Up First from NPR - Trump Indicted in Georgia, Recovery Continues in Maui, Angola Prison Conditions

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

A Georgia grand jury indicts Donald Trump. Recovery continues in Lahaina after deadly Maui wildfires. A federal court hears allegations of "harmful conditions" for juveniles jailed in Louisiana.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Susanna Capelouto, Kevin Drew, Ally Schweitzer, Benjamin Swasey, and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Mansee Khurana, Claire Murashima, and Lilly Quiroz. Our technical director is Zac Coleman, with engineering support from Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Sound of Morning Edition. Birds chirping, coffee pouring. Yeah, where are the birds? No birds, no birds. That's an imposter bird. We have the latest chapter of the Trump indictment summer. A Georgia grand jury accused the former president of a criminal enterprise to stay in office after his defeat. It's Trump's fourth indictment summer. A Georgia grand jury accused the former president of a criminal enterprise to

stay in office after his defeat. It's Trump's fourth indictment this year. I'm Leila Faudel, that's Stephen Skipp, and this is Up First from NPR News. Authorities in Maui say they're bouncing back after a wildfire. The recovery from this tragedy is proceeding, and it's proceeding extremely vigorously. But why do some survivors say otherwise? Also, the Louisiana State Penitentiary has a history of human rights violations. Why are juveniles being held there, some of them in solitary confinement? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Monitor, detect, respond, and recover from cyberattacks whenever and wherever they strike.

Arctic Wolf provides the first cloud-native security operations platform, empowering any size organization to stand up world-class security operations. More at arcticwolf.com slash NPR. Now, Archange will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to our change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. In all of American history, a former president has been indicted only four times.

And we have witnessed all four of them, all against the same man, Donald Trump, and all of them happened this year. The latest comes from a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia. District Attorney Fawnie Willis accuses Trump and 18 other people of a, quote, criminal enterprise. To accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on January 20th, 21. The indictment includes 41 counts such as conspiracy to commit election fraud, filing false statements, and forgery. Others charged include Trump's attorney, identified in the papers as Rudolph William Lewis Giuliani, and Trump's White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Georgia Public Broadcasting's Stephen Fowler was at the courthouse when the charges were announced late last night, and he's with us early this morning. Stephen, thank you. Good morning. Good morning. What is the essence of the case against Trump? So the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act, was meant to go after the mob, but the Fulton County DA in particular has used it creatively as this narrative tool to target alleged criminal enterprises. So in this case, Steve,

former President Donald Trump and his allies are accused of engaging in more than 160 different acts, not all of them explicitly illegal, that contributed to the unlawful effort of trying to undo Georgia's 2020 election results. Okay, what sort of acts would be part of a racketeering crime but not an ordinary crime? Well, Georgia's racketeering law does have specific explicit triggers before you can be charged with crimes like forgery and false statements getting you a RICO violation. But then there's these other acts that are instances that show there's a broader conspiracy afoot to do illegal things. For instance, like influencing lawmakers in other states to overturn their elections are acts that are efforts to influence lawmakers in Georgia, which is illegal here. Think of them like building blocks that make up the wall of actions to overturn the election,

but not necessarily those critical, foundational, blatantly illegal things like, say, Trump calling Georgia's Secretary of State to, quote, find votes. Okay. So that is the indictment we've got against Trump, and there are 18 other people named. What kinds of people are these? Well, there's several big buckets and names that have popped up in the other federal investigations and conversations about 2020. In addition to Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, there's another Trump attorney involved, Sidney Powell. All of these people were involved with multiple states. You've also got those that spoke at hearings designed to convince Georgia lawmakers to change the election results, like lawyer Ray Smith. There's also three electors who falsely claim to be official electors, like Georgia's

former state Republican Party chairman David Schaefer. Another big part of this case is the effort to unlawfully copy election data in a rural county, Coffey County, and there's people involved with that as well. And so notably new information, people involved in efforts to harass a particular election worker and convince her to falsely say she committed election fraud. Wow. How did the DA talk about all of this? Willis is the only state-level prosecutor to investigate Trump and 2020 election interference this way, and she painted that decision as one that was her duty to ensure votes are counted fairly and accurately. The state's role in this process is essential to the functioning of our democracy. She hopes to have a trial date within the next six months, but Steve, given Trump's other legal

issues and the large number of defendants, it could take longer. It's also notable what she didn't say, largely declining to respond to questions specifically about Trump and his attacks on her and her office that's been going on before these charges were even filed. Stephen Fowler with Georgia Public Broadcasting. Thanks so much. Thank you. Some survivors of a fire in Maui are not satisfied with their dealings with the government so far. That wildfire has killed 99 people and authorities are still searching. They're keeping the area closed while they do. And that is one source of the tension between rescuers and the wider community.

NPR's Lauren Sommer is in Maui. Hey there, Lauren. Good morning. How much of the burned area is left for authorities to search? About 25% of the area has been searched for human remains now. There are about 20 search dogs combing through the rubble of buildings still. So there's a lot more to do. And that's why state officials are saying the death hole is still likely to rise. They're also in the process of IDing those remains. And I've been asking families who are searching for loved ones to contribute DNA samples to help in that process.

As that search goes on, you know, the burned area in Lahaina is closed off, even for people who live there. And the main roads into the area have also been restricted since the fire. Okay, so now we're getting to the point of tension here, I think. How is that affecting the community that survived the fire? It's been a big point of contention in the community. Logo residents have been doing an amazing amount of heavy lifting, just organizing huge caravans of food by boat and truck, and some have had trouble getting that in. The state says it's brought in a million pounds of food. Hawaii Governor Josh Green says they've mobilized a lot of resources. The recovery from this tragedy is proceeding, and it's proceeding extremely vigorously.

Does the community agree with that assessment? I mean, walking around Lahaina, it's easy to see cell service is very weak and spotty. Some communities there are still lacking power and drinkable water. So many residents have been eager to do day trips to the rest of Mal, to get supplies and connectivity. The most direct road has been restricted to residents, since officials, they want to keep it open for trucks and emergency vehicles. Yesterday, officials announced a new system. Local residents had to come to a park to get a placard for their car.

But when producer Janaki Mehta and I walked up, they had called it off. We are taking that. We are canceling that. We are no longer doing the police parks. Why? They were told more than a thousand people had showed up. It totally overwhelmed the site, so they canceled the system altogether. And that's where we met Alex Calma. He lost his house in the fire. He's been staying with his parents, and his uncle is missing, and they're really feeling the worst. We want to find my uncle, but we want to go to the hospital. His family is hoping to find any information at hospitals,

but he's worried about leaving the area since the checkpoint rules to get back in have changed several times already, and he was really hoping that placard would help. How are authorities explaining their various changes and who they let in and who they let out and how? Yeah, I mean, they say residents have been able to use a checkpoint on the north side of Maui, which involves this very long car trip on a windy road. So there's a lot of frustration. Maui County Councilwoman Tamara Palton, she was there in the park. We met her there. And she says state officials are making decisions that aren't always what the local community needs. You know, what I would like to see more of

is more communication with us and more listening to us. You know, emergency situations are always hard to manage, and recovery efforts, you know, you can't always see them. They're not always visible. But it's almost a week from when this fire started, and many residents in Lahaina are feeling they're having to do so much of this themselves. And Paris Lauren Sommer, thanks for your work. Thank you. We have a story now of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. It's known as Angola, after the plantation that operated there in the 1800s.

And even after slavery formally ended, convicts worked there under conditions a lot like slavery. Today, the prison has a history of human rights abuses and medical neglect. And this week, a federal judge will hear about conditions affecting juveniles being held there temporarily. Teenagers as young as 15 years old say they're being placed in solitary confinement, denied services, and subjected to unbearable heat at Angola. Their detention there was supposed to

end in April, but they're still there. Reporter Bobbi Jean Mizik is with the Verite News Service in New Orleans. She's been following this story. Good morning to you. Good morning, Steve. Why are people as young as 15 in Angola in the first place? Well, the state started sending the kids there last fall because they needed to renovate a facility and make more space. There was overcrowding. And there was also some violent escapes from a youth

detention center in Southeast Louisiana. So the move to Angola was supposed to be temporary, but they missed that April deadline. Now attorneys filed a motion asking federal judge Shelley Dick to order the state to stop sending youth to Angola prison and to release the ones who are currently there to adequate juvenile facilities. So I should say the updated facility is now set to be ready in October. October, but not April. You mentioned attorneys filing a motion on behalf of the young people. What are they saying? Well, they're saying teenagers as young as 15 are being held in a unit formerly reserved for death row. They've complained that some cell blocks are lacking air conditioning. Temperatures in Louisiana have been near 100 degrees this summer,

with heat indexes reaching as high as 120 degrees. They're also saying that juvenile justice guards have placed a whole cell block under solitary confinement, only allowing these youths out for eight minutes a day while handcuffed and shackled to shower. And kids say they're not getting the educational and mental health services that the state is required to provide them. The case has even caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued a statement of interest ahead of the hearing. I'm kind of stuck on eight minutes a day, but I'll try to go on here. You said that there's a hearing in federal court this week. What happens? Well, I spoke with David

Utter. He's the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. He said there will be expert testimony speaking to the dangers of exposing young people to things like solitary confinement and extreme heat. The hearing is expected to last multiple days this week. How does the state justify its conduct? Well, so the official position from the governor and the Office of the Juvenile Justice is to not comment on the cases it's ongoing. But in legal filings, the state's position is that these kids are getting the specialized educational programs and mental health care that they need.

They say the areas where the teens are kept are air-conditioned, and the facility is being run like any juvenile justice center in the state. It just so happens to be on the campus of a maximum security prison. A lot of disputes about the facts. We'll hear what comes out at the hearing. Bobbi Jean Mizik from Verite News in New Orleans, thanks so much. Thank you very much. And that's a first for this Tuesday, August 15th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faldin.

A First is produced by Mansi Karana and Claire Marashima. Our editors are Krishna Dov Kalamar, Kevin Drew, Ali Schweitzer, Ben Swayze, and Alice Wolfley. Our director is Lily Quiros. Our technical director is Zach Coleman with engineering help from Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow. Remember that your NPR station

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