Former US President Donald Trump is likely to be arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday for allegedly conspiring with 18 co-defendants in a bid to overturn the 2020 election result in the southern state.
The 77-year-old is likely to be arrested at the notorious Fulton County Jail.
Divided party
The arrest will come just hours after he skipped a party primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, featuring eight of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Trump, however, still featured heavily in the debate with several questions relating to him or his policies, which showed that the Republican party remains deeply divided over him.
However, Trump did make a media appearance, a recorded interview with former television talk show host Tucker Carlson, where he said it did not make sense to debate rivals he led by "50 to 60 points" in the polls.
"Do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it's going to be, and get harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president?" he said.
Trump also dismissed the four criminal indictments filed against him as "nonsense" and said the Justice Department had been "weaponized" under Democratic President Joe Biden to hamstring his White House bid.
This is not the first arrest he has faced this year. Earlier, he was arrested in New York on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, in Florida for mishandling top secret government documents, and in Washington on charges of conspiring to upend his 2020 election loss.
Trump's arrest will come a day after the arrest of his lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Also facing charges in Georgia are Mark Meadows, Trump's White House chief of staff, and John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who is accused of drawing up a scheme to submit a false slate of Trump electors to Congress from Georgia instead of the legitimate Biden ones.
Four criminal trials
Trump is facing four criminal trials next year right in the middle of peak Republican primary season, which begins in January, and at the height of the campaign for the November 2024 presidential vote.
Special counsel Jack Smith has proposed a January 2024 start date for Trump's trial in Washington on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, a campaign of lies that culminated in his supporters' January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Trump's attorneys have countered with an April 2026 start date -- well after the 2024 election.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan is to hold a hearing on Monday, during which she is expected to set a date for the first-ever criminal trial of a former president.
Fulton County district attorney has sought a March 2024 date for the racketeering case. In the same month, Trump is due to go on trial in New York on charges of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May for allegedly taking government documents as he left the White House and refusing to return them.