The selection of Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor with experience at the international and national levels by United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, as Special Prosecutor in the recent investigations of whether former President Trump violated public records and confidentiality standards when he took highly classified and classified documents to his private residence at Mar-a-lago in Florida. This appointment comes hard on the heels of the recent general election as well as the conclusion of the investigative work of the January 6th Committee in the U.S. House. However, this activity represents a flurry of prosecutorial activity. One of the most significant threads of legal activity in the Trump investigations is occurring in Georgia.
The 2020 Presidential electoral cycle proved one of the most contentious in American history. Never has a sitting President refused to acknowledge the lawful election of their successor. The lack of acknowledgement is one thing, but to take action to contravene the electoral process and certification at the state and federal level is quite another. Determined to hold on to the reins of power, former President Trump and his acolytes exerted pressure on the Secretary of State in mostly Republican states to either declare large numbers of absentee ballots as fraudulent or to refuse to certify the results. When these efforts failed in battleground states, Trump supporters encouraged by a raucous speech at Washington DC’s Ellipse Park stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th to prevent the certification of the votes from states by the U.S. Congress.
Although the storming of the Capitol proved the icing on the cake in the electoral drama, the run up to these unprecedented events has proven equally fascinating. This was particularly the case in battleground states such as Arizona and Georgia. Georgia proved particularly troublesome for Trump because the state has been reliably Republican in past electoral cycles. The Republican loss of not only the presidential race, but the subsequent election of two Democratic senators proved damaging to Republican morale. Efforts by Trump and his campaign officials to reportedly sway the election through direct and indirect pressure on election officials, harassment of officials, tampering with the process and recruiting fake electors deserve investigation.
Investigating these shenanigans is proving to be a daunting task. Fani Willis, Fulton County District Attorney is on the case. She is a graduate of Howard University and the Emory University School of Law. She served as a prosecutor for 16 years in the Fulton County prosecutor’s office. She was elected District Attorney and is the first woman elected to this position. Willis is pursuing several lines of investigation.
The lines of investigation in Georgia revolve around four issues. Willis is looking at potential criminal wrongdoing in calls Trump and his allies made to Georgia officials including false statements made to lawmakers, harassment of election officials, the tampering of election systems in one county in southern Georgia and attempting to send false electors to Washington, DC.
Willis opened a criminal investigation immediately following the highly publicized calls between Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Rafffensperger. Reportedly Trump and his allies also put pressure on the state’s attorney general and governor to find votes to overturn Biden’s win. In this instance, Willis is investigating this conduct under a Georgia law which prohibits the solicitation of electoral fraud.
Willis is also investigating a series of statements made by Trump operatives involving widespread fraud in the Georgia electoral process. These statements were repeatedly uttered by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump campaign advisers. These statements represent potential violations of Georgia law which prohibit false statements to government. In this instance, Willis is pursuing this misconduct under a Georgia law which prohibits the solicitation of election fraud.
She is also examining calls made by Trump and others to Georgia officials after the election. In court filings, Willis has cited a Georgia statute prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud.
One of the most interesting lines of investigation is the effort to send the names of supposed Trump electors from Georgia to Washington. This pattern is particularly disturbing. Prosecutors are trying to determine whether this project represented an effort in battleground states to create confusion and provide a reason for Mike Pence to be unable to certify the election on January 6, 2021.
Now that the midterm elections are over, Willis' investigation is gaining steam. As many legal observers note Georgia law has less cumbersome procedures than the federal process being utilized by the January 6th Committee. Moreover, Rudy Guliani is a target of the Georgia probe and Lindsey Graham has been subpoenaed and despite efforts to block his appearance, the Supreme Court has ruled he must appear. Willis is building a case that targets multiple defendants and includes charges of conspiracy to commit election fraud and racketeering charges for coordinating a scheme to undermine an election. This investigation will determine the extent to which a former President and his campaign officials can be held accountable for inappropriate behavior in the context of the electoral process. It is clear that the outcome of this investigation will send reverberations through the nation’s political system.