Who is indicted alongside Trump in Georgia election case?

April 22, 2024

Four of the 18 co-defendants charged alongside former President Donald Trump for allegedly participating in a wide-ranging effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia have pleaded guilty.

The alleged co-conspirators include well-known Trump allies — including his attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows – as well as relatively unknown collaborators, including a former Georgia bail bondsman and the former director of elections for Coffee County, Georgia. The charges, from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, range from racketeering to conspiracy to committing election fraud.

WATCH: What Sidney Powell’s guilty plea means for Trump in his Georgia election subversion case

Trump has also been charged in two federal investigations, for his handling classified documents after leaving office and for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including events preceding the Jan. 6 attack. Trump has also been charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The indictment accuses personal lawyer Michael Cohen of making hush money payments on Trump’s behalf to silence alleged affairs.

The co-defendants who have pleaded guilty in the Georgia case include Scott Graham Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, as well as Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, three of Trump’s lawyers.

Hall pleaded guilty in September to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, receiving a sentence of five years of probation.

Powell pleaded guilty Oct. 19 to six misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties. She was ordered to six years of probation and a $6,000 fine. Chesebro pleaded guilty a day later to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing of false documents, and must pay a $5,000 fine, serve five years of probation and perform 100 hours of community service.

Ellis pleaded guilty to one felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings on Oct. 24, and also must pay a $5,000 fine, serve five years of probation and perform 100 hours of community service.

All three lawyers were required to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents, and all co-defendants who pleaded guilty agreed to testify in any future trial.

Here is what we know about the people who were indicted alongside Trump in Georgia.

Rudy Giuliani

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for former U.S. President Donald Trump during challenges to the 2020 election results, exits U.S. District Court after attending a hearing in a defamation suit related to the 2020 election results that has been brought against Giuliani by two Georgia election workers, at the federal courthouse in Washington, U.S., May 19, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis

What was Giuliani’s role?

Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York, became one of Trump’s personal lawyers in 2018. After Trump lost the 2020 election, he spearheaded Trump’s attempts to overturn the results in courts and state legislatures.

What charges does Giuliani face in Georgia?

Giuliani has been charged on 13 counts:

Violation of the Georgia RICO act
3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer
3 counts of false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit filing false documents

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

Giuliani is one of the 18 people charged under Georgia’s RICO law, which is typically used to prosecute criminal organizations. In addition to the racketeering charges, Willis alleges Giuliani solicited the violation of an oath by a public officer by persuading Georgia state senators and representatives to appoint a set of alternate electors who would cast their vote for Trump in the Electoral College instead of Biden, who had lawfully won. She also charged Giuliani with conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, filing false documents, and making false statements in Georgia legislative meetings, during which he falsely claimed there were voting errors and fraud.

Is Giuliani involved in other investigations?

Giuliani is believed to be one of six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators discussed in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment. Smith alleges this unnamed co-conspirator headed Trump’s effort to challenge the 2020 election results despite knowing that Biden had won. Election officials in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan were pressured to alter the results, and failing that, accuses a plan was made to identify an alternate slate of electors who would vote for Trump instead of Biden. Finally, Smith says Trump and this unnamed co-conspirator continued to call lawmakers in the hours after the Jan. 6 attack to ask them to stall the certification of the electors’ votes when they returned to complete the count at the Capitol.

Mark Meadows

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters following a television interview, outside the White House in Washington, U.S. October 21, 2020. Photo by Al Drago/REUTERS

What was Meadows’ role?

Meadows was closely aligned with Trump when he represented North Carolina in Congress, where he chaired and helped found the House Freedom Caucus. In early 2020, just before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, Trump replaced Mick Mulvaney – his acting chief of staff of more than a year – with Meadows.

What charges does Meadows face in Georgia?

Meadows was charged on two counts:

Violation of the Georgia RICO act
Solicitation of violation of oath by public officer

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

Meadows is one of 18 people charged under the state’s RICO law.

In the indictment, Meadows is described as playing a supporting role, such as seeking out phone numbers or joining a call, including the conversation with Trump and former Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” enough for him to win Georgia. According to the indictment, it was this call which led to the charge of encouraging a public officer to violate their oath.

Meadows is accused of organizing other phone calls for Trump, texting a Georgia official about whether financial assistance from the Trump campaign would speed up a vote verification process and traveling to the state in an attempt to oversee an election audit that was not open to the public, all of which furthered the conspiracy, according to Willis.

Is Meadows involved in other investigations?

Meadows is not believed to be one of the six co-conspirators in the federal indictment from special counsel Jack Smith. He is mentioned a few times, with Smith alleging he sent an email about alternate electors. Prosecutors also pointed to Meadows’ actions as Trump’s chief of staff, such as when he urged Trump to calm the violence on Jan. 6, in direct comparison to the former president’s unwillingness to accept his loss.

Sidney Powell

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference on election results in Alpharetta, Georgia, U.S., December 2, 2020. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

What was Powell’s role?

Powell began working for Trump’s personal legal team after he lost the 2020 election. She filed numerous unsuccessful lawsuits on his behalf, alleging voter fraud and corruption.

What charges did Powell plead guilty to in Georgia?

Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors related to intentionally interfering with election duties.

In return, Powell will serve six years of probation, pay a fine of $6,000 and write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She has also agreed to testify truthfully, potentially against her co-defendants, in any future trial.

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

District Attorney Fani Willis alleged that Powell illegally accessed voting data from the Coffee County Board of Elections.

The indictment alleged that Powell entered into a contract with Sullivan Strickler, whose employees set out to remove and examine voting data, from Dominion Voting Systems, tamper with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines, and remove official ballots from Coffee County polling locations in December 2020 and January 2021.

Willis also said Powell lied in a May 2022 deposition before the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, saying that she “didn’t have any role in really setting up” the efforts to access the voting data in Coffee County or in Michigan, didn’t know what happened and couldn’t remember whether the effort was led by Giuliani or others.

Is Powell involved in other investigations?

Powell is believed to be “co-conspirator 3” in Smith’s federal indictment, based on the descriptions provided by prosecutors.

Powell is largely absent from that indictment, except for one section detailing her efforts to overturn the results in Georgia. Smith details Powell’s lawsuit against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, in which she falsely claimed that Dominion Voting Systems helped perpetrate “massive voter fraud.”

Kenneth Chesebro

Court Hearing In The Fulton County 2020 Election Interference Trial

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who worked in connection with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, appears before Judge Scott McAfee in a hearing related to the 2020 election interference case on October 10, 2023 in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images

What was Chesebro’s role?

Chesebro is an attorney with Wisconsin roots who allegedly proposed and helped coordinate the “fake electors” scheme.

What charge did Chesebro plead guilty to in Georgia?

Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

In return, Cheseboro will serve five years of probation, perform 100 hours of community service, pay a fine of $5,000 and write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. He also agreed to testify truthfully, potentially against his co-defendants, in any future trial.

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

The indictment alleges that Chesebro helped devise the fake elector scheme, writing a memo in early December 2020 to a Trump campaign lawyer that outlines how electors for Trump could subvert the electoral vote in Wisconsin in mid-December. Chesebro followed up with another memo that included “detailed, state-specific instructions for how Trump presidential elector nominees in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin would meet and cast electoral votes” for Trump.

Chesebro allegedly contacted Republican officials in different states to ask them to help execute the plan, and shared documents or suggested language that they could use.

Another email penned by Chesebro two days before Jan. 6 outlined “multiple strategies for disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress,” the indictment says. Chesebro allegedly wrote these strategies were “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”

Is Chesebro involved in other investigations?

Chesebro is believed to be one of the six unnamed co-conspirators in the federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Documents uncovered by the House Jan. 6 committee and details shared in the indictment suggest that Chesebro is co-conspirator 5, “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

The report from the House Jan. 6 committee investigation also details how Chesebro, Trump lawyer John Eastman and the former president continued to pursue the “fake electors scheme” after all the 2020 election lawsuits had concluded despite warnings from the campaign election lawyers that the idea was not lawful or feasible.

Jeffrey Clark

Jeffrey Clark, then assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, speaks in 2020. File photo by Susan Walsh/Pool via REUTERS

What was Clark’s role?

A former assistant attorney general in the Trump administration, Clark was one of the few Justice Department officials who allegedly joined the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to witness testimony at hearings by the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

What charges does Clark face in Georgia?

Clark was charged on two counts:

Violation of the Georgia RICO act
Criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

Prosecutors allege Clark twice asked Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Assistant Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue for permission to notify Georgia officials that the Department of Justice had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia” – a claim that was untrue.

Prosecutors said the attempts to send those false statements also constitute a violation of the RICO act, alleging they were part of the broader conspiracy to overturn the election. The indictment identified a 63-minute phone call about the presidential election between Clark and Scott Graham Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, as part of the conspiracy, but did not include the details of the call.

Is Clark involved in other investigations?

There are six co-conspirators discussed in the federal indictment following the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith. Clark is believed to be “co-conspirator 4,” based on the descriptions provided by prosecutors.

The indictment appears to lay out much of what was already unearthed during the Jan. 6 hearings. It alleges Clark had unsanctioned contact with Trump and details his attempts to persuade Rosen and Donoghue to sign and send a letter from the Justice Department to Georgia officials falsely alleging election fraud.

Prosecutors also say Clark accepted Trump’s offer to become acting attorney general. However, like the other five co-conspirators, the federal indictment does not charge Clark with any crimes.

John Eastman

In this 2021 photo, attorney John Eastman speaks next to former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, as Trump supporters gathered ahead of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Jim Bourg/ Reuters

What was Eastman’s role?

John Eastman is an attorney who advised Trump near the end of his presidency. Ahead of the 2020 election, Eastman was brought on to Trump’s legal team by attorney Cleta Mitchell to help handle “anticipated post-election litigation,” according to a 2022 legal filing related to the House Jan. 6 committee investigation.

Eastman also spoke on Jan. 6 at Trump’s rally at the Ellipse, repeating false claims of election fraud before the crowd.

What charges does Eastman face in Georgia?

Eastman was charged on nine counts:

Violation of Georgia’s RICO Act
Solicitation of violation of oath by public officer
Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit filing false documents
Filing false documents

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

The indictment alleges that Eastman and other Trump associates contacted state officials in Arizona and Georgia whom they pressured to unlawfully appoint alternate slates of presidential electors who would vote in favor of Trump, in “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”

Eastman and Trump are accused of filing a false document in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that made multiple false claims that thousands of ineligible people voted illegally in the Georgia election. Earlier that day, according to the indictment, Eastman had admitted in an email to attorneys connected with the Trump campaign that some of these claims were not true.

Prosecutors also highlighted an alleged meeting between Eastman, Trump and Pence that was held a few days before Jan. 6. The former president and Eastman allegedly suggested that Pence should attempt to delay the official date for counting electoral votes in order to make time for certain states to appoint unlawful electors. According to Willis’ indictment, Eastman said during the meeting that these options “violated the Electoral Count Act.”

Is Eastman involved in other investigations?

Based on the descriptions provided by prosecutors, Eastman is believed to be “co-conspirator 2” in the federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The indictment alleges he encouraged lawmakers in certain states to decertify legitimate electors. It also alleges that in late December 2020, the individual “circulated a two-page memorandum outlining a plan for the Vice President to unlawfully declare [Trump] the certified winner of the presidential election,” while also acknowledging that his proposal would violate the Electoral Count Act.

Jenna Ellis

FILE PHOTO: Trump campaign representatives hold news conference on 2020 U.S. presidential election results in Washington

FILE PHOTO: Trump Campaign Senior Legal Advisor Jenna Ellis speaks during a news conference about the 2020 U.S. presidential election results at Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, U.S., November 19, 2020. Photo by REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

What was Ellis’ role?

Conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis worked for former Trump’s reelection campaign. She joined the campaign legal team in 2019, and was part of a lawsuit against The Washington Post, accusing the newspaper of publishing “false and defamatory” statements in two opinion pieces that suggested Trump’s team had colluded with Russia. A judge dismissed the case in February.

After Trump’s loss, he appointed Giuliani, Ellis and Powell to investigate fraud and help him attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

What charges did Ellis plead guilty to in Georgia?

Ellis pleaded guilty to a reduced felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings on Oct. 24. In court, Ellis tearfully read from a prepared statement, in which she said she relied on information provided to her by more experienced lawyers and did not check to confirm those claims were true.

What did the Fulton County indictment allege?

The indictment said that Ellis’ involvement in the conspiracy to overturn election results began at a November 2020 press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, where she appeared alongside former Trump lawyers and fellow co-defendants Giuliani and Powell. At that event, the lawyers presented false evidence of election fraud and accused states of suppressing votes.

Ellis went on to travel primarily with Giuliani to Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan, with the goal of convincing elected officials to replace their states’ legally selected electors with those who would instead cast votes for Trump.

In Georgia, prosecutors alleged Ellis met with members of the state’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee and urged them to appoint a second set of electors. The indictment said this both furthered the conspiracy and was also a solicitation of the violation of a public officer’s oath.

Ellis was also accused of writing two memos, incorrectly suggesting Pence had the authority to prevent Congress from counting certain states’ electoral college votes during the Jan. 6 certification of Biden’s election win.

Is Ellis involved in other investigations?

Ellis is not believed to be one of the six co-conspirators in the federal indictment from special counsel Jack Smith.

Ray Smith III

Ray Smith in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via REUTERS

What was Smith’s role?

Smith was Trump’s local attorney of record in Georgia. He is a partner and head of litigation at Smith & Liss, where he specializes in “business, real estate, election and probate litigation.”

What charges does Smith face in Georgia?

Smith was charged on 12 counts:

Violation of the Georgia RICO act
3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer
2 counts of false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
2 counts to conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit filing false documents

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

Prosecutors alleged Smith worked to overturn the election in multiple steps, including claiming to members of Georgia’s state Senate and House of Representatives that there had been widespread voter fraud, which the indictment suggests he knew to be untrue. He also helped appeal to state lawmakers to appoint a slate of alternate electors who would vote for Trump instead of Biden in the Electoral College and encouraged the false Trump elector nominees to sign a document titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Georgia.”

Is Smith involved in other investigations?

Smith is not believed to be one of the six co-conspirators in the federal indictment from special counsel Jack Smith.

Scott Hall

Republican poll watcher Scott Hall is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 22, 2023. Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via REUTERS

What was Hall’s role?

Hall is a bail bondsman in Georgia and is the brother-in-law of David Bossie, who served as Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016.

Hall was chief executive of Anytime Bail Bonding, based in Augusta, Ga. In 2012, he was elected president of the Professional Bail Agents of the United States, a trade group representing his industry. He also lobbied for the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen in the state’s legislature, where he developed relationships with politicians. Hall believed the election had been tampered with, and used some of his networks to perpetuate his theories.

What charge did Hall plead guilty to in Georgia?

Hall pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties.

What does the Fulton County indictment allege?

Prosecutors cited an email from Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer that Hall had “been looking into the election on behalf of the President at the request of David Bossie,” as early as Nov. 20, 2020.

In addition to various phone calls Hall made and received at the beginning of January 2021, which prosecutors do not explain in detail, Hall is largely indicted as part of the alleged effort to access and remove voter data and elections equipment from the Coffee County Board of Elections.

Is Hall involved in other investigations?

Hall is not believed to be one of the six co-conspirators in the federal indictment from special counsel Jack Smith.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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