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Giantone · 07-24-2022, 06:33 PM

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/u...erference.html

On the Docket: Atlanta v. Trumpworld
Eighteen months into a criminal investigation of election

ATLANTA — The criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia has begun to entangle, in one way or another, an expanding assemblage of characters:

A U.S. senator. A congressman. A local Cadillac dealer. A high school economics teacher. The chair of the state Republican Party. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Six lawyers aiding Trump, including a former New York City mayor. The former president himself. And a woman who has identified herself as a publicist for rapper Kanye West.

Fani Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, has been leading the investigation since early last year. But it is only this month, with a flurry of subpoenas and target letters, as well as court documents that illuminate some of the closed proceedings of a special grand jury, that the inquiry’s sprawling contours have emerged

Fani Willis
American attorney, and District Attorney of Fulton County
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) campaigns in Georgia's Secretary of State Republican primary as Donald Trump looks on, at a rally in Commerce, Ga., March 26, 2022. (Audra Melton/The New York Times)
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) campaigns in Georgia's Secretary of State Republican primary as Donald Trump looks on, at a rally in Commerce, Ga., March 26, 2022. (Audra Melton/The New York Times)
ATLANTA — The criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia has begun to entangle, in one way or another, an expanding assemblage of characters:

A U.S. senator. A congressman. A local Cadillac dealer. A high school economics teacher. The chair of the state Republican Party. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Six lawyers aiding Trump, including a former New York City mayor. The former president himself. And a woman who has identified herself as a publicist for rapper Kanye West.

Fani Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, has been leading the investigation since early last year. But it is only this month, with a flurry of subpoenas and target letters, as well as court documents that illuminate some of the closed proceedings of a special grand jury, that the inquiry’s sprawling contours have emerged.

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For legal experts, that sprawl is a sign that Willis is doing what she has indicated all along: building the framework for a broad case that could target multiple defendants with charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud, or racketeering-related charges for engaging in a coordinated scheme to undermine the election.

“All of these people are from very disparate places in life,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, said of the known witnesses and targets. “The fact that they’re all being brought together really suggests she’s building this broader case for conspiracy.”

What happened in Georgia was not altogether singular. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has put on display how Trump and his allies sought to subvert the election results in several crucial states, including by creating slates of fake pro-Trump electors. Yet even as many Democrats lament that the Justice Department is moving too slowly in its inquiry, the local Georgia prosecutor has been pursuing a quickening case that could pose the most immediate legal peril for the former president and his associates.

Whether Trump will ultimately be targeted for indictment remains unclear. But the David-before-Goliath dynamic may in part reflect that Willis’ legal decision-making is less encumbered than that of federal officials in Washington by the vast political and societal weight of prosecuting a former president, especially in a bitterly fissured country.

But some key differences in Georgia law may also make the path to prosecution easier than in federal courts. And there was the signal event that drew attention to Trump’s conduct in Georgia: his call to the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, whose office, in Willis’ Fulton County, recorded the president imploring him to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to reverse his defeat.

— The secretive plot to send a fake slate of Georgia electors to Washington. While both parties draw up slates of presidential electors in case their candidate prevails, four of those Republican electors in Georgia dropped out after the election. Nonetheless, leading Republican operatives in the state assembled a new slate of Trump electors to disrupt the transfer of power during Congress’ certification of the vote.

— Numerous misstatements made by Giuliani and others before the state legislature during two hearings in December 2020. Giuliani’s conduct in Georgia was already laid bare by a New York state appellate court last year when it suspended his law license. The court’s 33-page report mentioned Georgia 35 times and described “numerous false and misleading statements regarding the Georgia presidential election results,” including false claims that tens of thousands of underage teenagers had voted illegally in Georgia and that voting machines had altered the outcome.

07-24-2022, 06:33 PM	#443
Giantone Gamebreaker Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 14,590	Re: Chaos at the Capitol: New thread edition https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/u...erference.html On the Docket: Atlanta v. Trumpworld Eighteen months into a criminal investigation of election ATLANTA — The criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia has begun to entangle, in one way or another, an expanding assemblage of characters: A U.S. senator. A congressman. A local Cadillac dealer. A high school economics teacher. The chair of the state Republican Party. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Six lawyers aiding Trump, including a former New York City mayor. The former president himself. And a woman who has identified herself as a publicist for rapper Kanye West. Fani Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, has been leading the investigation since early last year. But it is only this month, with a flurry of subpoenas and target letters, as well as court documents that illuminate some of the closed proceedings of a special grand jury, that the inquiry’s sprawling contours have emerged Fani Willis American attorney, and District Attorney of Fulton County Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) campaigns in Georgia's Secretary of State Republican primary as Donald Trump looks on, at a rally in Commerce, Ga., March 26, 2022. (Audra Melton/The New York Times) Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) campaigns in Georgia's Secretary of State Republican primary as Donald Trump looks on, at a rally in Commerce, Ga., March 26, 2022. (Audra Melton/The New York Times) ATLANTA — The criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia has begun to entangle, in one way or another, an expanding assemblage of characters: A U.S. senator. A congressman. A local Cadillac dealer. A high school economics teacher. The chair of the state Republican Party. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Six lawyers aiding Trump, including a former New York City mayor. The former president himself. And a woman who has identified herself as a publicist for rapper Kanye West. Fani Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, has been leading the investigation since early last year. But it is only this month, with a flurry of subpoenas and target letters, as well as court documents that illuminate some of the closed proceedings of a special grand jury, that the inquiry’s sprawling contours have emerged. - ADVERTISEMENT - Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times For legal experts, that sprawl is a sign that Willis is doing what she has indicated all along: building the framework for a broad case that could target multiple defendants with charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud, or racketeering-related charges for engaging in a coordinated scheme to undermine the election. “All of these people are from very disparate places in life,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, said of the known witnesses and targets. “The fact that they’re all being brought together really suggests she’s building this broader case for conspiracy.” What happened in Georgia was not altogether singular. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has put on display how Trump and his allies sought to subvert the election results in several crucial states, including by creating slates of fake pro-Trump electors. Yet even as many Democrats lament that the Justice Department is moving too slowly in its inquiry, the local Georgia prosecutor has been pursuing a quickening case that could pose the most immediate legal peril for the former president and his associates. Whether Trump will ultimately be targeted for indictment remains unclear. But the David-before-Goliath dynamic may in part reflect that Willis’ legal decision-making is less encumbered than that of federal officials in Washington by the vast political and societal weight of prosecuting a former president, especially in a bitterly fissured country. But some key differences in Georgia law may also make the path to prosecution easier than in federal courts. And there was the signal event that drew attention to Trump’s conduct in Georgia: his call to the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, whose office, in Willis’ Fulton County, recorded the president imploring him to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to reverse his defeat. — The secretive plot to send a fake slate of Georgia electors to Washington. While both parties draw up slates of presidential electors in case their candidate prevails, four of those Republican electors in Georgia dropped out after the election. Nonetheless, leading Republican operatives in the state assembled a new slate of Trump electors to disrupt the transfer of power during Congress’ certification of the vote. — Numerous misstatements made by Giuliani and others before the state legislature during two hearings in December 2020. Giuliani’s conduct in Georgia was already laid bare by a New York state appellate court last year when it suspended his law license. The court’s 33-page report mentioned Georgia 35 times and described “numerous false and misleading statements regarding the Georgia presidential election results,” including false claims that tens of thousands of underage teenagers had voted illegally in Georgia and that voting machines had altered the outcome. __________________ ....DISCLAIMER: All of my posts/threads are my expressed typed opinion and the reader is not to assume these comments are absolute fact, law, or truth unless otherwise stated in said post/thread.