Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has officially charged former President Donald Trump in the office’s yearslong investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results.
On Monday night a grand jury voted to charge Trump on 13 charges ranging from making false statements and impersonating a public officer to conspiracy and racketeering — a charge generally reserved for organized crime. Eighteen Trump lawyers, advisers, and confidantes are charged alongside the leading GOP 2024 hopeful, including his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Each of them faces the racketeering charge, linking the multitude of alleged crimes together.
The 98-page document dropped shortly before 11 p.m. on Monday.
The shared charge alleges the defendants participated in a “criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia — and elsewhere — to accomplish the illegal goal” of keeping Trump in office, Willis (D) said Monday.
See the Trump allies charged in the Georgia Probe:
- Mark Meadows
- John Eastman
- Kenneth Cheseboro
- Jenna Ellis
- Rudy Giuliani
- Ray Smith
- Jeffrey Clark
- Robert Cheely
- Michael Roman
- Stephen Lee
- Harrison Floyd
- Trevian Kutti
- Shawn Still
- David Shafer
- Sidney Powell
- Cathy Latham
- Misty Hampton
- Scott Hall
The investigation largely focused on a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which the former president pressured the official to “find” enough votes to overturn the results.
However, over the weekend an exclusive report from CNN revealed Georgia prosecutors also obtained documents connecting Trump’s team to a voting system breach in Coffee County in January 2021.
CNN reports:
Together, the text messages and other court documents show how Trump lawyers and a group of hired operatives sought to access Coffee County’s voting systems in the days before January 6, 2021, as the former president’s allies continued a desperate hunt for any evidence of widespread fraud they could use to delay certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Last year, a former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 select committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020, that included Trump.
Six days before pro-Trump operatives gained unauthorized access to voting systems, the local elections official who allegedly helped facilitate the breach sent a “written invitation” to attorneys working for Trump, according to text messages obtained by CNN.
Read the full indictment below:
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