The Georgia prosecutors who for more than two years have investigated Donald Trump and his people for trying to falsify the results of the 2020 presidential elections there began yesterday to present evidence and conclusions before the grand jury in the case. The accusation against the former president and numerous accomplices of his for serious crimes of conspiracy, for false statements and even for actions classified as "organized crime", seemed imminent last night.
It would be the fourth criminal indictment against the ultra leader after the 78 charges he faces for the assault on the Capitol and other attempts to reverse his electoral defeat (4 crimes); for another 40 related to the concealment of secret papers at Mar-a-Lago, and for 34 forgeries to hide the bribery of porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The case, whose presentation is being finalized in Georgia, focuses on the strong pressure on officials, threats and harassment of electoral workers, deliberate lies and even a data breach in an electoral office that are attributed to Trump and up to twenty members of his team and fans.
The most striking piece of the case, investigated under the direction of the Fulton district attorney, Fani Willis, corresponds to the telephone call in which, in January 2021, the former president tried to tighten the screws on the person responsible for electoral supervision in the southern state, Brad Raffensperger, to alter the results in the constituency: “All I want is to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we have won the state," the former president urged the senior state official, a Republican like him, in the tense dialogue that he recorded and made public. Raffensperger did not give in and became a key witness for the probable accusation of his leader.
At least five people testified yesterday or would do so today in what would be the last steps of the presentation of the case, by prosecutors, before the Georgia grand jury. They are former state representative Bee Nguyen and former state senator Jen Jordan, both Democrats and who would have heard falsehoods from the Trump team about alleged electoral fraud; the high official Gabriel Sterling, who at the time guaranteed the security of the votes and the recounts; the Republican who served as lieutenant governor of Georgia during those elections, Geoff Duncan, and the local journalist and knowledgeable about the matter George Chidi.
If at least 12 of the 23 members of the grand jury vote to impeach Trump and his family, the also candidate for re-election in the 2024 presidential elections will face a perhaps more difficult process than the other three already underway. Because in this case he could not pardon himself, as it is a state matter and not a federal one, and because, given the rules in one jurisdiction or another, here it is easier for the trial to be televised.
