Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who began investigating nearly two years ago, has said she’s going to go where the facts lead. It could be a unprecedented step if she chooses to bring charges against Trump himself.
“Even when he’s acquitted by a jury, for him to face trial and to have a public trial with evidence on the record can be an epic thing for American history,” Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham said.
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Over about six months, the grand jurors have considered evidence and heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including high-profile Trump associates and top state officials. A prosecutor on Willis’ team said during a hearing in November that they’d few witnesses left and didn’t anticipate the special grand jury continuing for much longer.
The grand jurors are expected to provide a final report with recommendations on potential further motion. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s supervising the panel, will review the report and recommend to the court’s chief judge that the special grand jury be dissolved. The judges of the county Superior Court will then vote on whether to let the special grand jurors go or whether more investigation is crucial.
The special grand jury cannot issue indictments. Willis will determine whether to go to an everyday grand jury to pursue criminal charges.
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION?
For greater than a yr after opening the investigation, Willis revealed little. But, sarcastically, once the special grand jury began meeting in June, its proceedings shrouded in mandatory secrecy, hints about where the investigation was headed began to return out.
That’s because at any time when Willis desired to compel the testimony of somebody who lives outside Georgia, she needed to file paperwork in a public court docket explaining why that person was a “crucial and material witness.” Moreover, anyone fighting a summons needed to achieve this in public court filings and hearings.
Within the paperwork Willis filed looking for to compel testimony from some Trump associates, she said she desired to learn about their communications with the Trump campaign and others “involved within the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the outcomes of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
“We learned from the identity of the witnesses that it is a far-ranging conspiracy that she’s ,” said Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee throughout the first Trump impeachment and co-wrote a Brookings Institution report analyzing the “reported facts and applicable law” within the Fulton County investigation.
HAVE THERE BEEN SETBACKS?
Quite a lot of Trump advisers and allies fought Willis’ attempts to bring them in for testimony, but Willis prevailed most often.
“I believe that augurs well for the pretrial skirmishing to return if she charges,” Eisen said.
Willis had a notable misstep when she hosted a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor whilst her investigation zeroed in on the state’s fake electors, including Burt Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. McBurney said that created “a plain — and actual and untenable — conflict” and ruled that Willis couldn’t query or pursue charges against Jones, who won election in November.
WHAT’S BEEN THE FOCUS OF THE INVESTIGATION?
The knowledge that has come out publicly has indicated that Willis was the next:
— Phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials within the wake of the 2020 election
— A gaggle of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors
— False allegations of election fraud made during meetings of state legislators on the Georgia Capitol in December 2020
WHAT ABOUT THAT INFAMOUS PHONE CALL?
In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the president suggested that the state’s top elections official, a fellow Republican, could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss within the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
A month later, Willis sent letters to Raffensperger and other top state officials instructing them to retain records because she was investigating “attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.”
Trump told Raffensperger he needed 11,780 votes, yet one more than Biden won. That was a mistake, Cunningham said, because the particular and transactional nature of that comment makes it hard to say he was just generally urging Raffensperger to look into alleged fraud.
But other legal experts have said prosecutors could struggle to prove criminal intent, which requires showing that actions were taken purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently.
WHAT CHARGES MIGHT BE CONSIDERED?
In her February 2021 letters to state leaders, Willis said she was looking into potential crimes that included “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and native governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”
Many imagine Willis will pursue charges under the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, commonly often known as RICO. In a high-profile prosecution when she was an assistant district attorney, she used that law successfully to secure charges against Atlanta educators in a test cheating scandal. She has also used it more recently to focus on alleged gang activity.
The state RICO law, which is broader than the federal version, requires prosecutors to prove a pattern of criminal activity by an enterprise, which may very well be a single person or a gaggle of associated individuals. It allows prosecutors to say involvement in a pattern of criminality without having to prove that all and sundry participated in every act.
Eisen said RICO seems “most commensurate with the character of the people testifying and the questions that she desired to ask.”
Because the special grand jury was working, Willis informed some those that they were targets of the investigation, including Giuliani and the state’s 16 fake electors. It’s possible others received similar notifications but have not disclosed that publicly.
The previous president has consistently called his phone call with Raffensperger “perfect” and has dismissed the Fulton County investigation as a witch hunt.
Criminal defense attorney Drew Findling, a part of Trump’s legal team in Georgia, in August said the give attention to Trump “is clearly an erroneous and politically driven persecution.”
Trump allies have also denied any wrongdoing.
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