A new report from The Guardian claims that racketeering charges are taking shape in the criminal investigation in Georgia that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been leading into attempts after the last presidential election to essentially meddle with the outcome for Trump.
The July 21 report said Willis “has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month,” with potential charges focusing on individual offenses of targeting witnesses and computer trespass. The latter allegation could cover ploys in Coffee County, Georgia, to copy sensitive data from local election systems amid attempts to prove the existence of election fraud. Those efforts, which were conducted in effective cooperation with Trump ally Sidney Powell, among others, mirrored attempts to covertly access elections data in other states.
Willis would still need to obtain the approval of a grand jury before the issuance of any such charges, which are generally expected to implicate Trump save some last-minute redirection. Trump is also anticipating possible charges in the related investigation from Jack Smith, the special counsel at the federal Justice Department who has been examining election meddling attempts after the 2020 presidential race.
And in Michigan, prosecutors announced surprise criminal charges against individuals who participated as effectively sham electors for Trump, assembling documentation claiming electoral votes for Trump from the state despite Biden’s win there. Excuses for the ploy have included the contention it was meant as a backstop for Trump if legal challenges were successful. There wasn’t any widely accepted, open question as to whether those challenges would be successful by the time actual members of the electoral college were participating in balloting, considering the consistently failed record for the court cases that Trump and allies of his were bringing.
The slate of electoral votes claimed for Trump in Georgia despite Biden’s win there has also been a focus for Willis. Others besides Trump potentially facing implication in Georgia include Rudy Giuliani and some of those who participated as the claimed electors on Donald’s behalf.
