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Fulton County says cyberattack did not impact Trump election interference case
Officials said the court and other systems in Georgia’s most populous county were hacked over the weekend, interrupting routine operations, but the district attorney’s office said the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump was unaffected.
Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, was experiencing a “widespread system outage” from a “cybersecurity incident,” county commission Chair Robb Pitts said Monday in a video posted on social media. Notably, he said, the outage is affecting the county’s phone, court and tax systems.
But the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the racketeering case against Trump and others was not affected.
“All material related to the election case is kept in a separate, highly secure system that was not hacked and is designed to make any unauthorized access extremely difficult if not impossible,” Willis’ office said in a statement.
But the prosecutor’s office said its operations were being “drastically” affected by the electronic court filing system outage. Visitors to the website that houses Fulton County’s online court records were greeted by a message saying it is “temporarily unavailable.”
Additionally, the statement said, the Atlanta Police Department was not sending emails to or opening emails from the district attorney’s office out of concern for its own systems. That was hindering prosecutors’ work because about 85% of their cases come from Atlanta police.
County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said Tuesday there was no estimate for when the outage would be repaired. Most county offices remained open, though certain transactions were limited due to the outage, according to the county’s website.
In an update Tuesday evening, the county said that phone lines were still down for most Fulton County’s municipal offices, and its justice system was unable to access online records, relying instead on “backup processes,” including paper records, to schedule court hearings and process detainees.
The Fulton County Police Department was also unable to issue police reports as of Tuesday, and Fulton County’s election offices were temporarily closed.
The county said in its release there was no evidence that the hackers had obtained “personally identifiable information.”
The exact cause of the breach remains under investigation.
A Fulton County grand jury in August indicted Trump and 18 others. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Four people have already pleaded guilty after reaching plea deals with prosecutors. Trump and the others who remain have pleaded not guilty.
Pitts said the outage was reported to law enforcement and was under investigation. The FBI office in Atlanta confirmed that it was aware of the breach and had been in contact with the county’s information technology department but declined to discuss specifics.
CBS News
Rare dime bought by Ohio family and hidden for decades sells for over half a million dollars
An extraordinarily rare dime whose whereabouts had remained a mystery since the late 1970s has sold for just over $500,000.
The coin, which was struck by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, depicts President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is one of just two known to exist without its distinctive “S” mint mark.
Three sisters from Ohio inherited the dime after the death of their brother, who had kept it in a bank vault for more than 40 years.
The coin sold for $506,250 in an online auction that concluded Sunday, according to Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, an auction house based in Irvine, California. The auction house said there were 212 bids placed on the coin.
The only other known example of the “1975 ‘no S’ proof dime” sold at a 2019 auction for $456,000. Shortly after that, the coin sold for $516,000 to a Roosevelt Dime collector, who currently has the only complete collection of the series, the auction house said.
The mint in San Francisco made more than 2.8 million special uncirculated “proof” sets in 1975 that featured six coins and were sold for $7. Collectors a few years later discovered that two dimes from the set were missing the mint mark.
/ AP
Russell said the sisters from Ohio, who wanted to remain anonymous, told him that they inherited one of those two dimes but that their brother and mother bought the first error coin discovered in 1978 for $18,200, which would amount to roughly $90,000 today. Their parents, who operated a dairy farm, saw the coin as a financial safety net.
When Russell told one of the sisters just a few years ago about the coin’s potential value, he said she remarked “is that really possible?”
While there is a chance more examples of the rare dime are out there, they would only be found among the 1975 “proof” sets and not in anyone’s pocket change, Russell said.
Still, he said he expected the latest discovery to set off a lot of searching.
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When Florida voters cast their ballots in the 2024 election, they have the chance to decide whether the state will legalize marijuana for recreational use. They can voice their stance by voting “yes” or “no” on Amendment 3, which seeks to change Florida’s constitution.
Here’s what to know about the ballot measure, which is one of six amendments Florida voters are considering this election.
What is Amendment 3?
Amendment 3 allows adults who are 21 or older to possess, purchase and use marijuana for personal, nonmedical reasons. It sets limits on how much individuals can legally carry — up to 85 grams of marijuana or 5 grams of marijuana concentrate.
It would also allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell marijuana to recreational users. State-licensed businesses could be authorized to cultivate, process and distribute the product.
A “yes” vote on the amendment supports recreational marijuana legalization for people who are 21 and older, while a “no” vote favors keeping in place the system that makes marijuana only available for medical use.
Amendment must secure at least 60% of the vote in order to pass. If it does, Florida will join 24 other states in approving recreational marijuana use. Recreational marijuana use, however, would still be illegal on the federal level, which could create legal complexities.
If the measure passes, only medical marijuana treatment centers and other state-licensed facilities would be permitted — initially — to sell recreational marijuana. Eventually, new legislation could allow licensing for other businesses.
Polls on Amendment 3
A CBS News/YouGov survey in May found that 56% of likely voters would vote “yes” on Amendment 3, while 30% would vote “no.” Fourteen percent remained undecided.
More recently, in August, a Florida Atlantic University (FAU) poll also showed that 56% of all voters supported marijuana legalization, with the most support coming from voters between 18 and 49 years old.
Who supports and opposes Amendment 3?
Amendment 3 supporters argue that legalizing marijuana will curb the black market and ensure that marijuana products that are sold are safe and regulated. They also suggest that decriminalizing marijuana could free up law enforcement resources and reduce nonviolent drug offenses.
Proponents also argue the marijuana industry is “sustainable and growing” and would save taxpayer money by not having to pay to prosecute possession crimes.
Though some Republicans are against the measure, former President Donald Trump, who is a Florida resident, said he will back Amendment 3 on the ballot.
Opponents, meanwhile, say legalizing marijuana could lead to an increase in unregulated drug use, making roads less safe and negatively impacting youth. Some also believe crime rates could rise due to wider marijuana availability.
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, opposes the amendment, as does Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who said he opposes Amendment 3 because of his brother’s long history of addiction. He said his brother Roger Scott, who died in April, started smoking marijuana as a teenager and struggled with substance abuse the rest of his life.
Former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, wrote in a Miami Herald op-ed in September that the amendment would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in Florida. She made parallels with actions made by the tobacco industry.