Breakdown Podcast

‘Breakdown’ Episode 6: One for the History Books

How do you indict a president? Despite criminal investigations, it’s never been done.
How do you indict a president? It's never happened before. The sixth episode of the AJC's Breakdown podcast looks back at past criminal cases involving presidents and vice presidents, including Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. Can these cases tell us anything about what's ahead for the Fulton special purpose grand jury investigation of former President Donald Trump? (AP file)
How do you indict a president? It's never happened before. The sixth episode of the AJC's Breakdown podcast looks back at past criminal cases involving presidents and vice presidents, including Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. Can these cases tell us anything about what's ahead for the Fulton special purpose grand jury investigation of former President Donald Trump? (AP file)
July 25, 2022

One sitting president was placed under arrest for speeding. Two former presidents came extremely close to being indicted, one from an investigation arising from the Watergate scandal, the other from the Whitewater controversy.

The sixth episode of “The Trump Grand Jury,” the ninth season of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast, examines past criminal cases involving presidents and vice presidents.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is overseeing the special purpose grand jury investigation of former President Donald Trump and his allies for what happened here following the 2020 presidential election. But she does not have much of a playbook to follow because no president or former president has ever been indicted.

In Episode 6 — “One for the History Books” — Breakdown looks at cases involving Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton as well as the criminal prosecutions of Vice Presidents Aaron Burr and Spiro Agnew.

The episode also recaps a busy week of developments in the grand jury investigation. This includes the outcomes of subpoenas being issued to Trump’s former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

There are also challenges to subpoenas being raised by most of the 16 “alternate” presidential electors who met in secret to cast Electoral College votes for Trump in December 2020.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

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