By Eli Okun

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded information from Fulton County, Ga., DA Fani Willis. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

GEORGIA ON MY MIND — With the GOP presidential debate over, all political eyes are on Fulton County, Ga., where DONALD TRUMP is expected to surrender on criminal charges later today — and we’ll get a mugshot worth a thousand words (or T-shirts).

Never one to avoid some last-minute drama, Trump has shaken up his legal team in Georgia, bringing on STEVEN SADOW today as his top lawyer in the case, as ABC’s John Santucci scooped. Sadow, a top white-collar defense attorney in Atlanta, is replacing DREW FINDLING, though JENNIFER LITTLE is expected to remain on Trump’s legal team. He blasted the charges brought against Trump in Fulton County, and he’s criticized prosecutors’ approach in the case previously.

The other defendants in the sprawling racketeering case over alleged subversion of the 2020 election are making moves, too. And just now, DA FANI WILLIS filed a motion for the broad trial of all 19 defendants to begin this Oct. 23, less than two months away. Willis’ request came in response to requests from KENNETH CHESEBRO for a speedy trial and expedited arraignment in his case, The Messenger’s Eva Surovell reports. The attorney had asked Judge SCOTT McAFEE to move quickly on pre-trial motions, setting a trial date and more. “This looks like Willis calling his bluff, or at least setting down a marker while allowing other parties to attempt to slow this down,” Kyle Cheney writes. In reality, Oct. 23 “seems implausible.”

And as MARK MEADOWS seeks to move his case to federal court at a hearing Monday, Willis has subpoenaed Georgia Secretary of State BRAD RAFFENSPERGER and his investigator FRANCES WATSON to testify at the hearing. “This is shaping up to be a mini-trial,” Kyle notes, as prosecutors fight to keep the former White House chief of staff’s prosecution in state court. There were also new bond orders today for Meadows ($100,000), JEFF CLARK ($100,000) and TREVIAN KUTTI ($75,000).

Investigating the investigators: Back in Washington, Trump’s congressional allies are fighting back against the legal system. House Judiciary Republicans today announced they’re launching an investigation of Willis, as CNN’s Annie Grayer and Melanie Zanona reported. It’s a “familiar playbook” for Republicans on the Hill, who pursued similar lines of inquiry into Manhattan DA ALVIN BRAGG after he indicted Trump — namely, about coordination with federal prosecutors or use of federal funding. Chair JIM JORDAN’s (R-Ohio) letter to Willis claims that “the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated.” He wants information from her by next month.

At the same time, state-level Republicans in Georgia are weighing an investigation of Willis. The Judiciary Committee may also schedule a markup of a bill that would allow former presidents to move cases from state to federal court.

Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [email protected].

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2024 WATCH

MORE DEBATE POST-MORTEMS — The assessments, polls and inside-the-room reports are still pouring in after last night’s GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee, where candidates jostled with each other but an absent Trump still loomed as the undisputed frontrunner. Among the takeaways:

— VIVEK RAMASWAMY took center stage at the debate, often stealing more focus than Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS, with whom he’s competing for second place in the polls. He has “suddenly become a major factor in the race,” Natalie Allison and Adam Wren write, with more than 1 million Google searches for his name in the last day (not even counting misspellings). At one Americans for Prosperity watch party in Manchester, N.H., Ramaswamy excited many attendees, though many remain undecided, WaPo’s Sabrina Rodríguez reports. And a snap poll from J.L. Partners and the Daily Mail found Ramaswamy narrowly edging out DeSantis as Republicans’ pick for the best performance.

In the spin room afterward, Ramaswamy gave National Review’s John McCormack a complicated answer about whether he thinks MIKE PENCE did the right thing on Jan. 6.

— RNC Chair RONNA McDANIEL said she appreciated the candidates’ debate on abortion policy in an interview this morning on Fox News, arguing that the Republicans effectively framed Democrats as the more extreme party on the issue. “Democrats used that in 2022,” McDaniel said. “If our candidates aren’t able to fend [off] a response and put out a response, we’re not going to win.”

— But in the end, the debate seems unlikely to threaten Trump’s grip on the nomination, The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins writes, as the “magical thinking” that Trump will somehow stumble or be removed continues in much of the GOP: “Trump’s rivals struggled to show they were equipped to take him down. In fact, few even tried.” He recounts an amazing back-and-forth with Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas), who’s backing DeSantis, in the spin room:

Roy: “Go back and look at where TED [CRUZ] was in the numbers in 2016.”
Coppins: “But … Cruz didn’t win the primary.”
Roy: “Well, but he won Iowa!”

“In private, they all hope that he will fail,” WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf add from Milwaukee, “but most of them don’t want to be seen as responsible for helping make it happen.” Even Ramaswamy simply “checked all the boxes” to become Trump’s running mate, Washington Monthly’s Bill Scher wrote (though Ramaswamy has said he would turn down that position). And so Trump won the debate, The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter declared.

— On the outside looking in: From a Times Square Marriott, WILL HURD was unimpressed with the debaters. Kathy Gilsinan watched with him, and has a POLITICO Magazine breakdown of how Hurd responded to the debate in real time.

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MEDIAWATCH

ISLANDS IN THE STREAM — CNN+ is dead. Long live CNN on Max! Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest attempt to translate CNN to streaming could be announced as soon as today, involving a 24-hour livestream of CNN content on the Max platform, Axios’ Sara Fischer reports. With a focus on live news, the streaming channel will combine some exclusive weekday shows with CNN International’s North America coverage. As Variety’s Brian Steinberg reported last night, the big-name journalists involved include CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, BIANNA GOLODRYGA, JIM SCIUTTO and RAHEL SOLOMON.

SCAMMER SEASON — “Inside the HBO Doc Exposing the Biggest Fundraising Scammers,” by The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger: “Days after HBO released its new Telemarketers documentary series — which raises the curtain on decades of political, police, and charity telemarketing fraud — the producers got a major PR boost from an unexpected place: the Department of Justice. Last week, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York indicted two of the country’s most notorious fundraising fraudsters — RICHARD ZEITLIN and ROBERT PIARO — alleging that the duo had defrauded donors out of tens of millions of dollars over several years.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

CHIPS OFF THE STUMBLING BLOCK — “Arizona Labor Spat Signals Challenges for U.S. Chip Manufacturing,” by WSJ’s Yuka Hayashi and Yang Jie: “[C]onstruction has been delayed by a shortage of skilled workers, [Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.] says, and it is seeking to bring in workers from Taiwan to get construction back on track. … [Chair MARK] LIU’s remarks drew a sharp rebuke from Arizona trade unions, who say bringing in workers from overseas would undermine one of the key goals of the Chips Act — to create more domestic jobs in the industry.”

WAR IN UKRAINE

BATTLEFIELD BLUES — Privately, U.S. officials have been clashing with Ukrainians for weeks about Kyiv’s approach to the counteroffensive, WSJ’s Michael Gordon, Gordon Lubold, James Marson and Vivian Salama report. With the clock ticking before the onset of winter, Americans are concerned that Ukraine is running out of time to make an impact and want the forces to focus primarily on the south. The U.S. warns that the amount of equipment it gave to Ukraine this year won’t be repeated in 2024. But Kyiv insists that it still has time for a breakthrough, and that a big success is imminent.

Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

CHOOSE YOUR NEWS — U.S. officials think the plane crash that likely killed YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN in Russia yesterday was due to a surface-to-air missile inside the country that shot and downed the plane, Reuters scooped.

Or was it? WSJ’s Michael Gordon, Warren Strobel, Matthew Luxmoore and Alan Cullison scooped that U.S. officials (presumably not the same ones) think it was an assassination but likely not a surface-to-air missile — instead a bomb or “some other form of sabotage.”

As Josh Gerstein notes, it’s worth remembering that Prigozhin was still under indictment in the U.S. for allegedly interfering in the 2016 election.

WHAT MIKE GALLAGHER IS READING — The White House wants to extend a 1979 U.S.-China science and technology agreement for six more months, WSJ’s Sha Hua reports from Singapore. The news will be a relief to researchers who called it a crucial tool for scientific cooperation and research, but Republicans have called for the U.S. not to renew the landmark agreement over security concerns. The State Department says the short-term extension will provide time for negotiations to make the agreement stronger.

EXPORTING VIOLENCE — “NRA-Style Politics Transformed Canada’s Gun Culture — and Shootings Rose 869%,” by Bloomberg’s Natalie Obiko Pearson, David Kocieniewski and Eric Fan: “A third of guns used in Canadian crimes and then traced by authorities were legally imported from the U.S. That’s three times the global average.”

CONGRESS

THE LOAN LURCH — Congressional Democrats are pressuring the Biden administration to do more to help borrowers struggling with student loan debt, NBC’s Liz Brown-Kaiser scooped. Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) and Rep. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-Mass.) led the letter of almost 90 members of Congress, which counts Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER among the signatories.

PLAYBOOKERS

IN MEMORIAM — “Warren Hoge, Who Covered Wars and World Crises for The Times, Dies at 82,” by NYT’s Robert McFadden: “A correspondent and bureau chief, he wrote vividly from all corners of the globe before rising in newsroom leadership as foreign editor and assistant managing editor.”

TRANSITION — Alex Schriver will be SVP of public affairs at PhRMA. He most recently was head of public affairs at Targeted Victory.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Bradley Singer of WME

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Harry Rhoads of the Washington Speaker Bureau

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