Prosecutors in Georgia, who for more than two years have been investigating Donald Trump and his people to try to falsify the results of the 2020 presidential elections in this state, began yesterday to present evidence and conclusions to the grand jury in the case.
The imputation against the former president and numerous accomplices for serious crimes of conspiracy, and also for false statements and even for activities classified as “organized crime”, seemed imminent last night. It would be the fourth criminal indictment against the ultra leader after the 78 charges he faces for the assault on the Capitol and other attempts to overturn his electoral defeat (4 crimes); for 40 more related to the concealment of secret papers at his Mar-a-Lago residence and 34 counts of forgery to conceal a bribe to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
This Georgia case centers on heavy pressure on officials, threats and harassment of election workers, deliberate lies and even a data breach in an election office attributed to Trump and about twenty members of his team and followers
The most eye-catching part of the case, prosecuted under the direction of Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, corresponds to the call in which, in January 2021, the former president tried to collar the person in charge of the election supervision of southern state, Brad Raffensperger, to alter the results in the constituency: “All I want is to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we have to win the state”, said the former president to the high state official, a republican like him, in the tense dialogue that the latter recorded and made public. Raffensperger did not loosen the rope and became a key witness for the probable impeachment of who was their leader.
At least five people testified yesterday or will testify today in what would be the final steps in prosecutors’ presentation of the case to a Georgia grand jury.
These are former state representative Bee Nguyen and former state senator Jen Jordan, both Democrats and who would have heard falsehoods from the Trump team about alleged electoral fraud; of the high official Gabriel Sterling, who at the time guaranteed the security of the votes and the counts; of the republican who served as deputy governor of Georgia during those elections, Geoff Duncan, and of the local journalist and expert on the affair, George Chidin.
If at least 12 of the 23 members of the grand jury vote to indict Trump and his associates, the fellow candidate for re-election in the 2024 presidential elections will face a process that is perhaps more thorny than the other three that are already underway. Because in this case he could not pardon himself, since it would be a state matter and not a federal one, and because, given the rules of each jurisdiction, it is easier here for the trial to be televised.
