RICO

Fani Willis

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Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, brought a sweeping RICO case against Trump and 18 co-defendants for their efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. The case encompassed the Raffensperger phone call, the fake electors scheme, harassment of election workers, and efforts to access voting machines. Several defendants pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate, including Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis.

Fulton County, Georgia became a central focus of efforts to overturn the 2020 election. It is the location of the Raffensperger phone call pressure, the false accusations against election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and the RICO case brought by DA Fani Willis against Trump and 18 co-defendants.

Jeffrey Clark

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Jeffrey Clark was a DOJ official who drafted a letter to Georgia officials falsely claiming the DOJ had identified "significant concerns" about the election — a letter his superiors refused to send. Clark attempted to get Trump to appoint him as Acting Attorney General so he could send the letter, a scheme that was only stopped when DOJ leadership threatened mass resignations. He was indicted in the Fulton County RICO case.

Jenna Ellis

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Jenna Ellis served as a senior legal advisor on Trump's post-election legal team. She publicly promoted false claims about the election on television and social media. Ellis pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the Fulton County RICO case and tearfully admitted in court that she "failed in her duties as a lawyer" and relied on claims from other attorneys without independently verifying them. She was censured by the Colorado bar.

Kenneth Chesebro was the legal architect of the fake electors scheme, which involved creating slates of fraudulent electors in states Biden won and submitting them to Congress and the National Archives as if they were legitimate. Chesebro pleaded guilty in the Fulton County RICO case. The scheme was a key component of the broader effort to overturn the election results on January 6.

Mark Meadows

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Mark Meadows served as White House Chief of Staff during Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He participated in the phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes." Meadows was indicted in the Fulton County RICO case and reached a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Jack Smith. Text messages revealed his involvement in coordinating efforts to challenge election results across multiple states.

Sidney Powell filed a series of lawsuits she called "Release the Kraken," claiming Dominion Voting Systems machines were rigged using Venezuelan software to flip votes. Every lawsuit was dismissed for lack of evidence. Powell was sanctioned by a federal judge for filing frivolous lawsuits. She pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the Fulton County, Georgia RICO case related to the fake electors scheme.

On January 2, 2021, Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him to "find 11,780 votes" — one more than Biden's margin of victory in the state. The hour-long call was recorded by Raffensperger's office and published by The Washington Post. During the call, Trump made multiple false claims about the election that Raffensperger's team refuted in real time. The call became central evidence in the Fulton County RICO indictment.