These people were charged with interfering in the 2020 election. Some are still in politics today
ATLANTA– As Donald Trump pursues a return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up against the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of voter fraud.
At least five states won by President Joe Biden in 2020 have explored efforts to install electors who would vote for Trump despite his loss. Those slates would be used by Trump allies in the House of Representatives and the Senate to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress, which was disrupted by pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.
Several of those charged or accused of involvement in election interference in the states are still involved in Republican politics — including the attorney overseeing “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee. And Trump, who faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia over his efforts to overturn Biden’s victory, still frequently claims the 2020 election was stolen, a falsehood repeated by many of his supporters.
Here’s a look at the sprawling web of accusations, criminal charges and references to people close to Trump as unindicted co-conspirators.
The former president faces state charges in Georgia and federal charges in Washington over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, and has been identified by investigators in Arizona and Michigan as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The charges against Georgia stemmed from a sweeping racketeering indictment in Fulton County in August, accusing Trump and 18 others of participating in a vast scheme — including the efforts of Republican voters — to illegally try to close his narrow losses. to undo the state.
Trump is the only one charged in the federal indictment in Washington, but several close associates are identifiable as unindicted co-conspirators.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing his arguments that he should be immune from prosecution. He has secured his third consecutive Republican nomination for president.
Racketeering and conspiracy are among the charges facing the former New York mayor and Trump-linked lawyer in Georgia. The charges against him have not yet been made public in Arizona.
In Michigan, a state investigator has testified that Giuliani is among a number of high-profile, unindicted co-conspirators in a case against Republicans who signed voter certifications falsely claiming Trump won the state.
He is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment in Washington citing comments he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally before the Capitol riot.
His spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that the “continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American because it is causing permanent, irrevocable damage to the country.”
Bobb is a lawyer and conservative media personality charged in Arizona. She worked closely with Giuliani as he tried to convince Arizona lawmakers to block the certification of the election results. She later raised money for a discredited audit of Maricopa County election results and reported on the spectacle for One America News Network.
As Trump’s attorney, Bobb signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted and that all of them had been returned to the government before an FBI investigation uncovered dozens of protected documents at his Mar-a-Lago brought light. residence.
She was recently tapped to oversee “election integrity” efforts at the Republican National Committee.
Asked about Bobb’s role at the RNC, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of “weaponizing the justice system.”
Trump’s White House chief is charged in Georgia’s sweeping racketeering indictment, but not in connection with the Republican election rally. He took part in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president urged the election official to help “find” the votes needed to overcome his narrow loss in the can be undone.
Meadows’ charges in Arizona are not publicly known. He was also identified by the Michigan state investigator as an unindicted co-conspirator.
His attorney, George Terwilliger, referred to Wednesday’s indictment in Arizona as a “blatantly political and politicized accusation that will be challenged and defeated.”
Meadows now works for the Conservative Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that describes his role as leading “strategic initiatives on Capitol Hill, with other partner organizations and with grassroots activists across the country.”
Eastman, a former dean of the law school at Chapman University in Southern California, wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the election certification results during a joint session of the Senate Congress using the lists of Republican voters from the battleground ushers.
The charges against him in Georgia include racketeering and conspiracy, while the charges in Arizona have not been made public. He is also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment, which cites his comments at the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges in Georgia and his attorney Charles Burnham said he is innocent of charges in Arizona.
Ellis was charged in the Georgia indictment after appearing with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by Republican state lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol where false allegations of election fraud were made. She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She was not charged in connection with the efforts of Republican voters in Georgia.
It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney in Arizona who could comment on the charges she faces there, which have not yet been made public.
Roman, a Trump campaign official and onetime White House aide, was charged with several conspiracy charges in connection with the Republican primary rally and voter certification filing in Georgia. He was also charged in Arizona.
Roman has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. It was not immediately clear whether he already had an attorney in Arizona.
Chesebro, a lawyer, worked with Republicans in multiple swing states to coordinate and implement Trump’s election plan. He was charged with racketeering and several conspiracy charges related to that work in Georgia and reached an agreement with prosecutors in October to plead guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to file false documents.
Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal election indictment, which says he “helped devise and attempt to execute a scheme to submit fraudulent lists of presidential electors to impede the certification process .”
He was also named in the civil lawsuit in Wisconsin, and when he turned over documents to settle that lawsuit, he admitted no liability but vowed never to participate in similar efforts.
Powell, a lawyer and staunch ally of Trump, was charged in Georgia with racketeering and conspiracy, but was not involved in the election manifesto. The Fulton County indictment accused her of participating in an unauthorized breach of election equipment at a rural Georgia county elections office. She pleaded guilty in October to six felonies accusing her of conspiring to deliberately interfere with the execution of election duties after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
She is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference case, in which prosecutors say she filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsupported claims of election fraud.
Clark was a U.S. Department of Justice official who defended Trump’s false claims of election fraud. He was charged in Georgia with racketeering and criminal attempts to commit false statements and writings after he presented colleagues with a draft letter urging Georgian officials to call a special legislative session on the election results.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia.
He was also one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment against Trump.
In addition to Arizona, criminal charges have been filed against Republicans who presented themselves as voters in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Wisconsin Republicans who signed voter certificates reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania or New Mexico, with the attorney general in the latter saying there is no avenue for prosecution under state law.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.