Who’s who in Trump’s indictment in Georgia?
A total of 19 people, including the former president, were charged in the landmark Fulton County indictment for their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election
The new indictment of Donald Trump in Georgia is the most detailed one so far. It is also the most extensive: 18 associates and supporters of the former president have been indicted with him under racketeering charges as part of a corrupt enterprise to alter the outcome of the 2020 election in that state. These are some of the Republican presidential candidate’s future co-defendants:
Rudy Giuliani, the sweaty former mayor
Trump’s electoral defeat in November 2020 will forever be associated with the image of the former mayor of New York sweating profusely as dye dripped from his hair, attempting to argue to the media — without providing any proof — that fraud had taken place and that Trump had really won the election. Trump’s personal lawyer was one of the masterminds behind the plans to try to overturn the results, including an outlandish plot to bring fake electors to Congress to vote for Trump at the proceeding to certify the results of the election.
Along with his client, Giuliani faces the most charges: thirteen. He is charged with participating in a criminal enterprise in violation of Georgia’s racketeering law; three counts of pressuring an official to violate his oath of office; three counts of false statements; conspiracy to impersonate a public official; two counts of conspiracy to falsify documents; two counts of conspiracy to file false statements; and conspiracy to file false documentation.
The lawyer is also facing a defamation lawsuit filed by two former Georgia election officials, whom he had accused of committing electoral fraud. Giuliani has admitted that his allegations were false, but he also indicated that he will argue that he was exercising his freedom of speech and did not harm the defamed parties.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff
According to the indictment, Trump’s chief of staff also played a key role in the Georgia plot. He is charged with two counts. Meadows organized and was present during several calls from the then-outgoing president to state officials to pressure them to alter the results of the vote, which Joe Biden had won. One such call sparked the legal investigation: a conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the president asked the state official to “find” 11,780 votes, the amount he needed to defeat Biden.
According to the indictment, Meadows conspired with a number of Trump associates to explore ways to keep the president in the White House. He even traveled to Georgia and made a surprise visit to a vote recount center in December 2020.
John Eastman, mastermind of the plan
This conservative lawyer was one of the masterminds behind the fake electors plot and efforts to execute it. In a meeting in which Giuliani also participated, he tried to convince Georgia state legislators that the Republican-majority state senate could appoint their own electors and send them to the certification ceremony. Once there, the vice president, Mike Pence, could decide that they were the state’s real electors and accept their votes for Trump. This attorney also falsely claimed that Trump’s defeat in Georgia was partly the result of the votes of 66,000 minors and 2,500 disenfranchised convicted felons. Eastman is charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to impersonate officials.
Kenneth Chesebro, coordinator in six states
Another attorney, Chesebro, was the first to broach the phony elector scheme, which he proposed to a friend in the Trump campaign. This appellate lawyer reached out to the president’s legal team, including Giuliani, to coordinate schemes in six key swing states, including Georgia. He is charged with seven counts.
Sidney Powell, the prosecutor who spread lies about the election
The former prosecutor was one of the most insistent voices in spreading lies about the election results, including making false allegations that the electronic voting machines were rigged in Biden’s favor. She went as far as to claim that Georgia officials, including Republican Governor Brian Kemp, had received bribes to participate in rigging the election. Trump considered appointing her as a special prosecutor to investigate the results of the election. The indictment also appears to implicate her in an attempt to illegally access voting machine computer systems in Coffee County. She is charged with seven counts.
Jeffrey Clark, the Trump-loving Justice Department official
This mid-level official at the Justice Department is charged with two counts. A Trump supporter, Clark offered to write a letter to the authorities in several swing states in the name of the Justice Department, in which he would claim that the Justice Department had seen indications of voting irregularities and demanded that local officials send their own pro-Trump electors to the certification ceremony on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump was so enthusiastic about Clark that he wanted to appoint him attorney general. That idea was only discarded when Justice Department officials threatened to resign en masse if then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen — who had refused to accept Trump’s falsehoods about the election results — was removed.
David Shafer and Shawn Still, fake electors
Former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer was one of Trump’s fake electors. He chaired and helped organize a meeting of fake electors in December. He is charged with eight counts. Currently a Georgia state legislator, Still was also a fake elector. At the December meeting, he was the person in charge of checking attendees’ identities and preventing the public and the press from accessing the state Capitol room where deliberations were taking place. He is charged with seven counts.
Stephen Cliffgard Lee, the pastor who harassed an election official
This Protestant pastor from Chicago is accused of harassing election official Ruby Freeman and other participants in the recount. Freeman, whom Giuliani had accused of counting “suitcases” full of illegal votes in Atlanta, called the police after Lee knocked on her door several times in December 2020. The pastor replied that he was “working with some folks who are trying to help Ruby out,” and “also get to some truth of what’s going on.“ Through the mediation of others, Lee also tried to set up a meeting with her. He is charged with five counts.
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