ATLANTA – Indictments have been handed down in the Georgia election probe. The Fulton County DA handed the indictments into the clerk shortly before 9 p.m. today.
Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander then walked the indictment in the chamber of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.
A copy of the indictments has not yet been released.
The charges come on the first day that Willis presented her case against Trump and his allies – the next step of an investigation that’s spanned two and a half years.
Former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, who had been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, said as she left the Fulton County courthouse late Monday morning that she had been questioned for about 40 minutes. Former Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary of state’s office, were seen arriving at the courthouse earlier today.
Nguyen and Jordan both attended legislative hearings in December 2020 during which former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others made false claims of widespread election fraud in Georgia. Trump lawyer John Eastman also appeared during at least one of those hearings and said the election had not been held in compliance with Georgia law and that lawmakers should appoint a new slate of electors.
Sterling and his boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both Republicans — forcefully pushed back against allegations of widespread problems with Georgia’s election.
Trump famously called Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, and suggested the state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes Trump needed to beat Biden. It was the release of a recording of that phone call that prompted Willis to open her investigation about a month later.
“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump is heard saying on a recording of the call, which was leaked to news outlets. “Because we won the state.”
Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong and has repeatedly said the call was “perfect.”
In anticipation of the charges, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office erected barriers around the beginning of August along the block in front of the main courthouse. The street was closed starting last week, and parking is prohibited on nearby streets. Those measures are to remain in place through the end of the week, Labat’s office said.
In December, a special grand jury found sufficient evidence to recommend indictments against Trump and others earlier this year. However, only a regular grand jury has the power to indict in Georgia.
Trump has begun stepping up his criticism of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has spent two years leading the election probe into Trump and his allies. Speaking to supporters in New Hampshire on Aug. 8, the Republican former president launched highly personal attacks on Willis and called the 52-year-old Democratic prosecutor, who is Black, “a young woman, a young racist in Atlanta.”
“She’s got a lot of problems. But she wants to indict me to try to run for some other office,” Trump said.
Trump also weighted in on the possibility of taking a plea deal in the Georgia case.
“We don’t take plea deals. We did nothing wrong. We don’t ever take a plea deal,” Trump said. “It’s called election inference. You know that is? These indictments are brought out by Biden who can’t even put two sentences together.”
Experts say it could take more than a year to sort out a potential trial.
This indictment adds to a growing list of legal troubles as he campaigns for president. Trump is set to go to trial in New York in March to face state charges related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. And he has another trial scheduled for May on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
