Fulton County, Ga. grand jury indicts Trump, members of his inner circle
Former President Donald Trump and several members of his inner circle were indicted Monday in Fulton County, Georgia’s sweeping investigation into 2020 election interference.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to discuss the grand jury’s felony conspiracy and racketeering charges being levied against the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner and other allies that include his former chief-of-staff Mark Meadows, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and ex-Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer. Nineteen people were indicted on 41 charges after the grand jury’s vote to hand up indictments and Fulton Judge Robert McBurney’s unsealing of the charges Monday evening.
Felony charges of false statements, forgery, racketeering and election fraud, solicitation of a government employee have also been filed against in the case that’s been more than a year in the making.
The sweeping probe centers on Trump and a number of his supporters who lodged unfounded claims that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes. In early 2022, Willis launched the investigation after a recording of a phone call where Trump allegedly asked Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes was released to the public.
McBurney is expected to hear Trump’s plea on the six criminal charges in the coming days. Willis, an Atlanta Democrat, has been accused of political bias by Trump and his attorneys, who argue she has held fundraisers for candidates of her party in the past.
In a statement, Trump attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said: “The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process. This was not a simple administrative mistake. A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk’s office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated. This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception.”
The group of 16 alleged fake electors who met at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020 includes current and former state and local GOP officials, ex-Coffee County GOP Chairwoman Cathy Lathum, Atlanta business attorney Brad Carver and newly elected state Sen. Shawn Still.
Giuliani allegedly pressed Georgia Republicans to set themselves up as alternate electors to counter state Democrat electors casting votes for Joe Biden after GOP election officials confirmed the current president as the winner of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. The plan at first was allegedly for the “fake electors” to serve as a placeholder should the former president prevail in court challenges to Georgia’s results. But when Trump’s court challenges were all either dismissed or withdrawn, the alternate electors allegedly still signed paperwork swearing they were legitimate delegates.
Stanley Dunlap has covered government and politics for news outlets in Georgia and Tennessee for the past decade. The Georgia Associated Press Managing Editors named Stanley a finalist for best deadline reporting. The Tennessee Press Association honored him for his reporting on the disappearance of Holly Bobo.