A Fulton County grand jury of everyday Georgians has indicted former President Donald J. Trump and 18 other defendants on 41 counts of criminal charges, including racketeering, for their “criminal enterprise” around the 2020 election and January 6 to seize and hold power, stop the peaceful transfer of the presidency to Joe Biden, and subvert the will of American voters.
The January 6, 2021 attack, which resulted in at least seven deaths and injured more than 110 US Capitol Police officers, and the suffering that 2020 election lies inflicted on innocent Americans – such as Georgia election workers Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and Ruby Bridges as well as public servants like Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers – will forever be stains on the American republic. And on the heels of the exceedingly unprecedented four-felony criminal charges against former President Trump from the Special Counsel federal grand jury of everyday Americans, the Georgia indictment is equally unprecedented. This is the first time ever in our country for a former president to be indicted on state, and federal, charges for crimes committed while in office. And the counts strike through the heart of our democracy: Trump has been indicted for conspiracies that tried to subvert the will of American voters. It’s imperative that these judicial proceedings continue promptly, fairly, and peacefully.
Not only should no one, not even a former president, ever be treated as above the law. Our country also now is at a critical juncture: These legal cases will determine the viability of a governmental system largely based on leaders heeding tradition and norms, such as a candidate conceding to the rightful winner of the election. The 2020 and 2022 elections have demonstrated how remarkably fragile as well as resilient American election systems are – yet we must remain vigilant as experts warn of heightened risk in 2024. As the Select Committee on January 6 detailed, the three acts in former President Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy was not a one-man play: far too many other elected officials fanned the ‘Big Lie’ flames and aided the former president in undermining Americans’ right to vote and have that vote counted. History is watching: democracy itself hangs in the balance.
What We Know To Date: 2020 Election Investigations Into Former President Trump And Allies
1. Office Of Fulton County, GA District Attorney Fani Willis:
After the Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury heard from or issued subpoenas to at least 60 witnesses, it submitted in January 2023 its final report to District Attorney Fani Willis.
On August 14, 2023, a Fulton County grand jury of everyday Georgians indicted former President Donald J. Trump and 18 other defendants on 41 criminal counts. An additional 30 un-indicted unnamed co-conspirators are also included in the indictment.
The 19 total defendants charged with violating Georgia laws are:
1) Donald Trump, former US president
2) Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer
3) John Eastman, Trump lawyer
4) Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff
5) Kenneth Chesebro, pro-Trump lawyer
6) Jeffrey Clark, former Department of Justice official
7) Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer
8) Ray Smith, Trump campaign lawyer
9) Robert Cheeley, lawyer who promoted false election claims
10) Mike Roman, Trump campaign official
11) David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair and fake elector
12) Shawn Still, fake GOP elector
13) Stephen Lee, pastor connected with alleged intimidation of election workers
14) Harrison William Prescott Floyd, Black Voices for Trump leader
15) Trevian Kutti, publicist connected to alleged intimidation of election workers
16) Sidney Powell, Trump campaign attorney
17) Cathy Latham, fake GOP elector tied to Coffee County voting equipment breach
18) Scott Hall, tied to Coffee County voting equipment breach
19) Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor
And the 13 counts in the 41-count indictment that former President Trump faces are:
1) “Count 1: Violation of the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act
2) Count 5: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer
3) Count 9: Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
4) Count 11: Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
5) Count 13: Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
6) Count 15: Conspiracy to commit filing false documents
7) Count 17: Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
8) Count 19: Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
9) Count 27: Filing false documents
10) Count 28: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer
11) Count 29: False statements and writings
12) Count 38: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer
13) Count 39: False statements and writings”
As the Fulton County indictment states in its introduction: “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.”
And as District Attorney Willis said while announcing the criminal charges: “I make decisions based on the facts and the law. The law is completely non-partisan. That’s how decisions are made in every case…We look at the facts. We look at the law. And we bring charges.”
2. Other 2020 Election Investigations: What We Know to Date:
1. Former President Donald Trump through the fraudulent electors “scheme” and exerting pressure on former Vice President Mike Pence tried to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified”.
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- COUNT 1: “A conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371;”
2. Former President Trump conspired, attempted, and corruptly obstructed and impeded the certification of the electoral vote on January 6, 2021, as a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol while he poured “gasoline on the fire”.
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- COUNT 2: “A conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified (“the certification proceeding”), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k); and”
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- COUNT 3: “From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 7, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct and impede an official proceeding, that is, the certification of the electoral vote. (In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1512(c)(2), 2)”
3. Former President Trump conspired to undermine the voting rights of all Americans through his efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election, which includes trying to erode trust in our election systems and stop the peaceful transfer of power.
- COUNT 4: “A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, in violation of 18U.S.C. §241.”
As the federal indictment notes:
- “Each of these conspiracies-which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant [Trump] was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud-targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election (‘the federal government function’).”
And as the Select Committee concluded in its final report and summary of findings:
- There was “a multi-part plan to overturn the 2020 Presidential election” and examination of the evidence leads “to an overriding and straight-forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
Lastly, 31 months since the January 6 attack, the Justice Department has arrested more than 1,106 defendants for January 6-related charges – including:
- “Approximately 372 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 112 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.”
- “Approximately 42 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, either: (a) conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, (b) conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, (c) conspiracy to injure an officer, or (d) some combination of the three.”
3. Notable State-Level Investigations:
- In July 2023, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 people for falsely claiming in signed documents that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and that they were presidential electors – notably the first felony charges against “fake” electors.
- Also in Michigan, Special Prosecutor D.J. Hilson has been investigating efforts to seize and tamper with voting machines in the state after the 2020 presidential election: so far three people have been criminally charged for violating state law as part of their involvement in the alleged conspiracy.
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Matthew DePerno, a former candidate for state attorney general who denied the results of the 2020 election, was charged on four felony counts, including “undue possession of a voting machine and a conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer or computer system”.
- Daire Rendon, former state representative, faces two counts, “including a conspiracy to illegally obtain a voting machine”.
- And Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan attorney involved in efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election results, was charged, a few days after DePerno and Rendon’s arraignment, for her involvement in “ accessing and tampering with voting machines”.
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- And we learned in July 2023 that the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the “fake” electors scheme in the state as well as the Maricopa County ballots “audit”.
