Closing summary
All of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election meddling case have now turned themselves in to authorities in Fulton county, with all but one being released on bond. Five have already asked to have their cases moved to federal court, which will give them more options to defend against allegations they plotted to prevent Joe Biden from getting the swing state’s crucial electoral votes.
Here’s what else happened today:
What does Biden think of Trump’s mug shot? “Handsome guy”, the president quipped.
Harrison Floyd, the lone jailed co-defendant in the Georgia election meddling case, will remain behind bars, a judge ruled.
See the mug shots for five of the defendants who reported to the Fulton county jail today.
Trump’s legal team is resisting Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’s proposal to start trials in the Georgia case on 23 October.
Republican president candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has described himself as an “outsider”, but in fact has ties to prominent figures in both parties.
Crowds will converge in Washington DC on Saturday for a rally to commemorate 60 years since the March on Washington, and the Associated Press reports that on Monday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will mark the anniversary by meeting with organizers of the original gathering, one of the pivotal moments in the civil rights movement.
From the AP’s report:
The Oval Office meeting will be held six decades after President John F. Kennedy and King met at the White House on the morning of the march on Aug. 28, 1963. All of King’s children have been invited to meet with Biden, White House officials said.
Biden also will speak later Monday at a White House reception commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that was established at Kennedy’s request to help advocate for racial justice.
Two White House officials provided details of the Democratic president and vice president’s plans on the condition of anonymity because their schedules have not been officially announced.
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice demonstrations in U.S. history.
The nonviolent protest attracted as many as 250,000 people to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and provided the momentum for passage by Congress of landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation in the years that followed. King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Black civil right leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies will gather in Washington to mark six decades since the first march. Biden will be flying back to Washington on Saturday after a week of vacation with his family in California’s Lake Tahoe region.
This year’s commemoration comes at a difficult moment in U.S. history following the erosion of voting rights nationwide and the recent striking down of affirmative action in college admissions and abortion rights by the Supreme Court and amid growing threats of political violence and hatred against people of color, Jews and LGBTQ people.
