18 others swept up in Georgia election crimes
Where to begin with the sweeping, 98-page indictment issued by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis? The document released before midnight Monday accuses former president Donald Trump and 18 others with conducting a criminal enterprise to undermine the 2020 Georgia election results. Willis means to take this case to trial within six months.
Willis’ introduction begins, “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.”
The 41-count indictment includes 13 directed at Trump himself, the Washington Post reports, “including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.” The indictment details 161 “overt” acts committed “in furtherance of the conspiracy” and cites 30 unindicted co-conspirators.
Willis has only to prove two of the Georgia RICO charges to convict, the New York Times explains:
Prosecutors need only show “a pattern of racketeering activity,” which means crimes that all were used to further the objectives of a corrupt enterprise. And the bar is fairly low. The Georgia courts have concluded that a pattern consists of at least two acts of racketeering activity within a four-year period in furtherance of one or more schemes that have the same or similar intent.
That means the act might allow prosecutors to knit together the myriad efforts by Donald J. Trump and his allies, like Rudolph W. Giuliani, to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential race. Those efforts include the former president’s now infamous phone call in which he pressed Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” him enough votes to win.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution adds:
The DA took the unusual step of convening a separate special grand jury in 2022 which investigated election interference in Georgia for eight months. They heard from almost 75 witnesses and recommended who they thought Fulton prosecutors should indict.
Familiar faces and names from Trump’s post-election efforts to overturn his loss join him in this case including members of the “Kraken” team: Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, and Jenna Ellis. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows faces two charges: racketeering and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath. Many of those indicted with Trump are not national names. Missing among the indicted is Georgia Kraken lawyer Lin Wood, perhaps among the 30 co-conspirators.
Also charged are several Georgia Republicans who served as electors: former GOP chairman David Shafer, former GOP finance chairman Shawn Still and Cathy Latham of Coffee County. Latham is also charged in the breach of election data in Coffee County, 200 southeast of Atlanta.
The cites as “overt acts” in furtherance of the conspiracy multiple actions taken by conspirators, including Giuliani, falsely charging wrongdoing by Fulton County, Georgia, election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. Appearances by the two Black women was among the most emotional testimony presented by the House Jan. 6 Committee.
Unlike special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment targeting Trump singly, the Georgia indictment means to describe the sweep of efforts by Trump and his allies to undo his 2020 election loss not only in Fulton County and “elsewhere in the State of Georgia,” but also “in other states, including, but not limited to, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and in the District of Columbia.”
Willis told reporters, “The grand jury issued arrest warrants for those who are charged. I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday the 25th day of August, 2023.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report what makes this legal trap more difficult for Trump to slip than Smith’s federal indictment:
The Fulton case, however, could ultimately have some of the most staying power if Trump is convicted. That’s because unlike the federal cases, which could be dismissed by a future Republican president, Georgia’s pardon process is in the hands of an independent board, not the governor. Under the state’s rules, a person needs to wait five years after they serve any prison sentences before they can be considered for a pardon.
At least one Fox News guest Monday night nevertheless called on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to pardon Trump.
Even if the board were to consider a pardon, “it wouldn’t seem to do him much good any time soon,” explains MSNBC’s Jordan Rubin. The application requires the convicted be “free of supervision (custodial or non-custodial) and/or criminal involvement for at least five consecutive years thereafter as well as five consecutive years immediately prior to applying.” And be free of pending charges.
With all the charges Trump faces, that’s not likely in the near future.