Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has revealed that her investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia is “ready to go” – in her strongest hint yet that a criminal indictment may be imminent.
“The work is accomplished,” she told WXIA over the weekend.
“We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”
DA Willis said that some people will be unhappy with the outcome of the probe as she praised the actions of local officials who have started ramping up security around the courthouse in downtown Atlanta.
“I think that the sheriff is doing something smart in making sure that the courthouse stays safe,” she said.
“I’m not willing to put any of the employees or the constituents that come to the courthouse in harm’s way.”
She added that “sometimes when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm” in what appeared to be a thinly-veiled jab at the mob of Mr Trump’s supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 2021 after he lost the election to President Joe Biden.
DA Willis previously indicated that any charging decisions would likely come between 31 July and 18 August.
For the month of August, she has arranged remote working for courthouse staff and asked judges to limit in-person hearings, amid apparent security concerns following a potential indictment.
DA Willis is believed to be building a case under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a provision which allows for multiple people to be charged under one wide-ranging scheme and which was originally created to tackle organised crime groups.
The DA has spent more than two years investigating efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in the crucial swing state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, right, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney speak in court in July— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
The investigation came following the release of a 2 January 2021 phone call Mr Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where he told him to “find” enough votes to change the outcome of the election in the state.
“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Mr Trump is heard saying in the leaked phone call.
“Because we won the state.”
Mr Biden won the state by less than 12,000 votes.
The investigation has since expanded from that phone call to include a scheme whereby a group of fake Republican electors planned to falsely certify the results in Mr Trump’s favour instead of Mr Biden’s.
The plot failed and at least eight of the fake electors have reached immunity deals with DA Willis’ office.
While it remains unclear if Mr Trump will be charged in the Georgia probe, barriers were seen being erected outside Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta late last week.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s office confirmed that it was “proactively coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to enhance security during high profile legal proceedings at the Fulton County Courthouse”.
The Georgia probe marks just one of Mr Trump’s growing list of legal problems as he is also expected to be indicted in a separate federal case over his role in the January 6 Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Earlier in July, Mr Trump said he had received a letter from special counsel Jack Smith’s office saying he was the target of a grand jury investigation – indicating that a criminal indictment was looming.
Last Thursday, the grand jury arrived at the courthouse in Washington DC and Mr Trump’s attorneys met with Mr Smith where they were warned to expect a criminal indictment against their client.
Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
But, no indictment came and the grand jury is now not expected to meet again until Tuesday.
The former president has already been indicted in two separate criminal cases after he was hit with New York state charges following an investigation into hush money payments made prior to the 2016 election and then federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents on leaving office.
Last month, Mr Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges over his handling of classified documents, including national defence information, after leaving the White House.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday (9 June), alleges that Mr Trump deliberately lied to and misled authorities so that he could hold onto documents that he knew were classified.
On at least two separate occasions, Mr Trump then showed some of the classified documents to people not authorised to see them, the indictment alleges.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse, becoming the first current or former US president ever charged with a federal crime.
His longtime aide Walt Nauta was also charged in the case, Last week, the judge added three further charges in a superseding indictment and also charged Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos Oliveira as a defendant. Mr Oliveira will appear in court on Monday on the charges.
The first federal indictment came after Mr Trump was arrested on 34 criminal charges for the first time in New York back on 4 April.
According to Manhattan prosecutors, Mr Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen carried out a “catch and kill” scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Cohen allegedly made hush money payments on Mr Trump’s behalf to suppress negative information about him by silencing individuals over alleged affairs he had with women.
Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.
Mr Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen but falsely recorded the payments as legal fees.
Each of the 34 state charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records. He pleaded not guilty.
