- The Fulton County investigation into Trump is intensifying.
- Legal experts point to three Georgia laws that Trump may have violated.
- The Georgia probe against Trump is the most pressing legal challenge against him, experts say.
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Soon after Fannie Willis began her job as Fulton County District Attorney in February 2021, she announced that she would be taking on an investigation of historic proportions — a close examination of Donald Trump.
Now, nearly a year and a half later, Willis appears to be ramping up his local criminal investigation into possible interference by the former Republican president and his associates in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. On July 5, a Fulton County special grand jury issued subpoenas to members of Trump’s inner circle, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, his legal adviser John Eastman and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The latest development signals that Willis is getting closer to gathering the evidence he needs to decide whether to indict Trump, according to several legal experts who spoke to Insider.
When Willis first announced her investigation into the former president, she said it would focus on attempts by Trump and his associates to pressure state officials in Georgia to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The probe has since expanded , to look into an alleged scheme to certify election results from a fake voter list so Trump would win in Georgia instead of the man who actually did it, Joe Biden, according to a recent subpoena for Kenneth Chesebro, Trump’s legal adviser.
Legal experts told Insider that Trump’s Georgia investigation could be the most pressing legal challenge against him. The special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot also put more focus on Trump’s efforts to meddle in the state’s 2020 presidential election results after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testified before the committee and recalled how Trump pressured him to find more votes to overturn the election results.
“The Jan. 6 hearings accelerate the evidence that she should impeach the former president,” Norm Eisen, a former adviser to House Democrats during Trump’s 2019-2020 impeachment campaign, told Willis. “They provide her with additional evidence of the crimes. “
John Dean, the White House counsel to former President Richard Nixon whose public testimony played a crucial role in unraveling the Watergate scandal, told Insider that the public has already seen evidence “that shows (Trump) has a lot of reasons to be concerned.” .”
But others, like Alan Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial, take a different view of the Willis investigation into Trump. Dershowitz told Insider that the process by which Willis conducted his investigation was “deeply flawed.”
“Usually what happens is a crime is committed and then you try to find the person,” he said. “It’s the opposite here. People are looking to solve a crime. Maybe they will find it. It is possible, but I think the process is extremely dangerous.”
Trump attorney Justin Clark did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the Georgia investigation.
Four legal experts spoke to Insider about possible Georgia laws Trump may have violated that could potentially help Willis’ case against him.
A racket
Last March, Willis hired John Floyd, an expert on racketeering cases, to help her investigate Trump. Floyd wrote a book on prosecuting state racketeering cases called RICO State By State: A Guide to Litigation Under the State Racketeering Statutes.
Typically, racketeering charges are related to criminal mobs or gang organizations. But it can also be applied to a group of persons who commit crimes through extortion or coercion. Under Georgia law, this crime carries a minimum prison sentence of at least five years.
Willis also has experience prosecuting such cases. As a Fulton County assistant district attorney, she worked on a high-profile case involving several Atlanta public school teachers who were accused of conspiring to alter their students’ standardized test scores. In 2015, 11 of the 12 school teachers were convicted on racketeering charges.
As a local prosecutor, Willis could use the evidence from Trump’s conversations with election officials in Georgia to bolster her potential case against him, said Nick Ackerman, a former federal prosecutor who also worked on the Watergate prosecution team.
For example, on December 23, 2020, Trump called Frances Watson, who served as the lead investigator for the Georgia Secretary of State’s investigative division, where he called on her to find election fraud. A few days later, on January 2, 2021, Trump called Raffensperger and pressured him to find more votes to overturn the election results.
“This is the strongest case they have against Trump,” Ackerman said. “You have two great witnesses: Raffensperger and (Republic of Georgia Gov. Brian) Kemp. And you have Trump calling the coroner in Georgia. I mean, the evidence there is pretty overwhelming.”
Brad Raffensperger (left), Georgia’s secretary of state, testified before a House committee investigating the riot on Jan. 6. His deputy Gabe Sterling also appeared before the panel. AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Attracting election fraud
Willis could potentially accuse Trump of soliciting election fraud by using the phone calls he made to Raffensperger and Watson as evidence to support her claims. She may also point to the evidence she gathered about Trump’s alleged scheme to send out a fake voter roll to overturn the election results in Georgia, legal experts told Insider.
“The evidence that we have on Donald Trump’s claim of the fake votes and the fake voter ID, I mean, fits Georgia’s claim of election fraud like a glove,” Eisen told Insider.
But her biggest challenge will be proving Trump knew he was committing election fraud when he made those calls to Georgia officials, said Peter Odom, a former Fulton County prosecutor.
“With fraud cases, you have to show that someone knew what they were doing was fraudulent,” Odom, who previously worked similar cases, told Insider.
Odom added that Trump’s possible legal defense could be that he did not intend to commit a crime because he believed there was election fraud.
“If he really thought he had won and was trying to get people to publicize his victory, it could be argued that he did not intend to get people to commit a crime.” He had the intention of making people come to the truth,” he said.
But prosecutors on Willis’ team could point to the number of White House legal advisers and Justice Department officials who have told Trump they have found no evidence to support the idea that the election was rigged.
Some Justice Department officials, such as former Attorney General William Barr, have already testified before a special House committee about his conversations with Trump and how he informed him that there was no election fraud. Barr’s testimony before the House Select Committee was later shown during several of the committee’s public hearings.
Obstruction of election duties
Willis could also potentially charge Trump with a felony count of election interference.
Prosecutors will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump willfully interfered with or attempted to delay an official government proceeding. Her team could point to the calls Trump made to Raffensperger and Watson and argue that he made those calls with the intention of delaying them from fulfilling their election duties,” legal experts said.
Odom told Insider that if Willis were to charge Trump with those crimes, she would have to prove the former president knowingly attempted to commit them.
“The hardest thing to prove in a case like this is the intent of the person committing this crime,” he said. “You have to show that someone did something on purpose … or that they did something with reckless disregard.”
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