Who are the Trump allies indicted in the Georgia election scheme?
Send a link to a friend
[August 15, 2023]
By Sarah N. Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump again stands accused
of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election results to stay in
power. But for the first time some allies and closest advisers also face
criminal charges for their roles in the alleged scheme.
Already charged by a federal grand jury in Washington with orchestrating
a plot to overturn the election, Trump is the lead defendant in a
parallel case in Georgia now, charged with racketeering and other crimes
along with aides and associates listed below.
Not listed are nine lesser-known Georgia officials charged with
additional crimes ranging from perjury to conspiracy to commit computer
theft in addition to racketeering.
MARK MEADOWS
Mark Meadows, who went from being one of Trump's top Republican allies
in the U.S. House of Representatives to his White House chief of staff,
attended White House meetings related to attempts to undo Trump's
election defeat.
The indictment alleges he helped to fuel the conspiracy by making false
statements about the election and conspired with Trump to develop a plan
to disrupt and delay the congressional certification of the electoral
votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
It also alleges he tried to pressure a chief investigator in the Georgia
secretary of state's office, Frances Watson, to speed up the Fulton
County signature verification and that he took part in a phone call in
which Trump pushed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find"
enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger
declined to do so. An attorney for Meadows did not respond to a request
for comment.
RUDY GIULIANI
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, played a prominent public
role in the Trump campaign's efforts to push false claims of widespread
fraud in the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor was involved
in litigation that was rejected by courts and falsely claimed in
testimony at local hearings in Georgia that he was in possession of
evidence proving election fraud.
The indictment alleges he made numerous false statements about election
fraud, including to officials in other states like Arizona and
Pennsylvania, in a failed bid to convince them to approve an alternative
slate of electors to keep Trump in power. He and other Trump allies are
also accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the
election, including claims about vote counting errors by Dominion voting
machines. Giuliani's attorney declined to comment.
JOHN EASTMAN
Attorney John Eastman represented Trump in a long-shot lawsuit to
overturn voting results in four states Trump lost in 2020. He has been
under scrutiny by both U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's office and
state prosecutors in Georgia for penning a series of legal memos which
claimed that former Vice President Mike Pence could reject electors from
certain states to deny Democrat Joe Biden a majority of Electoral
College votes. The indictment in Georgia alleges he was part of a plot
to appoint fake electors. His attorney did not respond to a request for
comment.
JEFFREY BOSSERT CLARK
Jeffrey Clark is a former high-ranking Justice Department official. In
the waning days of the Trump administration, Clark sought to persuade
Trump to oust Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so that he could
take over the department and help pursue Trump's false claims by opening
an investigation into voter fraud in Georgia and other swing states. The
federal indictment brought by Smith against Trump also appears to refer
to Clark as a co-conspirator. Monday's indictment cites Clark's efforts
to persuade Rosen to submit a letter to Georgia falsely claiming the
Justice Department had detected voting irregularities there. His
attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
[to top of second column]
|
John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Sidney
Powell and Rudy Giuliani speak in a combination of file photographs
taken in 2020 and 2021. REUTERS/Jim Bourg, Elijah Nouvelage, Yuri
Gripas/Pool/File Photo
SIDNEY POWELL
Attorney Sidney Powell played a leading role in promoting false
fraud claims after the 2020 U.S. election. She was part of a team
that filed unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn election
results and was sanctioned by a Michigan judge in one of those
cases. She became an adviser to Trump on fraud claims after the
election. The indictment accuses her of tampering with electronic
ballot markers and tabulators in Coffee County, Georgia, computer
theft and unlawfully possessing ballots. She could not be
immediately reached for comment.
KENNETH CHESEBRO
Kenneth Chesebro is a Trump campaign attorney accused in the
indictment of helping to devise a plan to submit fake slates of
electors for Trump to obstruct U.S. congressional certification of
the election results. The indictment alleges he wrote a memo that
provided instructions for how alternate slates of electors in states
including Georgia should proceed to meet and cast votes for Trump.
An attorney for Chesebro did not respond to a request for comment.
JENNA ELLIS
Attorney Jenna Ellis was part of the Trump campaign's legal team
that falsely claimed widespread voter fraud in 2020. The indictment
alleges that Ellis was part of an effort to get false electors
appointed by state lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and
Pennsylvania. The court papers assert that she wrote legal memos for
Trump on how Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, could delay the certification of
Biden’s election win. Ellis in March agreed to be censured by a
Colorado court after admitting to making false claims about voter
fraud. She could not be immediately reached for comment.
DAVID SHAFER
The indictment alleges that David Shafer, who served as Georgia
Republican Party chairman, played a key role in organizing and
executing the plan to submit an alternate slate of electors. Shafer
is among those charged with mailing a fake certificate of the
so-called Trump electors to a federal courthouse, as well as other
offenses tied to the fake elector plot. He is also charged with
making false statements to Fulton County investigators. A lawyer for
Shafer did not have an immediate comment.
MICHAEL ROMAN
Michael Roman, who worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign, is alleged to
have played a role in orchestrating the fake elector plot. The
indictment claims he was in touch with those organizing a meeting of
the fake Trump electors in Georgia. He could not be immediately
reached for comment.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen; Additional
reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin and
Howard Goller)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|