In a significant development, the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, is poised to charge former President Donald Trump and twelve other individuals in a sprawling racketeering indictment. This indictment stems from an investigation into what they claim is Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. The racketeering statute in Georgia is more extensive than its federal counterpart, allowing prosecutors to include attempts to solicit or coerce qualifying crimes as predicate acts of racketeering activity.

Fani Willis and her team have spent more than two years meticulously investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia. The investigation has focused on various aspects, including attempts to influence witnesses and computer trespass. The evidence gathered by the district attorney’s office has now paved the way for a racketeering indictment, which requires prosecutors to establish the existence of an “enterprise” and a pattern of racketeering activity based on at least two qualifying crimes.

One of the charges that are likely to be included in the racketeering indictment is related to influencing witnesses. This charge could potentially implicate Trump’s conversations with Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. During a phone call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, which would alter the outcome of the election. This evidence suggests an attempt to manipulate the electoral process and could serve as a key component of the racketeering indictment.

Another charge that the Fulton County district attorney is expected to pursue is related to computer trespass. Prosecutors would need to demonstrate that defendants used a computer or network without authority to interfere with a program or data. In this case, it pertains to the breach of voting machines in Coffee County. Trump operatives, paid by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, accessed the voting machines at the county’s election office and copied sensitive voting system data. This information was then uploaded to a password-protected site, where people could download it. This act of breaching voting machines and manipulating data could be a crucial element in establishing the racketeering indictment.

Georgia’s racketeering statute is more expansive than its federal counterpart, allowing prosecutors to include additional acts of solicitation or coercion as predicate acts of racketeering activity. This means that even if the qualifying crimes cannot be indicted separately, attempts to commit those crimes can still be considered as part of the racketeering indictment. This broader scope gives prosecutors the ability to present a comprehensive case against those involved.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office is expected to seek indictments in the first two weeks of August. A special grand jury in Atlanta, which heard evidence for approximately seven months, recommended charges for more than a dozen individuals, including Donald Trump himself. Although the grand jury has the power to decide whether to return an indictment against Trump, the final decision lies with Fani Willis, who will present the case to a regular grand jury.