Two indictments have already been filed against Donald J. Trump, but the outcome of an investigation in Georgia into the former president and a number of his allies is likely to be strikingly different.
While the cases filed by the Manhattan District Attorney and Justice Department have focused primarily on Mr Trump himself, a long-running probe into Atlanta prosecutors’ election interference has cast a far broader net: nearly 20 people have already been warned they could face indictments.
Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney, is leading the investigation and has announced she will file charges by mid-August. A special grand jury hearing evidence for about seven months recommended more than a dozen people for indictment, and their boss clearly indicated in a February interview that Mr. Trump was among them.
Because special grand juries are advisory only, Ms. Willis, a Democrat, will present her case next month before a regular grand jury, which can hear indictments, a process that usually takes a day or two.
Trump aides and associates whose conduct was scrutinized as part of the investigation include Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney; Mark Meadows, former White House Chief of Staff; John Eastman, a legal architect of Mr Trump’s efforts to remain in power; and Jeffrey Clark, a former senior Justice Department official who wanted to intervene in Georgia after the 2020 election.
On Friday there were further legal volleys during the investigation. The Trump team submitted an amended motion seeking to disqualify Ms. Willis and dismiss the special grand jury’s work. Ural Glanville, chief justice of the Fulton County Superior Court, issued an order barring all Fulton County judges from hearing the issue and remanding them to another court.
Earlier this week, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously denied a similar request by Mr Trump’s attorneys.
The Georgia probe, which began in February 2021, has looked into whether the former president and his allies illegally interfered in the state’s 2020 presidential election, in which Mr Trump narrowly lost to President Biden. Among other things, prosecutors have been investigating the recruitment of a list of alternative presidential voters even after Georgia’s results were reconfirmed by the state’s Republican leadership.
They also reviewed phone calls Mr Trump used to pressure state officials after the election, including one in which he told Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, that he needed to “rally up” 11,780 votes — more than Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s lead to victory in the state.
Due to the logistics involved in bringing such a high profile case, Ms. Willis has telegraphed a timeline of any charges she may have to bring. In May, she took the unusual step of telling most of her employees to work remotely for the first three weeks of August, and asked judges at a downtown Atlanta courthouse not to schedule a hearing for part of that time. In a letter to 21 county officials, she thanked them “for their consideration and support in ensuring the safety of the Fulton County Judicial Complex during this time.”
Even the former president’s attorneys consider indictment in Georgia a foregone conclusion, they said in a court document Friday “The District Attorney has publicly stated that she is seeking an indictment from a regular grand jury set up last week.”
Similar federal indictments could also come. This week, Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Mr Trump’s attempts to reverse his defeat, told the former president he could face indictment soon. But while Mr. Trump could theoretically derail a federal case or pardon himself if re-elected president, Georgia law provides for a pardon only five years after a sentence has been served. Commuting a sentence would require the approval of a state body.
Charges of racketeering were filed in 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 extensive experience.
Whenever people “hear the word ‘extortion’, they think ‘The Godfather,'” she said, explaining that charges under the Georgian version of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act could apply in any area where corrupt corporations operate.
“If you perform various overt acts for an illegal purpose,” she said at the time, “I think you can get there.”
A number of prominent Trump advisers could face significant legal risk in the case, according to a review of court filings and interviews with dozens of attorneys involved in the investigation. Chief among them is Mr. Giuliani, who has already been told he is a target who could be prosecuted in Georgia.
In the weeks following the 2020 election, Mr. Giuliani peddled false conspiracy theories about secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and damaged voting machines in hearings before state lawmakers. He told members of the House of Representatives, “You can’t possibly certify Georgia in good faith.”
Mr. Meadows was ordered to testify before the special grand jury last year after losing a lawsuit in South Carolina. In December 2020, he made a surprise visit to Cobb County, Georgia, to try to look at an electoral audit in progress there. He also spoke to Frances Watson, Mr Raffensperger’s chief investigator, a day before Mr Trump called Ms Watson and engaged in a rambling conversation about “ballots cast” and the need for “signature verification”.
And in court filings, prosecutors have said Mr Meadows prepared and attended Mr Trump’s call to Mr Raffensperger.
The behavior of a number of lawyers who advised Mr Trump after the election also came under close scrutiny in Georgia, including Mr Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis.
In addition, Ms. Willis and her associates took a significant interest in Mr. Clark’s conduct, although the Department of Justice blocked their efforts to get him to testify. After the 2020 election, Mr. Clark attempted to bypass Justice Department leadership and made false claims about the Department’s findings on the election results in a draft letter to Georgia legislators. In the letter, he also urged lawmakers to take steps to support Mr Trump’s efforts to remain in power.
Senior Justice Department officials eventually prevented him from sending the letter; Mr Clark also failed in his efforts to replace the acting US Attorney General in the final days of the Trump administration.
Mr Trump’s lawyers have attacked the Georgia case in a bid to derail him from indictment. “It’s one thing to indict a ham sandwich,” some of his attorneys said in a recent court filing. “Blaming the mustard-stained napkin it once lay on is another matter altogether.”
Entering the Atlanta courthouse nearly a year ago, Mr. Giuliani said, “We’re not going to talk about this until it’s over.” His attorneys said he had done nothing wrong in Georgia. Mr Eastman defended his behavior in an interview with The Times late last year, saying he was merely a lawyer giving advice and acting in good faith.
George Terdlinger, an attorney for Mr Meadows, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. He recently said that Mr. Meadows “has committed himself to telling the truth where he is legally required to do so.”
Mr Clark has also defended his conduct, saying earlier in the year that it was “cancelled because of the 2020 election, the New York Times etc and the January 6 committee.”
Norman Eisen, special adviser to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment trial, said attempts by the Trump team to thwart the case before indictment were unsuccessful. “It’s a complete sideshow,” he said. “None of the facilities are granted.”
