A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News. Delivered to your inbox on Fridays.
Leading the week
The grand jury in the special counsel investigation into January 6 and attempts to overturn the election could meet on Tuesday (August 2) or Thursday (August 4) to vote on indicting former President Donald Trump. Two weeks ago, Trump received a target letter alerting him he is likely to be indicted, but no charges have been announced. Trump lawyers met with the special counsel’s office while the grand jury convened yesterday, sparking rumors that an indictment could be imminent.
Monday (July 31) also marks the beginning of a three-week period in which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis instructed staff to work from home due to security concerns, prompting speculation that indictments in that case could be returned in early August. The Fulton grand jury is deciding whether to charge Trump and his allies with attempting to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia after a seven-month-long special grand jury investigation.
In more legal woes for the former president, Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira is arraigned in Miami on Monday (July 31) after being charged in the special counsel’s classified documents case. De Oliveira is accused of conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly moving boxes, attempting to destroy audio records and documents, and making false statements. The grand jury in Miami handed down the new superseding indictment last night, naming De Oliveira as a defendant alongside Trump and his aide Walt Nauta.
It’s a big week for courts across the country, with high profile hearings in Idaho and New York as well as Florida and DC. Lori Vallow is sentenced in Fremont County on Monday (July 31) after she was found guilty of murdering her children, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her husband’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell. The so-called Doomsday Cult Mom is facing 10 years to life in prison. JJ and Tylee went missing in September 2019 in a case that captivated the country; their remains were found buried in Vallow’s husband’s backyard in June 2020. Chad Daybell faces a separate trial for their murders next year.
On the other side of the country, suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann appears in court on Tuesday (August 1) in Long Island. Heuermann is charged with the murders of three of the ‘Gilgo Four’, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found wrapped in burlap near Gilgo beach in December 2010. Authorities found 279 weapons in a basement vault in Heuermann’s home this week as the search continues for connections to at least eight other women whose remains were found in the same area.
Looking abroad
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is back in court on Friday (August 4) to hear the verdict in his latest trial, in which he’s accused of creating an extremist community and using his NGO to incite people to commit crimes. Prosecutors have asked for a 20-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony if Navalny is found guilty, and 10 for his co-defendant Daniel Kholodny. Navalny is already serving over a decade in prison after being convicted of fraud last year and has spent much of the time in solitary confinement. He maintains that all charges against him are politically motivated, accusing the Russian courts of being governed by ‘bargaining, power, bribery, deception, treachery…and not law.’
Thailand’s political crisis continues into next week as the National Assembly attempts to select a prime minister following a surprise victory for progressive parties in the May 13 election. The assembly rejected Move Forward’s leader Pita Limjaroenrat at its first sitting in June, after conservative senators refused to support him over plans to amend the country’s strict lese-majeste law. At a second sitting last week, Pita was blocked from standing after legislators said his renomination broke parliamentary rules against a failed motion being brought back before the same session. His supporters argue that the convention doesn’t apply to selecting a prime minister, and have asked the Constitutional Court to rule that barring Pita was unconstitutional. The court will hear those petitions on Thursday (August 3), potentially clearing the way for a third vote in the assembly on Friday (August 4) if a ruling is issued.
The constitutional drama comes ahead of the planned return of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on August 10 after more than 15 years in self-imposed exile. Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, remains a figurehead of the Pheu Thai party, which is poised to nominate its own candidate for prime minister – with Shinawatra’s daughter Paetongtarn among the frontrunners for the nod. A Pheu Thai prime minister would be at odds with the country’s police, who have threatened to meet Shinawatra at the airport on his return to carry out long-standing arrest warrants for the corruption charges that have kept him out of the country.