The 6 Interlocking Schemes Fani Willis Is Trying To Make Stick To Teflon Don

Fulton County DA Fani Willis sorted Trump’s attempt to reverse his 2020 election loss into several distinct categories, or schemes, in her indictment of the former President and eighteen others.

Continue reading “The 6 Interlocking Schemes Fani Willis Is Trying To Make Stick To Teflon Don”

Meet The 18 Others Charged With Trump

If you had to Google a few of the 18 non-Trump defendants charged in Fulton County Monday with violating Georgia’s RICO Act, you’re not alone.

Some of them are nearly household names. Their roles in allegedly trying to pressure Georgia officials to throw out the 2020 election results and to otherwise interfere with election certification are publicly known and have been well documented, including through press reports, through the allegations in special counsel Jack Smith’s latest indictment, and through the House Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigative work. Whats new, in these cases, is the Georgia grand jury’s accusation that some of these actions violated state law.

But others named in the indictment are little-known local GOP officials, pastors, party activists — even, in one case, publicists for rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. A whole cast of Trumpworld characters has been indicted in Willis’ state-level prosecution.

Here’s a brief rundown of each of the 19, and details on those you may not be acquainted with quite yet.

Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump is identified by prosecutors as the head of a “criminal enterprise” which, they allege, had the sole aim of manipulating the 2020 election results, including in Georgia. Many of the events that prosecutors describe as Trump’s orchestration of the scheme have long been public. Trump faces 13 counts.

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is depicted in the indictment as one of the central players in multiple facets of the election-overturning scheme. Like Trump, he faces 13 counts, six of which are tied to efforts to create a fake slate of Trump electors. He also faces charges related to his attempts to spread false claims about voter fraud in Georgia during three separate state legislature committee hearings. It was during those hearings that he allegedly pushed false claims of widespread fraud and tried to lobby Republican state lawmakers to get behind the fake electors plot, episodes the indictment details. He’s charged with a count of soliciting lawmakers to violate their oaths of office for those efforts.

In addition to the RICO charge that applies to all of the co-defendants, Trump’s former chief-of-staff Mark Meadows faces a charge of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer related to his alleged participation in events related to the now-infamous phone call in January 2021 in which Trump demanded that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes necessary to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, according to the indictment.

John Eastman, Ken Chesebro

Both attorneys are often referred to as key architects of the fake electors scheme, and are cited in the indictment for the ways in which that scheme played out in Georgia. Both John Eastman and Ken Chesebro face conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer charges for their roles in various elements of the scheme. Eastman also had a hand in trying to pressure then Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the vote on Jan. 6 and, prosecutors allege, helped Giuliani urge state legislatures to appoint pro-Trump electors.

Jeffrey Clark

Jeffrey Clark, a Department of Justice official and stalwart Trump ally, was preoccupied in the final days of 2020 with sending a letter to officials in Georgia to inform them that the DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia,” according to the indictment. The letter also would’ve requested that officials not certify its election results until the Justice Department had had a chance to investigate baseless claims of election fraud. Trump was, as was confirmed in the House Jan. 6 select committee hearings, hoping to appoint Clark as acting attorney general to lead such an investigation, but ultimately didn’t do that upon protest from DOJ officials. This alleged scheme caught prosecutors’ attention; the indictment actually includes a line from that letter, which was not ultimately sent.

Jenna Ellis

Jenna Ellis was Giuliani’s right-hand woman as he traveled to state legislatures attempting to convince Republican lawmakers to go along with the fake electors scheme, according to media reports and details of those hearings outlined in the indictment. She also wrote a memo on December 31, 2020 that “outlined a strategy for disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress,” according to the indictment. That strategy involved having Pence block the certification of the results.

Ray Smith

A lawyer who was hired to be part of Trump’s legal team in Georgia, Smith appeared at all three of the hearings with Giuliani and helped promote false claims about dead voters, according to the indictment and local reports at the time. Smith played a key role in these hearings, prosecutors allege; he testified that more than 130,000 illegal votes had been cast in Georgia in the 2020 election. He also helped gather and question Trump team witnesses in an attempt to back up the false fraud claims, the indictment alleges.

Robert Cheeley

Robert Cheeley, an attorney, faces 10 charges, most of which are tied to the fake electors plot. He appeared at the same Georgia legislative subcommittee hearings and was the lawyer who raised false claims that “election workers at State Farm Arena ordered poll watchers and members of the media to leave the tabulation area on the night of November 3, 2020” in order to overcount Biden votes, the indictment said. He also faces one count of perjury for allegedly making at least one false statement to the grand jury on September 15, 2022 about his communications with Eastman and/or his knowledge of a December 14, 2020 meeting of Trump presidential elector nominees in Georgia, per the indictment.

Mike Roman

A campaign aide at the time, Mike Roman faces charges related to the fake electors scheme as well. Roman helped orchestrate the unofficial “ceremonies” for the slate of false pro-Trump electors, according to reports.

David Shafer, Shawn Still

These are two of the 16 false pro-Trump electors who signed documents on December 14, 2020 claiming to be presidential electors in the state of Georgia. They are indicted for their actions as false electors, among other charges. Shawn Still is a sitting state senator who used to serve as the finance chairman for the Georgia Republican Party. David Shafer is a former Georgia state senator who recently left his position as chairman of the state’s Republican Party. He faces the same charges as Still but is also accused of lying to Fulton County prosecutors on April 25, 2022 about his communications with other fake electors, claiming to prosecutors that he did not “call each of the individual members and notify them of the meeting or make any of the other preparations necessary for the meeting,” the indictment says.

Cathleen Latham

Cathleen Latham is a retired teacher who also signed documents as a false elector. She is the former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party and faces 11 counts, most of which are tied to the Jan. 7, 2021 breach at a Coffee County elections facility. As CNN has reported, she he was allegedly spotted allowing employees of a tech firm — allegedly hired by Trump lawyer Sidney Powell — to enter the building that day. The equipment was later breached and copies were made of election data, per the indictment.

Sidney Powell

Among other charges related to her work on Trump’s legal team, Sidney Powell is also charged with violating Georgia election laws and conspiracy to commit election fraud related to the Coffee County breach. She worked with other Trump lawyers to argue that the federal government had the authority to seize voting machines and, according to the indictment, paid a tech data firm in Fulton County “for the performance of computer forensic collections and analytics on Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Michigan and elsewhere.” That work ultimately resulted in the illegal breach in Coffee County when forensic experts copied election data there.

Scott Hall, Misty Hampton

Both face charges related to the Coffee County breach as well. Scott Hall is a Georgia bail bondsman and another one of the individuals whom Latham allegedly welcomed into the Coffee County elections office on January 7, according to the indictment and media reports. He faces charges related to efforts to illegally breach the voting machine equipment. Misty Hampton was a Coffee County elections supervisor who posted a video that went viral making false claims about Dominion Voting Machines, the Washington Post reported in May 2022. She was present when the Powell-hired forensics team copied data from the Coffee County machines and faces charges for her alleged involvement in giving others access to the elections office later in January, according to the indictment.

Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti

All three allegedly played a role in trying to influence Ruby Freeman’s testimony before the grand jury, prosecutors allege. Freeman was a Fulton County election worker. Per the indictment, Stephen Lee, a pastor from Illinois, allegedly went to Freeman’s home on two separate occasions to try to influence her grand jury testimony. He also allegedly contacted Harrison Floyd — a leader of the Black Voices for Trump group — for help in talking to Freeman, apparently concerned she was “afraid to talk” to him “because he was a white man,” the indictment said.

Floyd then allegedly helped Lee try to convince Freeman to make false statements about Election Day operations. Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Ye, was recruited by Floyd to travel from Chicago to Georgia and engaged in a series of bizarre attempts to persuade Freeman to meet with her — like calling her and telling her she was in danger, the indictment said — to try to influence her grand jury testimony.

Trump, 18 Others Indicted In Fulton County Have 10 Days To Voluntarily Surrender

A Georgia state grand jury which heard evidence about Trump’s attempt to reverse his loss in the 2020 election returned a 41-count indictment late on Monday, charging Trump and 18 others, including Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis; and Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark.

Continue reading “Trump, 18 Others Indicted In Fulton County Have 10 Days To Voluntarily Surrender”

Fani Willis Lowers The Boom On Donald Trump In Massive Indictment

This is special edition of TPM’s Morning Memo entirely devoted to Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia. As the song goes: “He was in a bind ’cause he was way behind/And he was willin’ to make a deal.” Sign up for the email version.

Good Morning!

The action in Atlanta came a day earlier than expected.

After a marathon session Monday, a Georgia grand jury returned a monster 41-felony-count, 97-page indictment against a total of 19 defendants, including former President Donald Trump; Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis; and Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark.

It was a strange day of uncertainty and expectation, with moment-by-moment reporting from the Fulton County courthouse. The duty judge would poke his head into the courtroom of waiting reporters to do check-ins. Grand jury witnesses scheduled to testify today made public that they had been called in a day early and offered regular updates as to where they stood in the line of witnesses paraded before the grand jury. The presentation of the indictment to the duty judge was televised live. Reporters were taking photographs from the inside of the clerk of court’s office as they waited an agonizing couple of hours for the paperwork to be processed and the indictment made public.

The day was punctuated by what appeared to be the accidental posting then quick takedown from the clerk’s website of a document seemingly related to the case that listed Trump as a defendant. That sparked an initial round of excitement and panic, then confusion. The clerk’s office later issued a statement calling the document “fictitious.” But it remained unclear exactly what had happened and why.

As the drama stretched deep into the evening, it became increasingly clear that District Attorney Fani Will was pushing to finish the indictment the same day. The duty judge kept the courtroom open late to accept the indictment, should it come. It finally did, just before 9 p.m. ET. The indictment became public just before 11 p.m. ET.

Watch Fani Willis

Shortly after the indictment became public late Monday night, Atlanta DA Fani Willis spoke to the press:

Great Breakdown

It’s easy to get lost in big sweeping indictments like this one, so breaking down the structure can help you absorb it. This is spot on:

The structure, including the overarching RICO count, is actually tight and focused, even if the overt acts alleged and the geographic and temporal reach of the indictment is sweeping.

The Counts

Typically I would outline each of the counts by defendant, but it’s too unwieldy this time. I would just refer you to the first four pages of the indictment, which breaks it down succinctly.

To be clear though, the overall thrust of the indictment is familiar. It tells the story we already know of the election interference effort in Georgia. But it is broad and all-encompassing, reaching into overt acts committed in other states and mirroring much of what we know about the national-level conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election.

This is not the narrow focused Jan. 6 indictment only of Trump with which Special Counsel Jack Smith started. This is whole enchilada, or close to it, but with a Georgia-specific angle.

All About Trump

The former president is mentioned 193 times in the indictment. And then there’s this gem:

The Alleged Conspiracy Stretched Into September 2022

The indictment charges that the conspiracy began on Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the election, and didn’t end until Sept. 15, 2022, when Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley allegedly committed perjury in front of the special grand jury.

Nice To See You Again

Five of the six unindicted and unnamed co-conspirators in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 indictment of Trump are actually indicted in the Georgia case. The identity of the sixth co-conspirator remains a bit of a mystery.

One BIG Trial

Fani Willis announced that she plans to try all of the defendants together.

What Comes Next?

The 19 defendants have until noon, Friday, August 25 to voluntarily surrender. Willis said she would be seeking a trial date of about six months out.

A Brand-New Judge

The Trump indictment has been randomly assigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, a former prosecutor and state inspector general appointed to the bench by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and sworn in this past … February.

Let Me Be Earnest For A Moment

Among the most striking moments of the last 24 hours:

  • The former president indicted for the fourth time this year, the second for trying to stay in power unlawfully. And of course there were two impeachments tied to his effort to unlawfully remain in power.
  • A Black woman DA surrounded by a diverse staff in a plurality-Black county bringing down a rancid racist like Trump, whose Big Lie was drenched in racial grievance and stereotyping. Never forget Ruby Freeman.
  • The power of the state to deprive a citizen of their liberty still comes down to a plodding, bureaucratic, paper-pushing process of making things official, memorializing formal acts, and doing so in a public way. I mean all of that in the best possible way. The fact that much it was televised (and that this trial will be televised) is a bonus.

Ironies Abound

Behold

Memory Lane

The above AJC front page is a far cry from this 2007 glamour shot at an event for the long-since-defunct glossy mag Atlanta Peach:

Donald Trump during Peach Magazine One Year Anniversary Party – April 13, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. (Photo by Ben Rose/WireImage)

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Striking Number Of GOP Figures Feature In The Fulton County Indictment

Several top members of the Republican Party now face criminal charges for their alleged involvement in the attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Continue reading “Striking Number Of GOP Figures Feature In The Fulton County Indictment”

Where Things Stand

For those of you following along at home, your TPM evening briefing, written by me, has moved to a new location — same time, same place, but we’ve moved it out of the editor’s blog and onto the main frontpage. You can now find Where Things Stand over here ➡︎➡︎➡︎

Where Things Stand: RFK Jr. Applies His Just-Asking-Questions Gambit To Abortion Politics Too

Anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist and Kennedy family black sheep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long track record of back-tracking his way around public life, spouting problematic and often dangerous viewpoints in public only to quickly reverse course in the wake of criticism or claim he was just offering an alternate perspective.

He’s demonstrated this pattern in increasingly befuddling ways over the years, from suggesting that the C.I.A. killed his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, to claiming Republicans stole the 2004 election from John Kerry to his vaccine skepticism. The latter is perhaps what he is best known for.

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California Bar Says It’s Not Buying Eastman’s Rationale For Delay, Citing Recent Interviews

The California State Bar responded to Trump coup attorney John Eastman’s request to postpone disbarment proceedings against him, arguing that special counsel Jack Smith’s latest indictment of Donald Trump is not a good enough reason to delay the license trial.

Continue reading “California Bar Says It’s Not Buying Eastman’s Rationale For Delay, Citing Recent Interviews”

Trump’s Dominance Cage Match with The Courts and Why He has To Lose

As you know, there’s been chatter about whether President Biden should pardon Donald Trump. Of course, before that there was a lot of discussion about whether Trump should be indicted at all. (Jack Goldsmith is still discussing it.) In both cases, the reasoning, such as it is, has been about bringing the country together, avoiding national divisions or sparking a pattern of tit-for-tat presidential prosecutions. It’s also possible the same underlying question could come up again.

There are some who think there’s a non-trivial chance that at some point perhaps early next year Trump will seek a plea deal. I really can’t imagine that happening. But some people whose common sense and judgment I put a lot of stock in do. Their reasoning isn’t bad. If you put all these cases together Trump is highly likely to be spending the rest of his his life in prison. Staying out of jail requires winning the 2024 election. He might get lucky in one venue. He might get a hung jury. He might beat some of the charges. But even batting .500 likely gets a de facto life term. And Trump, for all his bluster, is deeply risk averse. That’s where the plea deal idea comes in. Again, I think this is unlikely. But if it does we will come back to the same question, how much punishment is required? Either for justice, equality under the law or deterrence. Can he bow out of the race, admit to some offenses and get off with a comparatively light global sentence? What would justify that?

My reason for writing this post today is that I think this way of looking at the question gets the calculus wrong. The news David covers today, of Trump spending the weekend attacking DC district Judge Tanya Chutkan, explains why. This entire range of cases Trump faces, indeed Trump’s whole decade-long smash and grab run through American public life, is about one thing: who is bigger? The American republic, the state, or Donald Trump?

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