Trump’s Allies Prepare for Indictments in Georgia Probe: ‘They’re Coming for Everyone’
Donald Trump may be in trouble in Fulton County, Georgia. But unlike the recent indictment of him in a federal court in Washington, DC, he may not be alone.
Three sources who have spoken with prosecutors tell Rolling Stone that they believe that Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis is likely to indict not just Trump, but a number of his associates involved in attempting to overturn the election, as well.
“It really seems like they’re coming for everyone,” says one lawyer who has repeatedly dealt with the prosecutors in this criminal probe. “Based on what I know, Willis and her team do not seem to be stopping at Donald Trump. The scope for this [likely coming indictment] is probably going to be a hell of a lot wider than that…and round up a significant number of people.”
The Fulton County DA’s office has declined to comment on what will occur with an indictment, and only she knows for sure who ultimately will be hit with charges.
Still, some of Trump’s own lawyers, as well as other attorneys retained by his election-denying allies, are already preparing for the very real possibility that Trump will have plenty of company in an upcoming indictment. Lawyers have already outlined legal strategies, memos, and other material that factor in their expectation that an array of these Trump subordinates will face charges alongside him, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Trump’s team is in part basing their expectation of wider charges on the subject matter of prosecutors’ witness grillings, as well as what the DA has asked for. Those inquiries include granular details of what certain Trump allies were doing in the weeks following Election Day 2020. Figures of particularly high interest have included, but aren’t limited to, the once obscure lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, and Rudy Giuliani, sources who’ve dealt with the prosecutors tell Rolling Stone.
The Fulton County district attorney’s office and attorneys for Trump, Eastman, and Giulaini did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Fulton County prosecutors informed Giuliani in August of 2022 that he was a target in the grand jury investigation after subpoenaing him to testify about his bogus claims that election workers in Atlanta had snuck in “suitcases” full of illegal ballots.
Willis subpoenaed Chesebro, a Trump-aligned attorney, to appear before a grand jury in 2022. Chesebro was behind “the coordination and execution of a plan” to have 16 fake electors represent themselves as Georgia’s legitimate state electors, “drafted at least two memoranda in support of this plan,” and “worked directly with Trump Campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani as part of the coordination and execution of the plan,” according to the subpoena.
Chesebro was” asked to provide legal advice to the Trump campaign by a former colleague and friend” and “applied his legal acumen to these complex legal issues,” his attorney writes in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Whether the campaign relied upon that advice as Mr. Chesebro intended will have to remain a question to be resolved in court.” He added, “We hope that the Fulton D.A. and the Special Counsel fully recognize these issues before deciding who, if anyone, to charge.”
Willis also subpoenaed Eastman, citing both his requests to Georgia’s legislature that they “replace the Democratic Party’s slate of presidential electors” in part due to “unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud within the state” and his role in drafting memos detailing the scheme to have Vice President Mike Pence throw out the legitimate electoral college votes for Joe Biden.
The three men appeared as pseudonymous “co-conspirators” in the special counsel’s indictment of Trump filed last week where the grand jury is reportedly still investigating the role of Trump associates in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Any Trump associates charged by Fulton County prosecutors could nonetheless still risk prosecution at the federal level by the special counsel’s office.
“The Supreme Court has held that under what’s called the dual sovereignty doctrine, double jeopardy does not protect someone from being charged by any state and the federal government for any particular act,” Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor, explains.
Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute offers prosecutors broader authority to define and charge criminal conspiracies than in other states, potentially spelling trouble for Trump campaign alumni involved in the attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election. Willis is reportedly weighing the use of the RICO statute in the Trump investigation, potentially giving her authority to charge others beyond Trump as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy.
“One of the most important things under any conspiracy statute is that any statement made by any conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy is admissible evidence against all conspirators. In other words, it’s not hearsay,” says Epner. “In this instance, every defendant could be confronted by the stupidest things that Rudy Giuliani said.”