(Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump has raised nearly $20 million in the past three weeks, a period that roughly coincides with his indictment in federal and state cases connected to his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, Trump’s campaign spokesman said on Saturday.

Since appearing Thursday to have his mug shot taken in a racketeering and fraud case in Atlanta, Georgia, the former president brought in $7.1 million, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

On Friday alone, Trump brought in $4.18 million, making it the highest-grossing day of his campaign so far, Cheung said.

His mug shot, posted by a Georgia courthouse on Thursday evening, has been turned into T-shirts, shot glasses, mugs, posters and even bobblehead dolls by friends and foes alike.

The shot of Trump with a red tie, glistening hair, and an icy scowl was taken as the Republican presidential front-runner was arrested on more than a dozen felony charges, part of a criminal case stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump, who was elected president in 2016 but defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, is again seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for president.

Trump is currently facing four indictments, including two related to his false claims that the election was stolen and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by his followers on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

He has denied all charges.

On Aug. 15, Trump was indicted by a Georgia grand jury after an investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden in the state.

On Aug. 3, he pleaded not guilty to charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in federal court in Washington that he conspired to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory over him and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.

He has also pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawfully keeping classified documents after leaving office, and of falsifying business records in a case in New York related to the payment of so-called hush money to [censored] star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

By Tom Hals

(Reuters) – Efforts by Donald Trump allies to move Georgia’s criminal case charging the former U.S. president with trying to overturn an election to federal court is raising legal questions that could delay a trial, which may be a key part of their strategy.

On Aug. 28, Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who was charged alongside the former president with trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election, will argue his case should be heard in federal court rather than in Fulton County Superior Court, where it was filed.

If Meadows succeeds, he would be tried before a broader jury pool that includes the Congressional district of conservative firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, rather than jurors solely from Fulton County, which voted for Joe Biden in 2020 by nearly a 3-1 margin.

Two other defendants, former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and David Shafer, who was a Republican presidential elector nominee, have also filed papers citing a law known as the Federal Officer Removal Statute in a bid to transfer their cases.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is likely to do so as well, legal experts said.

A spokesperson for the Fulton County district attorney declined to comment and attorneys for Meadows, Shafer and Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The removal cases will be heard by a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia and could tie up the case in appeals if denied, legal experts said.

“The request for removal is definitely going to delay this trial and be complicated and messy,” said Eric Segall, a professor at Georgia State College of Law.

The removal question is just one of many that are likely to be litigated before a trial, adding to uncertainty about prosecutors’ request for a trial date as soon as Oct. 23.

DELAY AS A TACTIC

Trump, who has a history of using delay as a legal tactic, is also trying to move upcoming criminal trials in New York and Washington to other courts. He is also defending a criminal indictment in Miami.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with racketeering in a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which was won by President Joe Biden. No defendants have entered a plea in the Georgia case.

Willis accused Meadows of furthering a conspiracy by, among other things, joining Trump in urging Georgia’s secretary of state to change vote totals.

The federal officer removal law protects people from state prosecution for carrying out official federal duties.

The statute requires a defendant to prove they were an officer of the United States or acting at an officer’s direction, that the alleged acts were part of their official duties and that they have a federal legal defense.

Meadows argued in federal court papers filed last week that the acts described in the indictment fall squarely within the duties of a chief of staff: assisting the president by arranging meetings and making phone calls.

Prosecutors countered that Meadows was carrying out political activities – which U.S. government employees are barred from doing under a federal law known as the Hatch Act. Meadows in his court papers also said his political activity was protected speech under the U.S. Constitution.

“NOT RELATED” TO OFFICIAL ACTS

The removal issue has come up before in a Trump criminal case.

The former president failed to remove a case by Manhattan’s district attorney that accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal on the eve of the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in July found that “hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts” and sent the case back to state court. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and appealed the ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Legal experts said the accused acts in the Georgia case are more plausibly related to official duties than the hush money payments in the New York case. If U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta agrees, he would next examine if Meadows has a federal defense.

Meadows argued as a defense that he is immune under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which is similar to the removal law. It says that if a person were carrying out duties placed on them by federal law, they cannot be prosecuted for committing a state crime.

“In other words, if you actually successfully remove the case, then it probably gets dismissed,” said Josh Blackman, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law.

However, just because Meadows has a defense, that does not mean it would necessarily apply to the specific actions cited in the indictment.

Legal experts said Jones could allow the case to proceed in federal court and address immunity at a later hearing. If he determines immunity did not apply to the accused actions, the jury trial would take place in federal court, with the broader jury pool.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Stephen Coates)

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) – For Tagreed Elhassan it’s the feeling of the wind in her face.

Cycling gives her a sense of independence and a way to exercise. She learned the basics growing up in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and now a program in her new home of Toronto has taught the 24-year-old Eritrean refugee how to steer and basic bike mechanics, giving her the confidence to teach others.

“I learned it here,” she said, sitting in a park in Toronto’s east end. “Small things that grow into something big.”

Hijabs and Helmets aims to provide education and a welcoming environment toward people new to cycling and the city – especially to Muslim women who may come from backgrounds where cycling was not the norm.

The program was created three years ago to meet a community need, said Menna Badawi, a community health worker at Access Alliance Multicultural Health & Community Services and program lead for Hijabs and Helmets.

It gets most of its funding from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns Toronto sports teams including the Maple Leafs ice hockey team and the Raptors basketball team.

The group realized “there was a gap in services for Muslim women in the community … who are interested in cycling and kind of don’t know where to go,” Badawi said.

Badawi, who has been part of an all-women Muslim running club, said she understood the feeling.

“As a Muslim hijabi I did find there was a gap in recreational sports for women who look like me,” she said.

The group serves Toronto’s Taylor Creek area, which has a high proportion of newcomers, Badawi said.

Elhassan said she got involved in the program last year with her sisters. Soon she felt comfortable enough to bike to the supermarket, bags balanced on handlebars.

The deliberate inclusion of hijab-wearing women “means a lot,” Elhassan said. “I felt like, oh, we are recognized.”

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)