Last week, Fulton County DA Fani Willis argued against the release of special grand jury findings in the investigation against election interference in Georgia because prosecutorial "decisions are imminent," leading legal minds to speculate that former President Donald Trump could be about to face criminal charges for his role in the matter.
Writing for The Washington Post on Monday, Aaron Blake outlined the six charges the former president could potentially face in this probe, if Willis decides to pull the trigger.
"Willis said charging decisions in the case were 'imminent,' while arguing against the release of a special grand jury’s report on her investigation. The question is, what charges could be brought?" wrote Blake. "According to legal experts, including a group at the Brookings Institution and Georgia State University law professor Clark D. Cunningham, a few could be in play. Below is a look at the various crimes that could be cited, along with the past conduct pointing in that direction and how compelling the publicly available evidence is."
Possible charges, he wrote, include solicitation to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit election fraud, and interference with performance of election duties, all of which Trump may have committed in his infamous phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find 11,780 votes.” Conspiracy could furthermore be underscored by Trump's work with Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
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He could also be charged with filing false documents if he is found to have had a clear role in the fake electors scheme, Blake wrote, as well as a general charge of false statements, although that would be tougher because it requires the perpetrator to live in Fulton County. Lastly, he could even be charged with racketeering: "Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (or RICO) Act is broader than its federal counterpart. It requires proving two predicate crimes and establishing a pattern of racketeering activity, but it doesn’t require those crimes to be indicted separately. And while such laws are most commonly linked to organized crime, it has been used against public officials."
That last matter, Blake concluded, could be a particular worry for Trump: "Willis hired a racketeering expert for her team early in her tenure. And she has used the racketeering law extensively during her time as a prosecutor, including against education officials accused of inflating students’ test scores in 2013."
