Donald Trump’s 18 accomplices: These helpers are also accused in Georgia

Donald Trump faces trial in Georgia for attempting to illegally influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutor Fani Willis has brought 13 charges against the 77-year-old. Among other things, he is said to have urged public officials in the state to violate their oath of office, made false statements and submitted false documents. Some of the charges fall under the so-called Rico Act, which is otherwise used in Georgia for organized crime cases. It allows prosecutors to prosecute multiple defendants simultaneously as part of a criminal organization and prosecute those responsible for an organization’s crimes committed by their co-conspirators.

The Georgia indictment is the fourth against Trump and the second involving the 2020 election he lost. Unlike in the other cases, the ex-president in the southern state is not alone, but together with his allies in the dock. Willis has targeted 18 alleged accomplices in addition to the ex-president and announced that she wants to do the process together. Overall, the indictment lists 19 counts in 41 counts against the 19 accused.

These Donald Trump supporters are charged in Georgia:

Rudy Giuliani

According to the indictment, Trump’s former personal lawyer was his closest collaborator in attempts to turn the election defeat into a victory. In mid-November 2020, a few days after the election, Giuliani, along with several other Trump attorneys, gave a press conference at which he alleged voter fraud in Georgia and other states. As a result, the former mayor of New York visited state capitals and tried to get Republican lawmakers to join the allegations of fraud.

Prosecutor Willis alleges that Giuliani, among other things, violated the Rico Act, incited public officials to violate the oath of office, false testimony and conspiracy to make false testimony, usurpation, forgery and filing false documents.

Mark Meadows

The former White House chief of staff also played a central role in efforts to overturn the election result. Meadows also participated in Trump’s headline-grabbing phone call in January 2021 with Georgia’s election chief Brad Raffensperger, in which ex-President Raffensperger called on him to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to win the Southern state. In December 2020, while the signatures on the postal ballot envelopes were being checked in the suburbs of Georgia’s capital, Atlanta, the 64-year-old drove there, got the phone number of the chief investigator in the Secretary of State’s office, Frances Watson, and gave it to Trump, who called. Meadows’ charges include violating the Rico Act and solicitation of perjury.

John Eastman

The conservative lawyer is said to have broken the Rico law, among other things, and incited public officials to violate their oaths. Eastman used his access to the White House to put direct pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence. He penned a memo arguing that Trump could stay in power if Pence annulled the election results in the Jan. 6, 2021 Congress session to count the electoral college votes. The plan called for seven contested states, including Georgia, to use a series of “by-laws” to falsely confirm that Trump had won in their states. Eastman also helped Giuliani in attempts to persuade state legislators to do so to appoint such pro-Trump “alternate electors”.

Kenneth Chesbro

The lawyer is also said to have been involved in efforts to get Pence to block confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory. He is said to have written memos that were largely the cornerstone of Trump and Eastman’s latest attempts to overturn the election. Prosecutors also allege that in the weeks after the election, on orders from Trump’s campaign team, Chesebro helped Republicans in Georgia implement a plan for 16 Republicans from the state to sign a certificate falsely identifying Trump as the victor and himself the “duly elected and qualified” electors. In the indictment, he is referred to as “Co-conspirator 5”.

Jeffrey Clark

The attorney was a mid-level official at the Justice Department until Trump considered making him attorney general. This should enable Clark to work with the Justice Department to pressure state legislators to nominate new electors. The defendant showed his colleagues a draft letter urging Georgia state officials to call a special session of the Legislature to consider the election results, as he testified before a US House of Representatives investigative committee. He wanted to mail the letter, but his superiors at the Justice Department refused.

Jenna Ellis

The attorney was hired by Trump’s campaign team in November 2019 after defending him on TV, falsely posing as a “constitutionalist”. Ellis appeared with Giuliani in the Georgia Capitol in early December 2020 at a hearing hosted by Republican lawmakers that made false allegations of voter fraud. According to prosecutors, she wrote at least two legal memos to Trump and his attorneys advising Pence to “ignore the confirmed electoral votes from Georgia and other allegedly ’embattled’ states.” In addition, she is said to have asked members of parliament in the states of Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia to reject the election results there. In March of this year, Ellis was reprimanded by a Colorado judge, admitting that she “made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false” “with criminal intent,” particularly while appearing on Fox News. .

David Shaffer

The then Georgia Republican leader was among 16 party members who gathered at the state Capitol on December 14, 2020 to sign an instrument that falsely declared that Trump had won and that they themselves were “duly elected and qualified.” are state electors. According to the indictment, Shafer’s leadership and close ties to the Trump team put him in a special position among the bogus voters. The charges against the 58-year-old include: violation of the Rico law, forgery of documents and criminal attempt to submit false documents.

Shawn Micah Tresher Still

He helped organize the December 14, 2020 meeting of Trump’s fake voters at the Georgia Capitol and was one of the voters himself. Still, who is now a senator in the Georgia Congress, is said to have stood at the door of the room where the group met and admitted the other bogus voters after their IDs were checked, while initially denying access to the public and the media.

Ray Stallings Smith III.

The Atlanta-based attorney filed one of the Trump campaign’s election challenges in state court and sent a letter to state officials raising concerns about voter fraud. He also attended the December 2020 meeting of Trump’s fake voters.

Michael Roman

The member of Trump’s campaign team is said to have played an important role in efforts to field fake voters. Roman sent emails about the plan that were later released by the House Committee of Inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack.

Sydney Powell

The attorney and staunch Trump supporter was among a group that met in November 2020 at the home of conservative attorney Lin Wood in South Carolina “to explore ways of influencing the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” the prosecutor writes. According to Wood, who is licensed to practice law in Georgia, Powell asked him to help locate residents of the state who might be suing the state election results. In addition, emails and documents obtained through subpoenas in another lawsuit would have shown that Powell was involved in organizing a computer forensics team trip to rural Coffee County in January 2021 to illegally recover data and software from copy voting machines.

Cathleen Alston Latham

The defendant, who was also among Trump’s bogus voters, is said to have been involved in a plan to give supporters of the ex-president illegal access to voting machines in Georgia’s Coffee County. Latham was the chair of the Coffee County Republican Party at the time. Surveillance footage shows she met computer forensic scientists working for pro-Trump attorneys at the county elections office, where the forensic scientists copied the voting software and data.

Scott Graham Hall

The owner of a bail bond company was with Latham at the Coffee County elections office when the software was copied there. In a recorded phone call, Hall said he organized a plane to take people to the district and accompanied them as they “went in there and copied every hard drive from every device” and scanned the ballots.

Misty Hampton

The Coffee County Elections Superintendent was also at the county elections office during the data theft. She also allegedly gave access to the polling station later that month for two other men who had been active in contesting the 2020 election results.

Robert Cheley

The Georgia attorney showed lawmakers video footage of poll workers in Atlanta and falsely claimed that those votes doubled, and sometimes even tripled. Cheeley also attempted to connect John Eastman with Georgia state officials to assist in his efforts to overturn the election results.

Stephen Cliffgard Lee

Prosecutors have accused the pastor of working with others to pressure poll worker Ruby Freeman and her mother in Georgia after Trump and his allies falsely accused the women of pulling fake ballots out of a suitcase during the count . Lee reportedly knocked on Freeman’s door and scared her into calling 911 three times, according to a court filing last year. He is charged with violating the Rico Act, attempting to influence witnesses and conspiring to solicit false statements and documents.

Harrison William Prescott Floyd and Trevian C. Kutti

According to the indictment, the head of the group Black Voices for Trump and former publicist for the US singer R. Kelly also tried to influence Ruby Freeman’s testimony before the grand jury.

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