed today. If you enjoy these daily digests, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber to support my work and for more exclusive content.

1) DA Fani Willis Turns up the Heat on Trump

Today, in a filing submitted to a Georgia court, District Attorney Fani Willis has proposed an expedited schedule for Donald Trump’s RICO case. Willis asked the court to schedule arraignments for Trump and his 18 co-defendants for September 5, 2023 and to schedule the trial for March 4, 2024, less than seven months away. As you may know, Special Counsel Jack Smith has proposed a trial date in early January 2024 in the January 6th case, and Trump is currently scheduled to go to trial in New York in March 2024. It is looking increasingly likely that Donald Trump goes to trial at least once sometime next year, well before the 2024 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Trump and his co-defendants have until next Friday, August 25, 2023, to surrender to Georgia authorities. The Fulton County Sheriff has stated that Trump and his co-defendants will have to surrender to the Rice City jail in Fulton County where they will be booked, have their mugshot taken, and be fingerprinted.

2) Latest on Ukraine

Russia has continued to target critical grain infrastructure near the southern port city of Odessa. Meanwhile, Lithuania has shuttered two of its six border posts with Belarus. This comes as the threat of a potential Wagner incursion into Lithuania or other Eastern European countries is growing. Regarding Wagner, the Wagner mercenary group has registered as an educational organization in Belarus. The group, according to documents filed with the Belrusian Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, declared its only activity to be educational. Finally, the European Union transferred funds that were originally earmarked for Russia and Belarus to Ukraine and Moldova. The funds, totaling over $147 million will aide the countries’ militaries and economies.

3) Blinken Speaks with Paul Whelan

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke, by phone, with wrongfully detained America Paul Whelan. Whelan is currently serving prison time in a remote prison came in Russia. According to sources familiar with the call, the two had a frank conversation and Blinken told Whelan that the United States is doing everything it can to bring him home and to keep the faith. This is the first report of contact between the Secretary of State and Whelan and comes as relations between Russia and the United States are at their lowest point since the Cold War.