ATLANTA – As Donald Trump seeks to return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up against the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of electoral fraud.
At least five states won in 2020 by President Joe Biden have investigated efforts to install slates of voters that would give Electoral College votes to Trump despite his defeat. These slates were supposed to be used by Trump’s allies in the House and Senate to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, which was interrupted by pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol.
Several of those charged or accused of involvement in election interference across states are still involved in Republican politics today – including the lawyer who oversees “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee. And Trump, who faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn Biden’s victory, still frequently claims that the 2020 election was stolen, a falsehood shared by many of his supporters.
Here’s a look at the extensive web of allegations, criminal charges and references to people in Trump’s orbit as unindicted co-conspirators.
The former president faces state charges in Georgia and federal charges in Washington for efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and has been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator by investigators in Arizona and Michigan.
The Georgia charges stemmed from a broad racketeering indictment in Fulton County in August that accused Trump and 18 others of participating in a broad scheme — which included the Republican election effort — to illegally try to overturn his narrow defeat in the state.
Trump is the only defendant in the federal indictment in Washington, but several close associates are recognizable as unindicted co-conspirators.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and the US Supreme Court is weighing his arguments that he should be immune from prosecution. He won his third consecutive Republican nomination for president.
Racketeering and conspiracy are among the charges the former New York mayor and Trump-aligned lawyer faces in Georgia. In Arizona, the charges against him have not yet been made public.
In Michigan, a state investigator testified that Giuliani is among several high-profile unindicted co-conspirators in a case against Republicans who signed election certificates falsely saying Trump had won the state.
He is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment in Washington, which cites comments he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally before the Capitol riot.
His spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that “the continued weaponization of our justice system should concern all Americans as it causes permanent and irrevocable harm to the country.”
Bobb is an attorney and conservative media personality charged in Arizona. She worked closely with Giuliani as he tried to persuade Arizona lawmakers to block certification of the election results. She later raised money for a discredited audit of election results in Maricopa County and covered the spectacle for One America News Network.
As Trump’s lawyer, Bobb signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” of confidential records had been conducted and that all of those documents had been returned to the government before an FBI search revealed dozens of documents secured at his Mar-a home. -Lake. residence.
She was recently tapped to oversee “election integrity” efforts at the Republican National Committee.
Asked about Bobb’s role at the RNC, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of “weaponizing the legal system.”
A longtime Trump aide, Epshteyn was charged in Arizona, where a grand jury accused him of aiding the fake election plan.
He is a lawyer who has been by Trump’s side at some of the former president’s court appearances, including Thursday in New York.
Epshteyn was a primary surrogate in the 2016 presidential campaign, making frequent television appearances. He briefly served as a senior White House adviser before becoming an analyst for the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Trump’s White House boss is charged with the wide-ranging racketeering charge in Georgia, but not in connection with the Republican election rally. Among other things, he participated in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which the then-president urged the election official to help “find” the votes needed to overturn his defeat by little in the state.
Meadows’ charges in Arizona are not publicly known. He was also identified by the Michigan state investigator as an unindicted co-conspirator.
His attorney, George Terwilliger, referred to Wednesday’s indictment in Arizona as a “blatantly political and politicized indictment and will be challenged and defeated.”
Meadows now works for the Conservative Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that describes his role as leading “strategic initiatives on Capitol Hill, with other partner organizations and with grassroots activists across the country.”
A former dean of the law school at Chapman University in Southern California, Eastman wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the election certification results during a joint session of Congress using the slates. of Republican voters from the battleground states.
The charges against him in Georgia include racketeering and conspiracy, while the charges in Arizona have not been made public. He is also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment, which cites his comments at the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia and his attorney Charles Burnham has said he is innocent of the charges in Arizona.
Ellis was charged in the Georgia indictment after appearing with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by Republican state lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol, during which false claims of voter fraud were made. She pleaded guilty in October to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She has not been charged in connection with Republican voter efforts in Georgia.
It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney in Arizona who could comment on the charges she faces there, which have not yet been made public.
A Trump campaign staffer and former White House aide, Roman was charged with multiple conspiracy counts related to the Republican election rally and voter certification filing in Georgia. He was also charged in Arizona.
Roman has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. It was not immediately clear whether he still had an attorney in Arizona.
Chesebro, a lawyer, worked with Republicans in several swing states to coordinate and execute Trump’s election plan. He was charged with racketeering and several conspiracy counts related to that work in Georgia, and in October he reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit the filing of false documents.
Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal election indictment, which says he “helped devise and attempt to implement a plan to present fraudulent lists of presidential electors to obstruct the certification process.”
He was also named in the Wisconsin civil suit, and when he turned over documents to settle the lawsuit, he did not admit liability but promised never to participate in similar efforts.
A lawyer and steadfast ally of Trump, Powell was accused of racketeering and conspiracy in Georgia but was not implicated in the election scheme. The Fulton County indictment accused her of participating in an unauthorized tampering with election equipment at a rural Georgia county election office. She pleaded guilty in October to six misdemeanors that charged her with conspiring to willfully interfere with the performance of election duties after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
She is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference case, where prosecutors say she filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
Clark was a US Department of Justice official who defended Trump’s false claims about voter fraud. He was charged in Georgia with extortion and criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings after presenting colleagues with a draft letter pressuring Georgia officials to call a special legislative session over the election results.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia.
He was also one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment against Trump.
In addition to Arizona, criminal charges were filed against Republicans who presented themselves as voters in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Wisconsin Republicans who signed election certificates have settled a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania or New Mexico, with the latter’s attorney general saying there is no possibility of prosecution under state law.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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