For Trump and Allies, Outcome of Georgia Election Inquiry Nears
They have also reviewed phone calls Mr. Trump made to pressure state officials after the election, including one in which he told Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, that he needed to “find” 11,780 votes — one more than Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s margin of victory in the state.
Because of the logistics involved in bringing such a high-profile case, Ms. Willis has telegraphed a timeline for any charges she may bring. In May, she took the unusual step of telling most of her staff to work remotely during the first three weeks of August, and she asked judges in a downtown Atlanta courthouse not to schedule trials for part of that time. In a letter sent to 21 county officials, she thanked them “for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time.”
Even the former president’s lawyers are treating an indictment in Georgia as a foregone conclusion, saying in a legal filing on Friday that “the District Attorney has indicated publicly that she is seeking a bill of indictment from a regular grand jury which was empaneled last week.”
Similar federal charges could also be coming. This week, Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Mr. Trump’s attempts to reverse his defeat, informed the former president that he could soon face indictment. But while Mr. Trump could theoretically derail a federal case or pardon himself if he was re-elected president, Georgia law makes pardons an option only five years after the completion of a sentence. Getting a sentence commuted would require the approval of a state panel.
Racketeering charges were raised as an option from the early days of the Georgia case. In an interview with The New York Times more than two years ago, when the investigation was just beginning, Ms. Willis discussed the possibility of using such charges, with which she has long experience.
Source: The New York Times
