“The complaints are very serious. If charged and convicted, people face prison terms,“ Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis told the Washington Post. No decision will be made for months on whether there will be charges — and, most importantly, whether Trump himself will face charges. At least 17 people have been notified that they are targets of the criminal investigation, meaning they could eventually face charges. And more targets will soon be added to the list, Willis said in an interview Tuesday in her Atlanta office. Willis would not discuss any of the targets by name and has not said whether she is willing to indict the former president. Trump could be called to testify before a special grand jury convened this spring in the investigation, Willis said Tuesday. “A decision will have to be made,” he said about whether to call for Trump’s testimony, “and I imagine it will be made late this fall.” Georgia’s criminal investigation into Trump and his allies explained So far, the The group of known targets includes former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the state’s 16 would-be Trump electors who created unofficial documents declaring Trump the winner of Georgia’s electoral votes, even though he lost the state. Giuliani’s lawyers and voters have denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the voters say their clients followed the law and made it clear they were meeting as an emergency measure as they waited for a court to rule on the Georgia voting challenge. Trump said during a Thursday interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt that he has received “no letters at all” targeting ongoing criminal investigations. He denied involvement in the Republican multi-state plan to send the names of Trump voters to Washington, but said such proxy voter vignettes were “very common.” The Fulton County investigation is far from the only investigation into Trump’s conduct surrounding the 2020 election. The House Select Committee that investigated on Jan. 6 looked extensively at the voter plan and other issues. The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s election-related actions as part of a federal grand jury investigation. In addition to investigating the actions of Trump voters, Willis is looking into possible criminal wrongdoing in calls made by Trump and his allies to Georgia officials, false statements to lawmakers, harassment of election officials and election tampering in a southern Georgia county. Willis said she expects to complete the fact-finding phase of the investigation before the end of the year, even as she continues to expand her scope. He said the investigation would halt public activities, such as calling witnesses, for the month leading up to the general election. When the grand jury finishes hearing witnesses, it is expected to provide Willis with a report that could include recommendations for charges. It will then decide which people, if any, to charge. Willis’ open and honest assessment is unusual for a prosecutor, as such high-profile investigations are frequent shrouded in secrecy. Her approach to this investigation has drawn criticism from some in the legal community, but she said that transparency is a requirement of her job. Her latest comments come as Republicans in Georgia — including the state’s governor — have complained that her investigation is politically motivated, a claim Willis, a Democrat, denies. He noted that there has been no grand jury activity during the state’s primary election period this spring and that he plans a similarly quiet period beginning Oct. 7 before the November midterm elections. “I didn’t want people to claim that this was some political stunt that we did to influence the election,” he said. Willis said the judicial subcommittee has interviewed 65 percent of the dozens of witnesses whose statements have been requested by prosecutors. “I’m happy with where he is. I think we’re moving along at a very good pace,” Willis said, adding that she was not concerned that some witnesses, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.), resisted appearing before the grand jury. “We will finish calling witnesses by the end of this year. Period,” he said. The investigation has already produced several high-profile witnesses, including Giuliani, who was told last month that he was a target. Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, declined to comment on Willis’ latest statements. In addition to Giuliani, Willis has notified 16 potential Trump voters from Georgia that they too are targets of the investigation. In the past, attorneys for some constituents have suggested that their clients would have cooperated with the investigation if Willis had not identified them as targets. Attorneys declined to comment on Willis’ latest comments. In the interview, Willis said she had a fleeting hope that she wouldn’t have to open the investigation at all for the 2020 election. She had only been in office a few days in early January 2021 when news broke from The Post and others described Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) urged him to “find” extra votes to overcome Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia. ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In hour-long emergency call, Trump presses Georgia secretary of state to recount vote in his favor Willis said she quickly realized she would have to investigate the alleged election interference. “I understood that if this happened in Fulton County, it’s serious enough that it needed to be looked at,” he said. Since then, the Willis investigation has grown and represents — along with an intensified federal investigation — a serious threat that criminal charges could be brought against Trump and his allies. Trump blasted Willis on social media as a “young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat … presiding over one of the most criminal and corrupt places in the US.” Willis says she is undeterred by such criticism and the regular threats leveled against her. The status of key investigations involving Donald Trump Court filings and interviews show her team continues to consider several key issues. First, they are investigating whether there were violations of Georgia law that prohibits making false statements to government officials. Those statutes could apply to Giuliani and other Trump campaign advisers who cited evidence — later revealed — of widespread voter fraud when speaking to Georgia legislative committees. Second, Willis examines calls made by Trump and others to Georgia officials after the election. In court filings, Willis has invoked a Georgia statute that prohibits inciting voter fraud. Third, prosecutors are continuing efforts to send the names of would-be Trump voters from Georgia to Washington. Prosecutors are wondering whether sending official Trump voters from battleground states was part of an orchestrated effort to give Vice President Mike Pence a reason to declare the election outcome in doubt when he presided over the congressional vote count in January. 6, 2021. Pence’s tightrope on Jan. 6: Owning his role while courting Trump voters Two weeks ago, Willis filed a petition seeking testimony from Boris Epstein, a lawyer who worked closely with Giuliani during the post-election period. The report said Epstein “has unique knowledge” of the Trump campaign’s “efforts to submit fraudulent voting certificates to former Vice President Michael Pence and others.” Last week, Epshteyn and Giuliani were among those named in a federal subpoena seeking information about Trump’s plan to turn in prospective voters from Georgia and other states. Willis in recent weeks has added new topics to her investigative agenda, including seeking detailed information about threats made to an election official. In December 2020, according to her court filings, Trump allies pressured and threatened Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker. Willis declined to comment on the recent depositions related to the pressure on Freeman, other than to say, “I hate a bully. Obviously, I think we would find it offensive to intimidate an election official to influence an election.” Finally, Willis expanded her investigation to investigate whether voting systems in Coffee County, Ga., were properly hacked. That interest was first revealed in documents seeking testimony from Sidney Powell, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign after the 2020 election. The Post was the first to report the effort by Powell and other Trump allies to copy Coffee County’s limited voting system data. The effort came as Trump allies publicly focused on the voting machines, claiming they were part of a conspiracy to rig the election for Biden. Willis’ motion to appear from Powell noted that, in addition to Coffee County, there is evidence that Powell “engaged in similar efforts in Michigan and Nevada” around the same time that Coffee County’s election systems were allegedly hacked. Powell did not respond to a request for comment. The Michigan conspiracy to hack voting machines shows a national pattern Willis has suggested that this cluster of activity — from organizing Trump voters to making false statements to lobbying local election officials — could be prosecuted under Georgia’s conspiracy and anti-extortion laws. State anti-racketeering laws, known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, were enacted decades ago as a legal tool to fight organized crime. Georgia’s RICO statute has been used by…
