The US state of Georgia on Monday appeared set to charge Donald Trump with a variety of charges, including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements, according to a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton County court’s website.
Prosecutors in Atlanta who have been investigating whether Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 election in Georgia began presenting their case to a grand jury.
The charges against the former US president include solicitation of oath by public officer; conspiracy to commit forgery; and violation of the state Rico (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations) Act.
Former Democratic state Senator Jen Jordan, who had been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, said as she left the Fulton County courthouse late on Monday morning that she had been questioned for about 40 minutes.
News outlets reported that former Democratic state congresswoman Bee Nguyen and Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary of state’s office, were seen arriving at the courthouse earlier on Monday.
For two and a-half years, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating actions taken by Trump and others in their efforts to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
Barriers and street closures around the courthouse in downtown Atlanta, as well as statements made by Willis, had indicated that a presentation to a grand jury was likely to begin this week.
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Nguyen and Jordan both attended legislative hearings in December 2020 during which former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others made false claims of widespread election fraud in Georgia.
Trump lawyer John Eastman also appeared during at least one of those hearings and said the election had not been held in compliance with Georgia law and that lawmakers should appoint a new slate of electors.
Sterling and his boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – both Republicans – forcefully pushed back against allegations of widespread problems with Georgia’s election.
Trump famously called Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, and suggested the state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes Trump needed to beat Biden. It was the release of a recording of that phone call that prompted Willis to open her investigation about a month later.