August 14, 2023 - Trump indicted in Georgia 2020 election subversion probe

Our live coverage has moved. Follow today’s live updates on on the indictment in Georgia election probe and read through Monday’s updates below.

The most astonishing aspect of former President Donald Trump’s fourth criminal indictment is not the scale of an alleged multi-layered conspiracy to steal Georgia’s electoral votes in 2020 from their rightful winner.

It is that Trump – the accused kingpin of the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, who was charged on Monday along with 18 others – could in 17 months be raising his right hand as the 47th president and swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution he was accused of plotting to shred.

The grave political crisis created by Trump’s aberrant presidency and subsequent efforts to hold him to account deepened significantly just before midnight with the unsealing of yet another indictment against him – this one from a grand jury in the critical swing state of Georgia.

The charges in this state case – which bring to 91 the total number of criminal charges he’s facing across four separate cases – intensified an already epochal collision between Trump’s now extreme legal quagmire and the 2024 election in which he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Read the full analysis here:

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 56th annual Silver Elephant Gala in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023.

Related article Trump's fourth indictment moves America closer to an election precipice | CNN Politics

Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani on Monday claimed Georgia’s indictment against him and the ex-President were “an affront to American democracy.”

Giuliani is charged with 13 counts in the 2020 election subversion case, more than any other defendant other than Trump.

“This is an affront to American Democracy and does permanent, irrevocable harm to our justice system. It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime,” Giuliani claimed in a statement.

Giuliani is charged with a RICO violation — the racketeering conspiracy that formed the basis of the indictment — and several additional felonies, including soliciting Georgia state lawmakers, making false statements to the Georgia House and Senate and the effort to put forward fake electors in Georgia.

Remember: This indictment is the fourth case filed against Trump this year. The former president, who is the current GOP 2024 frontrunner, denies any wrongdoing. In an interview with Fox News Digital late Monday, Trump claimed the charges filed against him in Georgia were “politically inspired.”

Former President Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Fox News Digital late Monday that the charges filed against him in Georgia are “politically inspired.”

Georgia prosecutors say Trump and 18 others including his lawyers, John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, as well as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows “joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the 2020 election.

Trump said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “should focus on the people that rigged the 2020 presidential election, not those who demand an answer as to what happened.” 

“Just like she has allowed Atlanta to go to hell with all of its crime and violence, so too has Joe Biden allowed the United States of America to go to the same place with millions of people invading our country, inflation, bad economy, no energy, and lack of respect all over the world,” Trump told Fox News Digital.

This is the fourth indictment Trump is facing. The former president, who is the current GOP 2024 frontrunner, has already been charged in three separate cases this year. He denies any wrongdoing in all the cases and says they are politically motivated.

Donald Trump for the second time this month has been indicted on charges related to 2020 election subversion, this time in the state of Georgia — a stunning fourth time this year that the former president has faced criminal charges.

But could the former president, who remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, assume the Oval Office again if convicted of the alleged crimes? In short, yes.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen — one of the country’s leading experts on election law — said Trump still has a path to the presidency should he win reelection in 2024.

“The Constitution has very few requirements to serve as President, such as being at least 35 years of age. It does not bar anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency,” he said in an email to CNN earlier this month.

Legal experts have pointed to the 14th Amendment as a way to keep Trump from holding office if he is convicted, which includes a “disqualification clause” that bars anyone from holding public office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

“There’s a big open debate over whether that element of the 14th Amendment is self-executing, and then open to judicial enforcement or whether Congress would need to pass legislation to enforce that provision. And that’s a debate that the legal academies are currently having now, we have no answer for that,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University.
“But to the extent that there might be a conviction in Georgia or in Washington, DC, for these election-related crimes,” Kreis said, “I think that that’s another big open question about how these charges might relate to [Trump’s] ability and his eligibility to hold the office of the presidency.”

Read other questions.

The indictment charges former President Donald Trump with “unlawfully soliciting” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to violate his oath of office during their now-infamous January 2, 2021, call in which Trump asked Raffensperger to help him flip Georgia’s results in the 2020 election.

“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state” Trump said to Raffensperger during the call.

Trump and his then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows – who was also on the call and charged in the indictment – are accused of unlawfully soliciting, requesting and importuning Raffensperger in his capacity as a public officer, according to the indictment.

Trump is also charged with knowingly making false statements to Raffensperger during that call.

The indictment lists 13 false statements Trump “knowingly, willfully and unlawfully” made on the January 2 call, including “that close to 5,000 dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia.”

The indictment echoes an accusation made by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in his earlier federal indictment of Trump, in which Smith’s office claimed Trump lied to Raffensperger during the call while trying to enlist the official’s support.

The indictment also cites a letter Trump wrote to Raffensperger months after leaving office, dated September 17, 2021 – in which Trump asked him to de-certify the 2020 election results – as another example of a knowingly-false statement Trump made to Georgia’s chief election officer.

 Raffensperger testified before the special grand jury in Fulton County in June 2022.

Former President Donald Trump has been charged with 91 crimes in four criminal cases, in four different jurisdictions. 

The new indictment returned Monday by the Fulton County grand jury accuses Trump of 13 crimes. 

The Atlanta-based prosecution is one of four criminal cases Trump is facing – two federal, and two state cases. 

In the New York case brought by Manhattan prosecutors, Trump has been charged with 34 counts stemming from the alleged 2016 campaign hush money scheme.  

Trump faces 40 charges in special counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago documents case, after a superseding indictment was unveiled last month. 

Smith’s separate federal election subversion case against Trump levied four criminal charges against the former president.

Overview of the cases

Fulton County prosecutors have built a key element of their racketeering conspiracy case on several defendants’ alleged efforts to “intimidate’ and “harass” Ruby Freeman, the former Georgia election worker whose emotional congressional testimony formed the basis of one of the House January 6 investigating committee’s most memorable hearings last summer.

Several defendants charged in the indictment’s RICO conspiracy count “falsely accused Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman of committing election crimes in Fulton County, Georgia,” the indictment reads.

“These false accusations were repeated to Georgia legislators and other Georgia officials in an effort to persuade them to unlawfully change the outcome of the November 3, 2020, presidential election in favor of Donald Trump,” the indictment read.
“In furtherance of this scheme, members of the enterprise traveled from out of state to harass Freeman, intimidate her, and solicit her to falsely confess to election crimes that she did not commit.”

Additionally, one of the false statement charges brought against Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani stems from his December 2020 statement that Freeman, her daughter, fellow election worker Shaye Moss and another individual were “surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine” while at a Georgia election site.

Moss testified to US lawmakers last summer that she was not being passed a USB drive, but rather her mother was passing her a ginger mint.

Reactions from Democratic and Republican lawmakers have rolled in since former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants were indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday.

Here’s what some of the top lawmakers have had to say:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats, said in a joint statement that the indictment “portrays a repeated pattern of criminal activity.”

“This latest indictment details how Mr. Trump led a months-long plot pushing the Big Lie to steal an election, undermine our democracy, and overturn the will of the people of Georgia. 
The actions taken by the Fulton County District Attorney, along with other state and federal prosecutors, reaffirms the shared belief that in America no one, not even the president, is above the law,” the Democrats’ statement said.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said President Joe Biden has “weaponized government” against Trump.

“Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election. Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham,” McCarthy tweeted.

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan — the House Judiciary Committee chairman and a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill — defended Trump in a tweet Monday night.

Today’s indictment is just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump. He did nothing wrong!,” Jordan tweeted.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik slammed the indictment moments after it was unsealed.

“This is another rogue Far Left radical District Attorney weaponizing their office to target Joe Biden’s top political opponent President Trump,” Stefanik said. “This blatant election interference by the Far Left will not work, President Trump will defeat these bogus charges and win back the White House in 2024.”

CNN’s Lauren Fox, Alayna Treene and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is in the middle of many of the episodes that form the basis of the sweeping indictment against the former president and 18 other defendants unsealed on Monday.

Giuliani is charged with 13 counts in the indictment, more than any other defendant other than Trump, who also faces 13 charges.

Giuliani is charged with a RICO violation — the racketeering conspiracy that formed the basis of the indictment — as well as several additional felonies, including soliciting Georgia state lawmakers, making false statements to the Georgia House and Senate and the effort to put forward fake electors in Georgia.

Giuliani was also listed as a co-conspirator in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

The Fulton County indictment points to Giuliani’s testimony in Georgia after the 2020 election, in which he made false claims about election fraud in Georgia. Prosecutors also list Giuliani’s outreach to officials in other states, including lawmakers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, where they allege he made more false claims of election fraud and tried to solicit them to appoint fake electors.

Among the calls cited were to Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a key witness in the January 6 hearings. 

“During the telephone call, RUDOLPH WILLIAM LOUIS GIULIANI made false statements concerning fraud in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Arizona and solicited, requested, and importuned Bowers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona,” the indictment states. 

Several of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Fulton County indictment are facing charges in connection with the breach of a voting system in a rural Georgia county that took place after the 2020 election.  

CNN has previously reported that multiple of the newly-indicted co-defendants helped orchestrate and carry out the breach in Coffee County. 

 The indictment alleged that several Trump allies committed specific crimes related to their involvement in the Coffee County breach, as well as allegedly lying about their roles. Those charges include computer trespassing, perjury, conspiracy to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit computer theft, the indictment states. 

The people charged in connection with the Coffee County breach are:

The indictment echoes previous CNN reporting about Powell’s alleged role in the breach, including that she contracted a cyber-forensics firm to examine and copy voting systems in Coffee County without the proper authorization to do so.

Latham and Hampton both face charges for allegedly helping facilitate the breach, according to the indictment. Latham also faces perjury charges for lying about her involvement in the Coffee County breach during a deposition conducted as part of a long-running civil lawsuit related to election security in Georgia.

Hall’s role in the breach was similarly exposed during that civil lawsuit, initially by a phone recording where he acknowledges his involvement. 

The civil lawsuit, brought several years ago against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger by a coalition of election security advocates, is cited throughout the indictment as a key source of evidence prosecutors used to bring criminal charges against those Trump allies involved. 

CNN has previously reported that surveillance video, text messages and other communications unearthed during this civil case provided essential evidence for prosecutors investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. 

As recently as Sunday, CNN reported that Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia were in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County.

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump released a statement calling the grand jury presentation “one sided” and Monday’s events “shocking and absurd.”

“We look forward to a detailed review of this indictment which is undoubtedly just as flawed and unconstitutional as this entire process has been,” Trump attorneys Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg wrote in the statement.

Full statement below:

“The events that have unfolded today have been shocking and absurd, starting with the leak of a presumed and premature indictment before the witnesses had testified or the grand jurors had deliberated and ending with the District Attorney being unable to offer any explanation. In light of this major fumble, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office clearly decided to force through and rush this 98-page indictment. This one-sided grand jury presentation relied on witnesses who harbor their own personal and political interests— some of whom ran campaigns touting their efforts against the accused and/or profited from book deals and employment opportunities as a result.”

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was among the defendants indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Monday for their role in helping former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election. 

Beyond Trump himself, Meadows is the highest-ranking White House official to be charged in the Georgia indictment.

Meadows was notably absent among the six Trump co-conspirators named in an earlier indictment stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference probe. 

The former chief of staff was ordered by a South Carolina judge to testify before the Georgia special grand jury. But a juror said earlier this year that Meadows declined to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination as well as other privileges.

Meadows did testify to the special counsel grand jury in Washington.

Prosecutors allege Meadows furthered the conspiracy to try to overturn the 2020 election.

Meadows – like all 19 defendants – is charged in the indictment with a violation of Georgia’s RICO law. Meadows is also charged with solicitation of the violation of oath of office by a public officer over Trump’s January 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, when Trump asked him to “find” the votes he needed to win Georgia. Meadows was one of the White House officials on the call. 

The indictment also describes Meadows’ attempt to enter into the space in Cobb County, Georgia, where 2020 election signatures were being audited, as well as a text message Meadows sent to the Georgia secretary of state’s chief investigator that stated, “Is there a way to speed up Fulton county signature verification in order to have results before Jan 6 if the trump campaign assist financially.” 

CNN has reached out to an attorney for Meadows for comment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told reporters that it will be up to a judge to set the date of the trial in the Georgia 2020 election interference case.

“This office will be submitting a proposed scheduling order within this week. However, that will totally be at the discretion of the judge,” Willis said.

She said they wanted to “move this case along” and will propose a trial date within the next six months. She said she did not have a desire that Georgia be the first or last trial that former President Donald Trump faces.

“I want to try him and be respectful of our sovereign states. We do want to move this case along, and so we will be asking for a proposed order that occurs, a trial date within the next six months,” she told reporters.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she intends to try all 19 defendants in the indictment together.

When asked by CNN during Monday night’s news conference if she will try the defendants together, Willis replied, “Yes.”

Willis did not elaborate further, but did say each of the 19 people named in the indictment were charged with one count of “violating Georgia’s Racketeer, Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere, to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on January 20, 2021.”

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced Monday that the 19 defendants listed in the 2020 election subversion case indictment have until noon on August 25, to “voluntarily surrender.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is speaking after the indictment in the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case in Georgia was unsealed.

What we know so far: An Atlanta-based grand jury has indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat.

The historic indictment is the fourth criminal case that Trump is facing.

Trump and others “joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the election, according to the indictment.

Willis, a Democrat, launched the probe in early 2021 and has investigated Trump’s attempts to pressure Georgia officials into interfering with the vote tally, the “fake electors” scheme to subvert the Electoral College and other efforts to undo the will of the voters.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is listed at the top of indictment, has been assigned to oversee the case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants.

His official biography on the Fulton County court website says, “Judge McAfee joined the bench of Superior Court of Fulton County in February of 2023. He received his JD from the University of Georgia School of Law and a BA from Emory University.”

Former President Donald Trump is charged with 13 counts in the Fulton County indictment, including a racketeering charge for allegedly attempting to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in Georgia in 2020.

The list of 13 charges also includes additional counts for allegedly making false statements to and soliciting the Georgia house speaker and the Georgia secretary of state to violate their oaths of office in December 2020 and January 2021.

Trump is charged with six counts for conspiring with several others around his campaign for the use of fake electors in Georgia.

Another charge relates to Trump and lawyer John Eastman allegedly filing false documents in a federal court case in Georgia that asserted thousands of people had voted illegally, even though that was not true.

The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

The 41-count indictment unsealed Monday in Georgia said former President Donald Trump and the other 18 defendants “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise” after Trump lost the election in Georgia.

The charges include False Statements and Solicitation of State Legislatures, high-ranking state officials, the creation and distribution of false electoral college documents, the harassment of election workers, the solicitation of Justice Department officials, the solicitation of then-Vice President Mike Pence, the unlawful breach of election equipment, and acts of obstruction. 

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment states. “That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.”

The indictment also included an additional 30 unindicted co-conspirators in addition to the charged defendants.

Prosecutors alleged that the enterprise “engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.”

All 19 defendants in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case are facing racketeering charges, according to an indictment handed up Monday.  

CNN previously reported that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had been weighing bringing charges under RICO — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — as part of her investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and allies to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result.  

The indictment includes a more than three dozen different charges for the 19 defendants, but the thread that connects all the individuals is that they’ve been charged under RICO.  

In an introduction to the indictment, prosecutors allege there was a conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election “in favor of” Donald Trump.

“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the indictment reads.

Donald Trump was indicted on more than a dozen charges by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday stemming from the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. 

The grand jury approved charges against Trump for a violation of Georgia’s RICO law – or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization – which accuses Trump of being part of a broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the election result.

The grand jury approved of several conspiracy charges against the former president. Additionally, Trump was charged with several counts of soliciting a public official to violate their oath. He faces charges related to false statements and writings, and to the filing of false documents as well.

There are 19 people charged in the Georgia case, according to the indictment.

Donald Trump, former US president

Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer

Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff

John Eastman, Trump lawyer

Kenneth Chesebro, pro-Trump lawyer

Jeffrey Clark, top Justice Department official

Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer

Robert Cheeley, lawyer who promoted fraud claims

Mike Roman, Trump campaign official

David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair and fake elector

Shawn Still, fake GOP elector

Stephen Lee, pastor tied to intimidation of election workers

Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump

Trevian Kutti, publicist tied to intimidation of election workers

Sidney Powell, Trump campaign lawyer

Cathy Latham, fake GOP elector tied to Coffee County breach

Scott Hall, tied to Coffee County election system breach

Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor

Ray Smith, Trump campaign attorney

There are 19 defendants, including Trump, in the Georgia election indictment.

The indictment in the Trump election case in Georgia has been unsealed.

The indictment is 98 pages.

An Atlanta-based grand jury on Monday indicted former President Donald Trump on state charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in the Peach State. 

The historic indictment is the fourth criminal case that Trump – who is currently leading the Republican field in the 2024 White House race – is now facing.  

The charges, brought after a sweeping investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, covers some of the most egregious efforts by the former president and his allies to subvert the 2020 election. The grand jury met for roughly 10 hours Monday before handing up charges. 

Unlike the election subversion charges brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, Willis’ case will be insulated from any potential Trump interference if he is reelected in 2024. He will not be able to pardon himself or his allies of any state convictions, nor will he be able to order Fulton County Fulton County to dismiss the charges.

CNN’s Jared Formanek, Fabiana Chaparro, Morayo Ogunbayo, Macie Goldfarb, Shirin Faqiri, Jim Rogers, Heather Law contributed to this story.

The grand jury indictment should be unsealed shortly, a source familiar with the matter said. 

Fulton County court clerk Che Alexander told reporters she is “almost done” processing the indictment. At least one indictment is related to the 2020 election probe, two sources told CNN.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to speak soon after the unsealing.

Fulton County court clerk Che Alexander told reporters there was “one indictment” related to the Trump election case and that it involves multiple defendants.

At least one of the indictments is related to the 2020 election probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Hillary Clinton reacted to the news of the Georgia grand jury returning indictments in an interview on MSNBC Monday night.

“Well, it’s hard to believe, I don’t feel any satisfaction. I feel great, you know, just great profound sadness that we have a former president who has been indicted for so many charges that went right to the heart of whether or not our democracy would survive,” Clinton said.

“We’ll wait to see what the indictments themselves say because clearly this investigation has been very thorough, but I don’t know that anybody should be satisfied,” Clinton said. “This is a terrible moment for our country to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes. The only satisfaction may be that the system is working. That all of the efforts by Donald Trump, his allies, and his enablers to try to silence the truth to try to undermine democracy have been brought into the light and justice is being pursued.”

Speaking on holding Trump accountable, she said, “I hope that we won’t have accountability just for Donald Trump and if there are others named in these indictments along with him for their behavior but we will also have accountability for a political party that has just thrown in with all the lies and the divisiveness and the lack of any conscience about what has been done to the country.”

While the grand jury hearing the Trump case has returned indictments, details of who may be charged are not yet known.

The Trump campaign is accusing prosecutors of election interference in a statement tonight.

“Fani Willis is a rabid partisan,” the campaign said in the statement, going on to call the indictments “bogus.”

While the grand jury hearing the Trump case has returned indictments, details of who may be charged are not yet known.

“The timing of this latest coordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes true motivation driving their fabricated accusations. They could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign,” the statement said in part. 

“These activities by Democrat leaders constitute a grave threat to American democracy and are direct attempts to deprive the American people of their rightful choice to cast their vote for President. Call it election interference or election manipulation—it is a dangerous effort by the ruling class to suppress the choice of the people. It is un-American and wrong,” the statement said.

The paperwork containing indictments approved by a grand jury that heard the Trump election case Monday will be processed within the next one to three hours, Fulton County District Attorney’s office told CNN.

A news conference by the district attorney, Fani Willis, will take place tonight after the papers are processed, her office told CNN.

Fulton County court clerk Che Alexander confirmed to reporters congregated in her office that there are 10 indictments from the grand jury on Monday night. She would not say who was indicted.

The grand jury’s certification, handled in the clerk’s office, also indicates that it approved 10 indictments on Monday, according to paperwork signed on camera.

TV cameras captured Judge Robert McBurney signing documents in his courtroom after they were handled in the clerk’s office, but the images of the paperwork were captured before the judge gave his signature.

The paperwork indicates the grand jury didn’t vote against any of the indictments presented to it on Monday. The paperwork also doesn’t list any defendant names. 

Before indictments were handed up by the grand jury, Alexander told reporters that it could take her office as long as three hours to process any indictments before they are unsealed and made available to the public.

More background: The grand jury had been hearing from multiple witnesses even after business hours on Monday who would have been able to testify about how they were affected by Donald Trump’s attempts to hold onto his presidency after the last election.

It’s possible not all 10 indictments would relate to the 2020 election case the grand jury has been hearing on Monday. The grand jury has been able to hear other types of unrelated cases since it was impaneled, and could have approved indictments for others as well. 

Also, a single indictment can sometimes include multiple charges and defendants within it.

A Fulton County grand jury investigating the Trump 2020 election subversion case in Georgia has returned 10 indictments, according to paperwork signed on camera.

It’s unclear how many of the 10 indictments are directly related to the election probe.

The paperwork indicates the grand jury didn’t vote against any of the indictments presented to it on Monday by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ team.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney – who is presiding over the grand jury in the Trump election subversion case – has reviewed and signed the grand jury’s finding.

He then returned the paperwork to an official from the clerk’s office, who then left the courtroom.

Previously, the clerk’s office official, a prosecutor, and a bailiff brought the paperwork into McBurney’s courtroom.  

Grand jury findings are being presented to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.

It was not immediately clear if the findings include an indictment of Donald Trump or others in the case related to efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

CNN reporters saw a prosecutor from District Attorney Fani Willis’ office enter McBurney’s courtroom with an official from the clerks’ office and a bailiff, who handed McBurney the findings. 

McBurney is currently the presiding judge overseeing grand jury matters.

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the Trump investigation in Georgia tells CNN to “standby for indictment,” which the source says are coming any moment.

Fulton County clerk Che Alexander has re-entered her office, according to CNN’s reporter in the room.

Her team is handing out papers to the gathered reporters.

This happened as the judge presiding over the grand jury in the Trump case has taken the bench.

After the judge approves any indictments from the grand jury, the paperwork will be taken to Alexander’s office for processing.

Fulton County District Court Judge Robert McBurney said he is waiting for findings to be presented to him from the grand jury in the Trump election case.

Court is in session.

Fulton County District Court Judge Robert McBurney is on the bench and court is in session.

Former President Donald Trump is facing a potential fourth indictment, this time in Georgia, where state prosecutors may soon bring charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results there.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, launched the probe in early 2021 and has investigated Trump’s attempts to pressure Georgia officials into interfering with the vote tally, the “fake electors” scheme to subvert the Electoral College and other efforts to undo the will of the voters.

The grand jury in the case has been hearing testimony Monday as part of the prosecution’s presentation of evidence. The timing of any potential indictment is unclear. Willis, who is leading the probe, planned for her presentation to the grand jury to last one or two days.

What is being investigated: Then-candidate Joe Biden’s razor-thin victory in Georgia was confirmed by two recounts and certified by Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans.

Instead of conceding, Trump launched a multi-pronged effort to overturn the results, including a pressure campaign targeting key state officials. Trump wanted them to abuse their powers to “find” enough votes to flip the results, or to block Biden’s victory from being certified. They refused.

When these efforts failed, Trump urged Georgia lawmakers to convene a special session of the GOP-run legislature so they could overturn Biden’s victory. Trump allies, including his attorney Rudy Giuliani, presented bogus fraud claims to the state House and Senate at hearings in December 2020. The Trump campaign, with outside lawyers who supported their cause, filed meritless lawsuits that tried to overturn the Georgia results.

Trump’s campaign also recruited a group of GOP activists in Georgia to serve as fake electors, tried to weaponize the Jusice Department to help him intervene in Georgia, and has been tied by text messages obtained by Willis’ team to a voting system breach in Coffee County.

Who might be indicted: Trump is obviously at the center of the probe. But CNN recently reported that Willis is expected to seek more than a dozen others.

Prosecutors have notified some key players that they are targets of the investigation. This includes Giuliani, who was an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal indictment on 2020-related charges.

The 16 Republican activists who served as fake electors, including the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, also got target letters, though some decided to cooperate with prosecutors.

Which crimes might be charged: Earlier in the investigation, Willis said her team was investigating a wide array of potential crimes. This included solicitation of election fraud, making false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of an oath-of-office, and involvement in election-related threats.

CNN reported in March that prosecutors were eying racketeering and conspiracy charges. Willis has previously used Georgia’s state RICO laws – which stands for “racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations” – to prosecute gangs and even public school officials who oversaw a cheating scheme.

Read more about Trump’s 2020 election subversion case.

Independent journalist George Chidi is still waiting to testify to the Fulton County grand jury in the 2020 election case, he told CNN on Monday evening.

Chidi, one of the witnesses expected to testify as part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ presentation on the 2020 election subversion case, also posted on social media that he had been told his testimony may not be needed after all.

“Just got word: the jury is chewing on what they have. They may not need the last of us before making a call. We will see shortly,” Chidi posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said Monday that his testimony earlier that day to the Atlanta-area grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state was “very serious” and “intense.” 

“It was a very serious atmosphere, as you would expect, and one that was, you know, a back-and-forth conversation. And I was certainly honored to answer their questions to the best of my ability and that’s what I did for of my period of time that I was in there,” Duncan told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”  

He said “it was a very intense meeting” that lasted for “maybe an hour-plus.”

“I can tell you that there was the highest level of attention in that room for folks with the district attorney’s office to the jurors. It was just an extremely intense period of time, and everybody was prepared. It’s just like walking into a perfect meeting where everybody is prepared and ready to go to work and that’s really what it was, very, very serious work,” he told CNN.

Duncan said the grand jury “certainly wanted to hear the facts as I knew them.”

“That’s what this whole process has been about — even bigger than just the grand jury. I think this is an important pivot point for America — we’ve got to get this out of the system,” he told CNN.

He continued, “We can’t just be half baked with conspiracy theories and kind of just pat it down. We either have to validate that these conspiracy theories are real or they’re not.”

Duncan – who is a CNN contributor — declined to detail what exactly he discussed during his appearance before the grand jury, which was moved up a day. 

“I know this isn’t the answer you want to hear but it was a very wide-ranging conversation across a lot of different topics,” he told Burnett when asked what his testimony was focused on. 

Watch:

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Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney, the presiding judge overseeing the grand jury that’s currently hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case, told reporters in his courtroom that he’s expecting to stay for about one more hour tonight.

The grand jury is still meeting. The timing of any potential indictment is unclear. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the probe, planned for her presentation to the grand jury presentation to last one or two days.

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is finished testifying to the Fulton County grand jury hearing testimony in the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case.

Duncan was seen leaving the courthouse in Atlanta several moments ago.

“This is a moment in time that hopefully we’re able to get past in Georgia,” Duncan told reporters outside the courthouse. “There’s been a lot of misinformation for a number of years and this is our opportunity to get the real story out. My hope is that Americans believe us.”

He also said the 2020 election was “fair and legal” and that he hopes more Republicans will reach that conclusion.  

“Let’s have a discussion about the facts. If we have a discussion about the facts, I like the outcome,” he said. 

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney, the presiding judge overseeing the grand jury, briefly stepped into the courtroom where reporters are assembled and said, “just hang in there, I am too.” 

More background: Duncan has been a sharp critic of Trump’s efforts to upend Georgia’s election results. He recently told CNN that he was “embarrassed” when Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for Trump, and other allies of the former president appeared before Georgia state lawmakers.

While Duncan was president of the Georgia state Senate at the time, he told CNN he did not “sanction” those meetings, and that they were not “official hearings.”

The Fulton County grand jury, which has been meeting all day, is still hearing testimony in the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case.

Independent journalist George Chidi — who was subpoenaed to testify and is inside the courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, — posted on social media that the proceedings are still underway.

He said a separate witness, Geoff Duncan, former Georgia lieutenant governor and CNN contributor, is currently testifying. 

“Still waiting. Geoff Duncan just walked in,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said in another post that there are other witnesses still waiting to go before the grand jury panel. 

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney, the presiding judge overseeing the grand jury, is still in the building and is waiting in his chambers.

He previously said he is prepared to keep his courtroom open past the regular 5 p.m. ET close time, if prosecutors ask him to do so.

“You all may want to get dinner,” McBurney told reporters in the courtroom shortly after 4 p.m. ET. He returned to court around 5 p.m. ET and said, “You didn’t get dinner? You should have gotten dinner.”

BBC staffers ordered several boxes of pizza for the reporters currently waiting inside the clerk’s office at the courthouse, according to a CNN reporter in the room. 

Court officials in the clerk’s office have filed out for the day, though some can still be heard working at their cubicles.

The doors to the clerk’s office have been locked — the journalists assembled in the room can stay inside, but nobody else can enter, and once you leave there is no way back in. 

The Fulton County Superior Court said in a statement that a document Reuters reported had been posted to the court website earlier Monday showing possible Donald Trump charges is not official.  

“There have been no documents filed today regarding” the grand jury hearing the Trump election subversion case, the Fulton County Superior Court clerk’s office said in the statement. “Documents that do not bear an official case number, filing date, and the name of The Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not considered official filings and should not be treated as such,” the statement added.

Reuters reported earlier that a document listing criminal charges against Trump was briefly posted, and then removed, from the official website of the Fulton County court.

The document, which Reuters has since posted on its own website, appears to describe a criminal case titled “the state of Georgia vs. Donald John Trump.” 

CNN has not verified the document, its origin, or whether it was posted on the court website. 

The statement from the court also called the two-page document a “fictitious document.” The court hasn’t said that the document ever appeared on its website, as Reuters reported. 

The former president has already capitalized on the controversy to attack Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office. 

Trump attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said in a statement that the “proposed indictment” was already circulating among prosecutors and court officials “before the grand jury even deliberated.”

Former President Donald Trump’s team is preparing for a potential indictment to be delivered imminently in the Fulton County District Attorney’s grand jury investigation into his efforts to overturn to the 2020 election results in Georgia, his advisers tell CNN.

His team has begun lining up surrogates and allies — as well as preparing pre-written responses — to react to new charges, they said, a strategy they have now implemented three times before when responding to previous indictments brought against the former president.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge who has presided over key parts of the Georgia probe against former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election results in the Peach State has demonstrated a willingness to speak frankly to both sides of the contentious proceeding.

It’s unclear whether Judge Robert McBurney will preside over Trump’s trial, if he is charged. But McBurney is presiding over the Atlanta-area grand jury that’s hearing the Trump election subversion case in the state.

His rulings and temperament have already had a deep impact on the closely watched matter, in which indictments are expected to be handed up from a grand jury this week.

Here are key things to know about the judge and his role in the probe:

McBurney, a Harvard-educated lawyer who was appointed by then-Georgia Republican Gov. Nathan Deal in 2012, oversaw the special grand jury that collected evidence in the investigation.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals when she presents her case before a grand jury, sources familiar with the matter have told CNN. Charges could include racketeering, conspiracy and more.

Last month, in a major ruling, McBurney rejected Trump’s request to throw out the evidence collected by the special grand jury and to disqualify Willis from overseeing the criminal investigation because of her public comments about the case.

“The drumbeat from the District Attorney has been neither partisan (in the political sense) nor personal, in marked and refreshing contrast to the stream of personal invective flowing from one of the movants,” McBurney wrote, in an apparent swipe at the Trump team’s barbed filings regarding Willis.

He continued: “Put differently, the District Attorney’s Office has been doing a fairly routine – and legally unobjectionable – job of public relations in a case that is anything but routine.”

However, in a major ruling earlier in the investigation, McBurney blocked Willis from investigating Burt Jones, then a Republican state senator, who was one of the fake electors who signed an illegitimate Electoral College certificate. (Jones is now Georgia’s lieutenant governor.)

Willis had hosted a campaign fundraiser for Jones’ Democratic opponent in the Georgia lieutenant governor’s race, Charley Bailey, for which McBurney criticized Willis. “It’s a ‘What are you thinking’ moment,” he said at the time. “The optics are horrific.”

In his recent ruling denying Trump’s bid to shut down the probe, McBurney referenced the Jones dispute, saying Willis had “injected direct partisanship into a criminal investigation that should remain as politically neutral as possible” when it came to Jones. But McBurney concluded that Willis didn’t cross that line with Trump.

McBurney was previously a former federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Georgia and the state prosecutor in Fulton County, according to the Fulton County court website.

In some other notable cases, McBurney overturned Georgia’s six-week abortion ban before it was reinstated by the Supreme Court last year. In his opinion, he wrote that when Georgia lawmakers passed the bill and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law in 2019, “the supreme law of this land unequivocally was — and had been for nearly half a century — that laws unduly restricting abortion before viability were unconstitutional.”

Read more about McBurney.

Fulton County, Georgia, Judge Robert McBurney, who is presiding over the grand jury currently hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case, said Monday that he is prepared to keep his courtroom open beyond the regular closing time of 5 p.m. ET — if asked by prosecutors to keep it open. 

McBurney made this announcement in open court, in the presence of assembled reporters.

Marc Short, the former chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Monday that Pence, amid efforts by Donald Trump’s team to stall certification of the 2020 election using “fake electors,” asked the Senate parliamentarian for guidance on certifying the vote.

Short said on CNN that Pence’s team met with Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, on January 3, 2021: “She was very helpful because she actually gave context to say, ‘we actually get people sending in fake slates every four years — and they’re meaningless.’ And so it was important for her to stipulate that unless they’re certified by the state it doesn’t really matter.”

He added that MacDonough provided Pence and his team with “traditional scripts” of this sentiment that the then-vice president’s general counsel and head of legislative affairs used to alter Pence’s remarks on the Senate floor to certify the election results on January 6, 2021.

Remarks that were altered from their usual state under the guidance of MacDonough “because the vice president wanted the American people who were watching to understand there had only been one slate that had been certified, ‘that is what I am authenticating.’”

Trump was charged last month by special counsel Jack Smith for trying to “subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes” with the fake elector plot. Separate charges were also brought last month against 16 Michigan Republicans who served as fake electors in 2020.

Michigan was one of the seven battleground states where the Trump campaign put forward slates of fake electors as part of their plan to undermine the Electoral College process, and potentially disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results.

Short said the “fake electors” were put up by Trump’s team so Pence could delay the election certification and send the fate of the presidency to the Republican-controlled House.

“So even though it sounds like, ‘oh we’ll just buy us more time and let them rethink this,’ none of the states were going to rethink it, they had already certified,” Short said. “But separately, the real intention was, if we force a delay this kicks the vote into the House of Representatives.”

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan was spotted by CNN entering a grand jury room Monday for his expected testimony in the Fulton County probe into Donald Trump’s election subversion in 2020.

CNN also saw independent journalist George Chidi entering the courthouse in Atlanta.

Both witnesses were initially expected to testify Tuesday, but were asked to come in Monday, as the proceedings move faster than expected.

Duncan, a Republican, is a CNN contributor.

Prosecutors in Georgia have aggressively investigated whether former President Donald Trump broke the law while trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the hotly contested state.

In shocking phone calls, Trump privately pressured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and another official to “recalculate” the numbers and “find” enough votes to let him win.

Frustrated by the lack of fraud investigations, Trump ousted the US attorney in Atlanta. On the day Congress was set to certify the Electoral College results, Trump held an incendiary rally and incited a mob of supporters to attack the Capitol, temporarily delaying the process.

After the insurrection was quashed later that night, the electoral votes were counted and Biden officially became President-elect.

Here’s a timeline of some of Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the election in the state:

December 29: Raffensperger announces that the audit in Cobb County found no evidence of fraudulent mail-in voting.

Trump says Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger are “stupid,” and calls on them to “allow us to find the crime, and turn the state Republican.” He complains about the signature-matching inquiries. Trump also promotes a conspiracy theory that Raffensperger’s brother works for the Chinese government.

December 30: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks to a Georgia state Senate subcommittee about alleged election irregularities. Kemp rebukes Giuliani’s conduct during the hearing.

Trump says Kemp “should resign from office.”

January 2: In an hour-long private phone call, Trump pressures Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes needed to overturn Biden’s victory. Trump also suggests to Raffensperger that he should publicly announce that he “recalculated” the election results. Raffensperger tells Trump that the election results were accurate.

During the call, Trump also criticizes the US attorney in Atlanta, Byung Pak, calling him a “Never Trumper” without any evidence. CNN later reported that the call occurred after 18 previous attempts by the White House to call Raffensperger’s office. CNN obtained the audio below from a source who was on the call and had direct knowledge of the conversation. Read the full transcript here.

January 3: Trump tweets about the call, saying Raffensperger was “unwilling, or unable” to answer questions about alleged fraud in Georgia. In response, Raffensperger says Trump’s claims are “not true” and that “the truth will come out.” Later, The Washington Post publishes the full recording of the phone call.

January 4: On the eve of Georgia’s special Senate election, Trump holds a rally in Dalton, Georgia, where he pledges to campaign against Kemp and Raffensperger if they run for reelection in 2022. He also falsely claims the election was “rigged” against him.

January 5: A federal judge rejects an attempt by Trump’s campaign to decertify the election results in Georgia.

January 6: Trump mentions “Georgia” 20 times at a rally near the White House. He cites conspiracy theories about alleged irregularities and says election officials “should find those votes” needed to overturn Biden’s victory. He falsely claims Raffensperger and Kemp are “corrupt” and “defrauded us out of a win.”

During the speech, Trump urges the crowd to “fight like hell” and march to the US Capitol to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers to block the Electoral College proceedings. Trump supporters storm the Capitol and violently disrupt the formal proceedings to certify Biden’s victory.

After the insurrection is quelled, several House Republicans unsuccessfully try to challenge Georgia’s slate of electors, falsely alleging that the election was “fraudulent.” Georgia’s electoral votes are counted and Biden officially becomes the President-elect.

See the full timeline here.

The Fulton County grand jury that is hearing the prosecution’s presentation of evidence ahead of potential charges against Donald Trump and others for 2020 election interference appears to be moving faster than initially anticipated. 

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is now testifying today after being told to appear tomorrow initially, a person familiar tells CNN. Duncan is also a CNN contributor.  

Earlier, CNN reported another witness, independent journalist George Chidi, who was scheduled for Tuesday will now be coming in on Monday instead.

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney is presiding over the grand jury that’s hearing the Trump election subversion case in Georgia — but it is not clear if he will preside over the criminal trial if Trump and others are indicted. 

McBurney has presided over the key parts of the investigation so far: 

After that point in the process, a judge will be assigned to oversee the trial.

Independent journalist George Chidi, who was expected to appear Tuesday at the Fulton County grand jury hearing on the Donald Trump 2020 election case, said he is going to testify on Monday instead because prosecutors are “moving faster than they thought.”

“Change of plans. I’m going to court today,” he posted Monday afternoon on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

Chidi previously testified before a special purpose grand jury tasked with investigating the Trump case, which heard from more than 75 witnesses in all.

Back in December 2020, Chidi spotted the fake GOP electors meeting in the Georgia statehouse, where they signed illegitimate certificates as part of a plot to subvert the Electoral College.

The Fulton County probe has, among other things, focused on the fake electors plot and is pursuing potential criminal charges against some of the participants.

Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan declined to say Monday if he felt intimidated by former President Donald Trump’s public call for him to not testify on Tuesday to the Fulton County grand jury.

“Well, this close into my testimony, which is going to be tomorrow, I’m going to refrain from any comment with the exception of saying, which was just pointed out, he did misspell my name,” Duncan, a CNN contributor, told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on “News Central.”

In a Truth Social post earlier Monday, Trump said Duncan, a key witness in the investigation who is planning to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday, “shouldn’t” provide testimony.  

The investigation is about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State, and prosecutors are expected to seek indictments against the former president and more than a dozen others. 

Duncan didn’t provide details to Sanchez about what he plans to tell the grand jury, but he called his testimony “an important part of the healing process for the Republican Party.”

“We’ve got to put these facts and figures and details and reality on display for America, specifically for Republicans to see what reality really is,” he said. “The social media game that Donald Trump has played over the years, it’s shallow, right? You don’t have to be any more than a few hundred characters’ worth of information with no facts behind it, with no details, to stir the crowd. And that’s certainly been his game for a number of years. And it looks like it’s continuing.”  

Former Georgia state lawmakers Jen Jordan and Bee Nguyen testified Monday to the Fulton County grand jury hearing the Donald Trump 2020 election subversion case, according to CNN reporting and public statements. 

Jordan, a Democrat and former state senator, was seen leaving the courthouse, hours after CNN confirmed earlier in the day that she was there to testify before the grand jury hearing the case about Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Jordan, who departed around 11:30 a.m. ET, declined to answer questions from a reporter as she departed.

Nguyen, a Democrat and former state representative, also confirmed in a public statement that she testified before the grand jury on Monday.

Both Jordan and Nguyen witnessed conspiracy-ridden presentations about the 2020 election from then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani when they were serving as state lawmakers. 

“Today, I testified in front of the Fulton County Grand Jury,” Nguyen said in her statement. “When I took my oath of office in 2017, I swore my allegiance to our Constitution and promised to protect and defend our State and our county. On December 10, 2020, when Rudy Giuliani and the former President’s legal team appeared before the Georgia House of Representatives, I upheld my oath and told the truth in the face of false testimony about our elections.”

Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, sources tell CNN.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals when her team presents its case before a grand jury this week. Several individuals involved in the voting systems breach in Coffee County are among those who may face charges in the sprawling criminal probe.

Investigators in the Georgia criminal probe have long suspected the breach was not an organic effort sprung from sympathetic Trump supporters in rural and heavily Republican Coffee County – a county Trump won by nearly 70% of the vote. They have gathered evidence indicating it was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software, according to people familiar with the situation.

Trump allies attempted to access voting systems after the 2020 election as part of the broader push to produce evidence that could back up the former president’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.

What we know about the investigation: The voting system breach in Coffee County quietly emerged as an area of focus for investigators roughly one year ago. Since then, new evidence has slowly been uncovered about the role of Trump’s attorneys, the operatives they hired and how the breach, as well as others like it in other key states, factored into broader plans for overturning the election.

Together, the text messages and other court documents show how Trump lawyers and a group of hired operatives sought to access Coffee County’s voting systems in the days before January 6, 2021, as the former president’s allies continued a desperate hunt for any evidence of widespread fraud they could use to delay certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Last year, a former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 select committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020, that included Trump.

Six days before pro-Trump operatives gained unauthorized access to voting systems, the local elections official who allegedly helped facilitate the breach sent a “written invitation” to attorneys working for Trump, according to text messages obtained by CNN.

Investigators have scrutinized the actions of various individuals who were involved, including Misty Hampton, a former Coffee County elections official who authored the letter of invitation referenced in text messages and other documents that have been turned over to prosecutors, multiple sources told CNN.

They have also examined the involvement of Trump’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani – who was informed last year he was a target in the Fulton County investigation – and fellow Trump lawyer Sidney Powell as part of their probe, according to people familiar with the matter.

A spokesperson for Willis’ office declined to comment.

The letter of invitation was shared with attorneys and an investigator working with Giuliani at the time, the text messages obtained by CNN show.

Read more about the probe into the Coffee County voting system breach.

Fani Willis had only been in office as Fulton County district attorney for a day when former President Donald Trump phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find” votes to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on Jan. 2, 2021.

She had campaigned on the premise of restoring integrity to the Fulton County district attorney’s office, was elected after ousting six-term incumbent Paul Howard and inherited a stack of backlogged cases from her predecessor.

By early February, her office was firing off letters to Georgia officials asking them to preserve documents related to attempts to influence the state’s 2020 election.

Now, Fulton County’s first female district attorney has been leading investigations into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and RICO indictments against Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and his associates.

From California by way of Washington, DC, Willis obtained her undergraduate degree from Howard University in 1992 and graduated from Emory School of Law in 1996, according to her biography. Her name, Fani, is Swahili and means “prosperous,” and her father was a lawyer and Black Panther.

According to a South Atlanta Magazine profile, she worked in the private sector for five years before becoming assistant district attorney for Fulton County in 2001.

Willis drew attention as a leading prosecutor in the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal. Prosecuting the seven-month trial from 2014 to 2015, Willis secured convictions for 11 of the 12 defendants charged with racketeering and other crimes related to cheating that was believed to date to early 2001, when scores on statewide skills tests began to rise in the 50,000-student school district.

She opened a private practice focused on criminal defense and family law in 2018.

“I was raised by a single a father and so my heart is always with fathers – so in my family law practice I tend to represent men that are going through battles you know with children and child support and child custody,” Willis said in a July 2020 interview.

Read more about the district attorney here.

Yet another likely criminal indictment is looming over Donald Trump this week, which would deepen his already extreme legal quagmire and further divert an unparalleled election season from the campaign trail into multiple courtrooms.

Atlanta-area prosecutor Fani Willis, a Democrat, has called at least two key witnesses to appear before a grand jury on Tuesday in a sign that her probe into the ex-president’s bid to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia, a vital swing state, is nearing its end game. Willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen people. Trump believes he will be among them and is already fundraising off of the possibility of more criminal charges, casting them as Democratic efforts to interfere in the 2024 election.

If Trump does face any fresh charges, they would follow three previous indictments. He’s already facing a March trial in Manhattan over business fraud charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to an adult film actress. He’s also facing federal charges from special counsel Jack Smith’s two probes – in Florida, into his mishandling of classified documents, and in Washington, DC, over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. He’s pleaded not guilty in all the cases against him so far.

But there will be key differences between the potential case in Georgia and Trump’s previous indictments. While Trump’s 2024 campaign has predominantly become an extension of his legal defense, any possible trial and conviction in Georgia would be far harder for him to meddle with if he is elected to a second term since presidential powers that could help him interfere with federal cases do not extend to local matters.

“Not only would he not be able to pardon himself, but the pardon process in Georgia means Gov. (Brian) Kemp would not be able to pardon him either. There’s a pardon board. So it’s a more complicated process,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday. “He also would not be able to shut down the investigation in the same way.”

Read more about the possible fourth indictment against Donald Trump.

The Atlanta-area district attorney investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies has been lining up witnesses to appear before a grand jury in order to craft a narrative around how Trump and his supporters tried to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to spend two days presenting her case before a grand jury this week.

Willis could seek several indictments as she eyes a sweeping racketeering case that could cast Trump and several of his associates as operating as a criminal enterprise in their endeavors to upend Georgia’s election results.

If Willis proceeds with racketeering charges, “I think she is going to tell a story,” said Georgia State law professor Clark D. Cunningham. “The story of how one person at the top – the former president – really marshaled an army of people to accomplish his goal which was to stay in power through any means.”

The witnesses Willis has subpoenaed include former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former Georgia Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan and independent journalist George Chidi. All of them previously testified before a special purpose grand jury that was tasked with investigating the Trump case and heard from more than 75 witnesses.

Willis launched her investigation into Trump in early 2021, soon after he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured the Republican to “find” the votes necessary for Trump to win the state of Georgia. At a campaign event Tuesday, Trump continued to insist it was a “perfect phone call.”

Her investigation has steadily expanded, and Willis has been weighing racketeering charges in the Trump case. RICO – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – is a statute the district attorney has spoken fondly of and used in unorthodox ways to bring charges against teachers as well as musicians in the Atlanta area.

In 2015, Willis was thrust into the national spotlight as a Fulton County prosecutor when she used Georgia’s racketeering statute to charge teachers, principals and other education officials in an Atlanta Public School cheating scandal.

After a 7-month trial, Willis secured convictions for 11 of the 12 defendants charged with racketeering and other crimes related to cheating that was believed to date to early 2001, when scores on statewide skills tests began to rise in the 50,000-student school district.

“The reason that I am a fan of RICO is, I think jurors are very, very intelligent,” Willis told reporters in 2022 at a news conference about a gang-related indictment. “They want to know what happened. They want to make an accurate decision about someone’s life. And so, RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement to tell the whole story.”

Soon after Willis embarked on her Trump investigation, she retained attorney John Floyd – known for his depth of knowledge in racketeering cases – to assist her office.

In addition to allowing prosecutors to weave a narrative, Georgia’s racketeering statute allows investigators to pull a broader array of conduct into their indictments, including activities that took place outside of the state of Georgia but may have been part of a broader conspiracy.

Those convicted of racketeering charges also face steeper penalties, a point of leverage for prosecutors if they are hoping to flip potential co-conspirators or encourage defendants to take plea deals.

Read more about the possible charges in the case.

The Fulton County grand jury will hear former President Donald Trump’s election subversion case today.

CNN has reported that former Georgia State Sen. Jen Jordan is inside the Fulton County courthouse ahead of her grand jury testimony. The Atlanta Journal Constitution also reported that at least two other witnesses were seen inside the building Monday morning.

These developments indicate that District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, will likely start her presentation to the grand jury today, as has been expected. The presentation could take up to two days. 

Other key witnesses were recently told they were expected to testify Tuesday.  

Former President Donald Trump on Monday publicly said a key witness “shouldn’t” testify before the Fulton County Grand jury.

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan was told he should appear Tuesday to testify before the grand jury but in a Truth Social post this morning, Trump said “he shouldn’t.”

About Duncan: The former lieutenant governor earlier this month received subpoenas to testify before the Fulton County grand jury, a source with direct knowledge of the 2020 election interference investigation in the state told CNN.

Duncan has been a sharp critic of Donald Trump’s efforts to upend Georgia’s election results. He recently told CNN that he was “embarrassed” when Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for Trump, and other allies of the former president appeared before Georgia state lawmakers. While Duncan was president of the Georgia state Senate at the time, he told CNN he did not “sanction” those meetings, and that they were not “official hearings.”

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” last week, Duncan committed to testifying in front of the grand jury, saying he’ll “be there to answer the facts as I know them and to continue this process of trying to discover what actually happened during that post-election period of time.”

Security for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and at the Fulton County courthouse has been beefed up amid the heated rhetoric from former President Donald Trump and his allies.

CNN has reported that she recently told colleagues that she has been receiving racist and sexualized threats and messages as decisions on possible charges loomed in the Trump case.

In his first post on the social platform Truth Social, Trump had attacked Willis as “phoney” and had argued he “didn’t tamper with the election,” while reiterating his false claim that the 2020 election was “rigged & stolen.”

In a second post, Trump argued Willis is ignoring evidence of others who have “committed this crime,” claiming she “only wants to ‘get Trump.’” He added he “would be happy” to present evidence to the grand jury. 

Meanwhile, the special grand jury in Fulton County, which heard last year from 75 witnesses in the probe, “unanimously” concluded in its report that became public in February that there wasn’t the type of widespread voter fraud in Georgia in 2020 that Trump has been claiming.

“The Grand Jury heard extensive testimony on the subject of alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts, and State of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming that such fraud took place,” the special grand jury said in its report. “We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

Former President Donald Trump on Monday addressed reporting that he could face a fourth indictment as early as this week in Georgia regarding his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. He argued he “didn’t tamper with the election” and attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as “phoney.” 

“NO, I DIDN’T TAMPER WITH THE ELECTION! THOSE WHO RIGGED & STOLE THE ELECTION WERE THE ONES DOING THE TAMPERING, & THEY ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

As CNN previously reported, Willis is expected to present the election subversion case to a grand jury early this week, the most significant indication of her intention to seek indictments in the investigation of how Trump and others tried to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Willis, a Democrat, launched the probe in early 2021 and has investigated Trump’s attempts to pressure Georgia officials into interfering with the vote tally, the “fake electors” scheme to subvert the Electoral College, and other efforts to undo the will of the voters.

There are no reports of credible threats outside the Fulton County courthouse this morning, according to Michael Coates, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office chief of staff.

A grand jury is expected to hear testimony in the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump, possibly beginning today.

“We have been prepared for this and anticipating this day for some time. We are ready,” Coates tells CNN.

Outside of the courthouse, a dramatic increase in security preparations has been put in place over the course of the last several weeks ahead of the grand jury hearing the case against Trump.

On Monday morning, a CNN crew spotted at least one bomb dog combing the scene, flanked by a high number of sheriff’s deputies with long guns. 

In front of the courthouse, metal barricades and plastic barriers were put up blocking the main street in front of the court. Around the courthouse, sheriff’s deputies sat in parked cars preventing traffic.  

The buses that transport the Fulton County grand jurors that could hear evidence in the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump have arrived at the Fulton County Courthouse.

CNN spotted the buses that typically drops off grand jurors arriving Monday morning at the courthouse after 8 a.m. ET.

There are two active grand juries in Fulton County, and the expectation is that “Grand Jury A” – which regularly meets on Mondays and Tuesdays — could begin hearing evidence against Trump as soon as today. A number of previously-subpoenaed witnesses were notified over the weekend that they will be called to testify Tuesday as part of the case against Trump and his Republican allies. 

Senior Fulton County Assistant District Attorney De Andre Royals was also spotted entering the courthouse Monday morning shortly after the grand jurors arrived.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the state-level Trump investigation, is expected to seek indictments against more than a dozen potential defendants. She has previously indicated that she expects to announce a charging decision against Trump by the end of August. 

A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, on July 31 rejected efforts by Donald Trump’s legal team to toss evidence in the criminal investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and to disqualify the district attorney investigating him.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney also rejected efforts by Cathy Latham, who served as one of the GOP fake electors in Georgia, to join Trump’s push.

“Having reviewed the pleadings, the Court now finds that neither Trump nor Latham enjoys standing to mount a challenge – at this pre-indictment phase of the proceedings – to the continued investigation into and potential prosecution of possible criminal interference in the 2020 general election in Georgia,” the judge wrote in a nine-page order.

McBurney added that, “while being the subject (or even target) of a highly publicized criminal investigation is likely an unwelcome and unpleasant experience, no court ever has held that that status alone provides a basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation.”

The former president’s legal team in Georgia had previously asked the court to throw out all the evidence from the special purpose grand jury investigation and disqualify Willis, citing concerns about the constitutionality of special grand juries in the state and criticizing public comments she has made about the case.

Trump’s team already raised their arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court, which dismissed Trump’s attempt to shut down the investigation.

“There will be a time and a forum in which Trump and Latham can raise their concerns about the constitutionality of the special purpose grand jury statutes, about the performance of this particular Special Purpose Grand Jury (and the judge supervising it), and about the propriety of allowing the Fulton County District Attorney to remain involved with whatever criminal prosecution – if any – results from the work of this Special Purpose Grand Jury,” McBurney wrote. “That time is not now and that forum is not here.”

McBurney also rejected the Trump team’s arguments that Willis should be disqualified from overseeing the criminal investigation into Trump and his allies.

“The drumbeat from the District Attorney has been neither partisan (in the political sense) nor personal, in marked and refreshing contrast to the stream of personal invective flowing from one of the movants,” McBurney wrote, in an apparent swipe at the Trump team’s barbed filings regarding Willis.

He continued: “Put differently, the District Attorney’s Office has been doing a fairly routine – and legally unobjectionable – job of public relations in a case that is anything but routine.”

It’s been eight years since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and more than two years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump has never been more intense.

The former president has already been indicted three times this year, and a potential indictment looms in Georgia.

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. Willis, a Democrat, is considering bringing conspiracy and racketeering charges.

Here are key things to know about the former president’s three indictments:

Hush-money payments: In New York, a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels resulted in Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in the scheme – the first time in American history that a current or former president was criminally charged. He was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The former president surrendered and was placed under arrest April 4, before he was arraigned in a historic and unprecedented court appearance, at which he pleaded not guilty.

Mar-a-Lago documents: Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Trump was initially indicted on, and has pleaded not guilty to, 37 federal charges related to the investigation of documents that were allegedly mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after Trump left office. Smith charged Trump with three additional counts in a superseding indictment.

A judge has set a May 2024 start date for the trial.

2020 election and January 6: Smith’s purview also includes the period after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and leading up to the insurrection at the US Capitol.

A federal grand jury indicted Trump on four criminal counts in the investigation: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

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