Donald Trump to turn himself in at Fulton county jail | First Thing

Former president had lawyers negotiate booking to take place during prime viewing hours on Thursday to get maximum TV ratings. Plus, could the vagus nerve be the key to depression, obesity, alcoholism - and more?

Good morning.

Donald Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail tomorrow evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Why isn't Trump taking part in tonight's Republican primary debate? The decision to spurn the debate in favor of a pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson solves the political question of how to inflict damage on the 2024 field, but it also eliminates concerns his remarks in the high-profile event could increase his legal exposure, Hugo Lowell writes.

Have any of the other co-defendants turned themselves in? The first two defendants in the Georgia election subversion case have been booked in the Fulton county jail. Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area bail bondsman, was booked at the Rice Street jail on Tuesday. John Eastman, a Trump attorney and allegedly one of the main people behind Trump's plan to halt the certification of Biden's victory, also voluntarily turned himself in later yesterday morning.

What else is happening? Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, has asked a federal court to block his arrest in an emergency motion, according to court documents filed yesterday. Meadows has requested the case be moved to federal court, saying the charges concern his actions as an officer of the federal government.

What else did he say? By his own admission, he sexually abused or harassed seven teenagers between about 1966 and 1979. Reports of his misconduct led to the 1988 conversation with the city's archbishop at the time, the late Philip Hannan, to whom he promised to never be in any such circumstances" again.

What happened after the 1988 conversation? Hecker continued working. It wasn't until 1999 that persisting reports against Hecker prompted the archdiocese to send him to an out-of-state psychiatric treatment facility which diagnosed him as a pedophile. The facility recommended that the archdiocese prohibit Hecker from working with minors or other particularly vulnerable" people, according to a secret personnel file obtained by the Guardian and shared with WWL-TV. However, even then, Hecker did not stop working. In 2000, he was assigned to a church with an elementary school attached to it.