What we know about Fani Willis’ investigation so far.

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What we know about Fani Willis’ investigation so far.

Slate

July 16, 2023

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It looks like Donald Trump could soon be indicted again (yes, it would be his third time this year). Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis has said she expects to make a decision about whether to indict him before September.

Willis has been building a case against Trump and his allies for more than two years now, and it all started on that fateful day (Jan. 2, 2021) when Trump held a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He demanded Raffensperger “find” 11,780 votes so Trump could overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Two days later, Willis stared working as the Fulton County DA, and within weeks had formally opened a criminal investigation into Trump’s “attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia general election.”

Since then, Willis’ investigation seems to have been moving steadily toward an indictment. Just last week a grand jury was sworn in; dozens of witnesses have already testified; and Willis has publicly flirted with the idea of leaning on a wide-ranging Georgia racketeering law to drastically increase the scope of her impending indictment.

Here’s everything we know so far about Willis’ investigation into Trump:

There’s a lot of evidence

Trump’s phone call to Raffensperger was just the tip of the iceberg. After the 2020 election, he went on to contact several high-ranking Georgia officials to try to convince them to make him the rightful winner. That includes Gov. Brian Kemp—Trump asked him to pressure the state Legislature and order an audit of absentee ballot signatures—and Attorney General Chris Carr, whom Trump called to get support for a lawsuit that sought to delay the certification of presidential electors in Georgia, along with three other states.

Then there’s the fake electors scheme. It started with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani paying a visit to Georgia lawmakers in December 2020. Giuliani addressed the state’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to convince them that Georgia’s election was marred by voter fraud and that the Legislature should respond by appointing its own slate of electors for Trump. This ploy worked, somewhat; 16 Republicans electors met and signed a fake certificate falsely awarding Trump victory in Georgia.

And then, there’s the complicated saga of breached voting equipment from rural Coffee County, Georgia. Trump’s team of allies concocted a scheme to access voting machines in order to copy sensitive election information. The effort was launched by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who hired and paid a Georgia-based forensics firm to drive to Coffee County’s elections office. They allegedly spent days copying data from Dominion voting machines. Though Coffee County is outside of Willis’ jurisdiction, she’s using the incident to potentially help build a racketeering case. That requires pulling in a series of actions by Trump and his allies that demonstrates unlawful election interference.

Top Republicans were called to testify

The DA’s office has already heard testimony from Georgia’s top leadership—including Raffensperger, Kemp, and Carr, each of whom fielded phone calls from Trump as he tried to make the case that there was rampant voter fraud in Georgia.

Giuliani was also called to testify and spent six hours before the grand jury. Giuliani is considered a “target” of Willis’ investigation and could face an indictment himself. Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows was also asked to testify as a material witness, given he traveled to Georgia and sat in on Trump’s many phone calls to state officials. Meadows also sent multiple emails to the Department of Justice alleging voter fraud in Georgia and requesting investigations.

Willis also sought testimony from Powell, citing her close connection to Trump and a previous deposition she gave before the House Jan. 6 committee. In that testimony, Powell confirmed that Trump had asked her to serve as “special counsel” and identify states that experienced election issues, while also collecting evidence.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has also testified because he spoke with Georgia officials about mail-in ballots at the same time Trump was actively contesting election results around the country (and in Georgia). Graham put up quite the fight to avoid testifying, challenging Willis’ subpoena and taking it all the way to the Supreme Court—but the court concluded he must comply.

Immunity deals were accepted

Out of the 16 “fake electors” who signed a certificate falsely awarding Trump victory in Georgia, at least eight agreed to sit for interviews with prosecutors in exchange for immunity in Willis’ investigation. Specific details on that haven’t been made public.

In addition to those fake electors, a jury foreperson told NBC News that a dozen witnesses have secured some level of immunity, including one person who took the stand and refused to respond to questions until an immunity deal was offered.

A grand jury has been sworn in

A special grand jury was first sworn in last year and, over the course of about six months, heard testimony from 75 witnesses. It didn’t have the authority to issue an indictment but did produce a report of its findings. Five pages of that report were released to the public earlier this year and included the conclusion that “perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses.”

In July, two new grand juries were sworn in and both will hear ordinary criminal cases, but only one will be tasked with approving potential charges against Trump and his allies. Both panels will meet every week, twice a week, for a two-month court term.

A decision is expected no later than Sept. 1

Willis wrote a letter to the Fulton County sheriff that said possible criminal indictments could be announced between July 11 and Sept. 1, and requested that law enforcement be ready to protect the public. She noted that violence may ensue, and that “as leaders it is incumbent upon us to prepare.”

Willis also announced her staff would work remotely during the first three weeks of August, requesting judges not to schedule trials during a portion of that time.

Willis could go beyond Georgia

Willis could potentially make use of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is traditionally used to target organized crime. In order to convict under RICO, a prosecutor has to prove a group of people is committing a pattern of two or more crimes, like theft, murder, or drug trafficking. It can result in anywhere from five to 20 years in prison, a fine, or both.

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Willis could make the case for RICO by pointing to how Trump’s fake electors scheme not only impacted Georgia, but fueled similar efforts to overturn election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—all states Trump lost to Biden.

Another ominous sign for Trump: Willis’ team hired John Floyd, an attorney and RICO expert, to assist with the investigation. Floyd previously worked with Willis when she used RICO to prosecute 11 teachers for cheating on students’ competency tests in order to inflate test scores.

Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes seems to be setting the stage for her own criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn her state’s 2020 election results. Anonymous sources told the Washington Post that an Atlanta-area prosecutor was contacted about evidence collected for Georgia’s investigation into Trump’s fake electors scheme.

Source: Slate

What we know about Fani Willis’ investigation so far.

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