On Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was widely reported to be presenting some of her case — potentially against Donald Trump and other allies of his — to a grand jury in Georgia, which would need to approve any criminal charges before they were finalized.
Trump himself also took notice, and he posted the following on Truth Social: “I UNDERSTAND THROUGH ILLEGAL LEAKS TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA THAT PHONEY FANI WILLIS, THE D.A. OF FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, WANTS DESPERATELY TO INDICT ME ON THE RIDICULOUS GROUNDS OF TAMPERING WITH THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. NO, I DIDN’T TAMPER WITH THE ELECTION! THOSE WHO RIGGED & STOLE THE ELECTION WERE THE ONES DOING THE TAMPERING, & THEY ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. I MADE A PERFECT PHONE CALL OF PROTEST. WHY WASN’T THIS FAKE CASE BROUGHT 2.5 YEARS AGO? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
Since the 2020 election, many investigations have been conducted into its handling, and nowhere in the country has a court or recognized authority actually undone any portion of Joe Biden’s victory in that race, let alone tied it to fraudulent activity. The phone call to which Trump is referring is again his conversation after the 2020 race with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a top elections official with whom Trump pleaded for action on that year’s results.
Trump also had similar phone conversations with other officials, including in Arizona and Wisconsin, the latter of which came after he left office and after a ruling from the state Supreme Court that mostly banned the use of drop boxes for mail-in ballots in the state. Mail-in ballots, though rigorously secured, were a consistent target for conspiracy theories about the 2020 race from Trump’s corner.
The expected case in Georgia would be the fourth criminal case against Trump. The third, brought federally by Special Counsel Jack Smith and covering Trump’s allegedly criminal conspiracies to subvert the election, is widely supported by Americans. A full 51 percent of registered voters approved of the indictment in recent polling done by YouGov in association with The Economist and completed on August 8.
