WABE's Week In Review: Georgia's outsize role in Jan. 6 hearings as upcoming runoffs test Trump's sway
On Thursday, world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, selected Atlanta as one of the cities to host 2026 World Cup matches.
Breaking…The World Cup is coming to Atlanta in 2026.
— Emil Moffatt (@EmilMoffatt) June 16, 2022
The city was selected today as one of the host cities for the 48-team tournament to be played four years from now. It’s the first time World Cup games will be played in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/1QYTJRWqrg
Georgia on their mind…
This coming Tuesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his Chief Operating Officer Gabe Sterling are set to testify at the Jan. 6 hearings in Washington D.C.
Georgia Front & Center For 1/6 Hearings Next Week
— Rahul Bali (@rahulbali) June 17, 2022
WABE has learned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and @GaSecofState COO Gabe Sterling will appear Tuesday in front of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. #gapol pic.twitter.com/TrkffWTyzi
It follows testimony from former U.S. Attorney in Georgia BJay Pak, who said he tried to debunk President Donald Trump’s false election claims.
After the election, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr asked Pak to investigate a claim being spread by Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who claimed video footage showed a “suitcase full of ballots” being brought into State Farm Arena in Atlanta, where votes were being counted.
“Nothing irregular happened in the counting and the allegations made by Mr. Giuliani were false,” said Pak, whose investigators determined it was an official ballot lockbox.
Pak said he reported back to Barr, who relayed the findings to Trump. The former president refused to accept the findings. Last year, Pak told a Senate panel that he resigned after learning Trump planned to fire him.
Last week, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified about the violence of the rioters on Jan. 6. Edwards is a Georgia native and University of Georgia graduate.
“There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up,” said Edwards on June 10. “I was slipping in people’s blood. It was carnage, it was chaos.”
Another test of Trump’s influence in Georgia…
No Trump-endorsed candidates in the May primary elections in Georgia defeated a statewide Republican incumbent. Trump had targeted several GOP incumbents, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger, who refused Trump’s requests to overturn the election in the state. But there are other races in Tuesday’s runoff election that feature a Trump-backed GOP candidate against another Republican.
Editor @capelouto is on a much-deserved vacation, so we've invited some special guests to join Georgia Votes in June.
— Sam Gringlas (@gringsam) June 17, 2022
First: @jazwriteswords who's reporting on how rare it is to have two Black nominees for Senate.@rahulbali @Emma_Hurt @wabenews https://t.co/HJ3fSibHa0
Also in this episode…
–Martha Dalton reports on Atlanta school districts bracing for the end of a universal free meal program.
—Emily Wu Pearson has more on the increase in electronic monitoring of immigrants who are awaiting their immigration cases.
—Molly Samuel looks at a controversial study that claims monarch butterflies are not in as much trouble as previously thought.
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