Edition · January 24, 2023

Trump’s Georgia and New York headaches both got worse

A Fulton County prosecutor said charges in the Georgia election probe were imminent, while Trump quietly abandoned another losing fight against Letitia James after a judge had already called his tactics frivolous.

January 24, 2023, was one of those days when Trump-world’s legal strategy looked less like a strategy than a trail of bad receipts. In Atlanta, the Fulton County district attorney signaled that indictments in the 2020-election investigation could be coming soon. In New York, Trump dropped yet another lawsuit aimed at slowing Letitia James’s fraud probe after an earlier court beating made the case look even more like a tantrum than a defense.

Closing take

The day’s common thread was simple: Trump kept finding ways to turn separate legal problems into one broader story about recklessness, delay, and self-inflicted damage. Georgia was moving toward a charging decision. New York was watching him run out of runway. Neither of those is the kind of momentum a former president wants on the same calendar date.

Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

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Trump Ends Appeal in Fight With New York Attorney General

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James agreed on Jan. 24, 2023, to end Trump’s appeal of an earlier federal court dismissal. The move came days after Trump separately withdrew another lawsuit against James in Florida, but it did not change James’s fraud case.

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