The award-winning Breakdown podcast from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has devoted two seasons to the story of efforts by Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Season 10 of Breakdown, “The Trump Indictment,” is hosted by Bill Rankin, whose expertise includes courts and legal affairs, and senior reporter Tamar Hallerman, who covered the Trump White House when she was the newspaper’s Washington correspondent. They are joined this season by editor Shannon McCaffrey, who is leading the AJC’s team of reporters covering the Fulton County indictments.
This is Breakdown’s second season to focus on the Georgia election. Season 9, which began in June 2022 and called “The Trump Grand Jury,” focused on the special purpose grand jury based in Atlanta, convened by Fulton County District Fani Willis. The first episode was devoted to a now infamous phone call from Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger forcefully asking to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
The Breakdown podcast, created in 2015 with a focus on true-crime stories, became part of the AJC’s coverage of the 2020 election and its aftermath. In addition, the newspaper’s politics team produced “Inside the campaign to undermine Georgia’s elections,” a multipart special report examining the tumultuous period between the November 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The project was awarded the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting.
“The 2020 election tested our democracy,” said Kevin Riley, the AJC’s editor at the time. “Nowhere was that more clear than in Georgia, where Election Day gave way to recounts, lawsuits, fraud allegations and protests. The newsroom of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution rose to the challenge. Our reporters and editors worked tirelessly for months to explain what happened and why. It wasn’t easy. And, even now, the story isn’t over.
The newspaper turned increased attention to Fulton County in early 2022, after Willis requested appointment of a special grand jury to assist in her investigation of possible election meddling by Trump and others. In August 2023, a second grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others.
Listeners can stream the Breakdown podcast on ajc.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcasting platform.
Read more about the 2020 elections in Georgia from the AJC
Inside the campaign to undermine Georgia’s elections, the AJC’s special project.
The Trump Georgia case, the AJC’s continuing coverage of the Fulton County election racketeering case.
Trump charged: What’s the latest on the ex-president’s legal cases
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