0:00

It's worth knowing what's really

0:02

going on. This

0:05

is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

0:11

Previously on Breakdown. I

0:14

think it's a really well written argument.

0:17

The issue I have with it is

0:19

the defendants were not urging the

0:21

legislators to pass legislation. They were

0:23

urging the legislators to take certain

0:26

acts that as

0:28

alleged, you know, would violate the law. I

0:30

try felony cases. I

0:33

never, I never thought about apology letters.

0:35

It always seems like juvenile court stuff.

0:38

When we left you before Thanksgiving, we

0:40

mentioned that Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee

0:43

had scheduled a hearing about Harrison Floyd.

0:46

Floyd you may remember, is the former head

0:48

of Black Voices for Trump. He's

0:50

charged with three felony counts stemming from

0:52

his alleged role in the harassment of

0:55

poll worker Ruby Freeman. Fulton

0:57

DA Fannie Willis was asking for Judge McAfee

0:59

to revoke Floyd's bond and to put him

1:02

back in jail. She cited

1:04

comments Floyd made on social media

1:06

and on several conservative podcasts. Remarks

1:09

she said amounted to witness intimidation.

1:12

The hearing was held two days before Thanksgiving.

1:14

And let me tell you, it was a

1:16

doozy. Before it even

1:18

began, Floyd's lawyers accused the DA's office

1:20

of retaliating because Floyd had turned down

1:22

an offer of a plea deal. But

1:25

we'll get into all of that after the break. This

1:28

is episode 19. Walking

1:30

the line of season 10 of

1:32

Breakdown, the Trump indictment from the

1:34

Atlanta Journal Constitution. Hip

1:37

hop is a product of black people. It's

1:39

a product of black song and

1:41

celebration. The Atlanta Journal Constitution presents

1:43

hip hop's most pulled elements are

1:46

pulled from the south. A southern

1:48

hip hop story. We always go back to that moment

1:50

of the Source Awards. Everybody

1:53

wants a rhythm. They don't want to bloom. The biggest

1:55

names in hip hop. Atlanta is still the

1:57

mecca for hip hop. 50 years. No

1:59

one. can deny one bill. The power

2:01

of the South now. The South. Got

2:03

something to say. Streaming now

2:06

at ajc.com/Hip Hop. Right

2:08

now get three months of unlimited digital

2:11

access to the AJC for just 99

2:13

cents. That's three months of politics, sports,

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investigations and more for less than a

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buck. It's our best offer of the

2:19

year and it's only for a limited

2:22

time. Go to ajc.com/start so you always

2:24

know what's really going on. Welcome

2:28

back to Breakdown, the podcast

2:30

by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering

2:32

Georgia's most important cases. I'm

2:35

Tamar Hallerman, a senior reporter at the

2:37

AJC. And I'm Shannon McCaffrey,

2:39

a senior editor at the AJC. Bill

2:42

Rankin is out this week so instead we're

2:44

bringing in our colleague David Wickert who is

2:46

covering the Trump case with us. Welcome

2:49

David. Good to be here. David, you

2:51

are in Judge McAfee's courtroom for this

2:53

very dramatic hearing. Can you describe the

2:55

atmosphere and was it different from other

2:57

hearings you've covered in the case? Well

3:00

there was a lot of anticipation for

3:02

this hearing. Besides

3:04

Donald Trump, Harrison Floyd is probably

3:06

the most combative defendant in this

3:09

case and some of his

3:11

behavior is what landed him in this hearing. Unlike

3:14

some of the other hearings, the defendant

3:16

was present because Judge McAfee ordered him

3:19

to be there and

3:21

I wondered what Floyd would do

3:23

or say. And he was an

3:25

interesting presence in court. He was

3:27

mostly quiet but he wore a

3:29

green jacket, not a more conservative

3:31

dark suit which you might expect

3:33

in court. And he carried a

3:36

copy of a book, How to

3:38

Think Like a Roman Emperor, a

3:40

Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. I

3:43

guess eccentric is the word that comes to mind

3:45

when I when I think of him. The

3:48

other interesting presence in the hearing was

3:51

Willis. This was my first chance to

3:53

see her up close and

3:55

she made quite an impression through

3:57

her sometimes fiery presentation. Tamar,

4:00

how notable was it to you to

4:02

see Fonnie Willis appear in this hearing?

4:05

Very notable, Shannon. While, of course, she's

4:07

the face of this investigation, we haven't really

4:09

seen her in court much at all.

4:12

This is really the first time we've seen her

4:14

argue or interview any witnesses. She's

4:16

appeared time to time, most notably, of

4:19

course, when the indictment was announced. I remember

4:21

her going before Judge McBurney after the special

4:23

grand jury finished its final

4:25

report where she talked about how indictment decisions

4:27

were imminent. But it was pretty

4:30

notable to see her kind

4:33

of argue in front of a judge. As

4:35

David mentioned, she was fiery, at

4:38

times very combative during this hearing.

4:41

Of course, she's known for her

4:43

skills as a trial lawyer, for

4:46

being very compelling in front of a judge and,

4:48

of course, later a jury. It

4:50

was notable to be able to see her

4:52

in action in this

4:54

hearing. It makes us wonder if she'll

4:57

begin playing a more prominent role in

4:59

future hearings, especially as