Trump's Georgia Lawsuit: What Laws Did He Break?

Former US President Donald Trump has been charged with a range of criminal offences in Georgia, stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. A 98-page indictment outlines Trump's pressure campaign against election officials, a plot to submit false slates of electors, and a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results in the state. Trump is charged with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, along with 18 co-defendants. The indictment includes 41 felony counts, with prosecutors accusing Trump and his associates of election fraud, urging state officials to violate their oaths of office, and harassing an election worker. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accused the prosecutor of political motivation.

Trump's call to Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, urging him to find votes to overturn the election result

On January 2, 2021, former US President Donald Trump held a phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, urging him to ""find" enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger refused, and Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol four days later in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden's victory.

The phone call between Trump and Raffensperger has been widely interpreted as an attempt by the former president to subvert the state's 2020 election results and stay in power. In the call, Trump asked Raffensperger to ""find" 11,780 votes in the state that favored him. A recording of their conversation, first published by the Washington Post, has been considered incriminating evidence against Trump.

Trump's call to Raffensperger has led to questions about whether he violated election fraud statutes at the state and federal levels. Lawyers and legal experts have suggested that Trump's actions may have broken laws prohibiting interference in federal or state elections. However, some have argued that it would be challenging to pursue charges due to the difficulty in proving criminal intent.

Trump's phone call with Raffensperger is part of a broader pattern of activity being investigated by prosecutors in Atlanta, who have accused him and his allies of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. The investigation, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, resulted in a 98-page indictment outlining Trump's pressure campaign against election officials, a plot to submit false slates of electors, and a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results.

Trump has been charged with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, along with 18 co-defendants. The RICO Act is typically used to target organized crime groups but can be applied more broadly in Georgia to include any "enterprise." The indictment outlines 161 alleged acts that were part of a conspiracy to overturn the election results in the state.

In addition to the RICO charges, Trump also faces charges of false statements and writings and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer in connection with the call to Raffensperger. These charges highlight the potential legal consequences of his attempts to pressure election officials and subvert the election results.

Trump's potential violation of state and federal laws prohibiting interference in elections

On 15 August 2023, former US President Donald Trump was charged by a Georgia grand jury with a range of crimes relating to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. The 98-page indictment outlines Trump's pressure campaign against election officials, a plot to submit false slates of electors, and a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results in the state.

Trump is charged with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act for allegedly partaking in a plot to subvert the state's 2020 election results and remain in power. The federal RICO Act was created in 1970 to combat organised crime, but Georgia's version of the law is broader and can be aimed at any "enterprise". All 19 defendants in the case are charged with violating RICO, and prosecutors outlined 161 alleged acts they claim were part of a conspiracy to overturn the election results in the state.

The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his associates allegedly committed, including:

• Falsely testifying to lawmakers that election fraud had occurred
• Urging state officials to violate their oaths of office by altering the election results
• Breaching a voting system in a rural Georgia county
• Harassing an election worker who became the focus of conspiracy theories
• Submitting false slates of electors, or people who make up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president

In addition to the above, Trump is also accused of violating state and federal laws prohibiting interference in elections. This relates to a phone call he made on 2 January 2021 to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, urging him to "find" enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.

During the call, Trump told Raffensperger:

> "So tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this. And it’s going to be very costly in many ways. And I think you have to say that you’re going to reexamine it, and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people that don’t want to find answers."

Legal experts and Democratic lawmakers assert that Trump's action was tantamount to criminal conduct and should open him to fresh legal scrutiny. Atlanta criminal defence lawyer Leigh Ann Webster said that Trump's conduct during the call "clearly violates Georgia statutes", citing a state law that makes it illegal for anyone who "solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage" in election fraud.

At the federal level, anyone who "knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process" is breaking the law. While it may be difficult to pursue a charge, some legal experts believe that Trump's conduct during the call was a threat or "veiled threat" and part of "a pattern of criminal activity".

Trump's supporters storming the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden's victory

On January 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of then-president Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob sought to keep Trump in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election, which he falsely claimed had been "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats".

Trump encouraged his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C., and at a "Save America" rally, he repeated false claims of election irregularities. He told his supporters, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore". As Congress began the electoral vote count, thousands of attendees, some armed, walked to the Capitol, and hundreds breached police perimeters.

Among the rioters were leaders of the far-right extremist groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Pipe bombs were found at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol. Rioters assaulted Capitol Police officers and journalists, breached the Capitol Building, and occupied the empty Senate chamber. Four people died, and many were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.

Trump resisted sending the National Guard to quell the mob. Later that afternoon, he released a video telling his supporters to "go home in peace". The Capitol was cleared of rioters by mid-evening, and the electoral vote count resumed, concluding with Pence declaring the final electoral vote count in favor of Biden.

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice. After Trump had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but this fell short of the required two-thirds majority, resulting in his acquittal.

In August 2023, Trump was indicted on four charges related to the attack and his attempts to overturn the election. However, following his reelection as president in November 2024, the charges were dismissed.

The breach of a voting system in a rural Georgia county and the harassment of an election worker

In January 2021, a breach of a voting system in Coffee County, a rural county in Georgia, was uncovered. Security footage from the elections office showed a team of computer experts from SullivanStrickler, a data solutions company, arriving at the office and being greeted by Cathy Latham, the county Republican Party chair, who was involved in efforts by then-President Donald Trump to overturn his election loss. Latham introduced the team to local election officials, and they were given access to copy data and software from the election management system server and other voting system components. This was arranged by attorney Sidney Powell and other Trump allies.

The involvement of high-profile Trump supporters in the breach raised concerns about the security of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia. Experts warned that potential bad actors could exploit the copied software to test different types of attacks on the voting system. The breach also brought attention to the issue of sensitive voting technology being released into the public domain.

In addition to the breach, the indictment against Trump and his associates also mentions the harassment of an election worker. While the specific details of the harassment are not mentioned, it is part of a broader pattern of intimidation and pressure tactics employed by Trump and his allies to overturn the election results.

The indictment outlines a wide-reaching plot to subvert the state's 2020 election results, including encouraging state officials to violate their oaths of office, devising a plan to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors, and unlawfully breaching voting equipment. Trump and the other defendants are charged with racketeering, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Trump's alleged scheme to submit false slates of electors to Congress in key swing states

In an attempt to remain in power after losing the 2020 US presidential election, former President Donald Trump and his associates devised a scheme to submit false slates of electors in several key swing states, including Georgia. This plot, known as the "Trump fake electors plot", was part of a broader effort to overturn the election results and involved coordinating with Republican Party officials in seven states to falsely claim that Trump had won the Electoral College vote.

The scheme involved submitting fraudulent certificates of ascertainment, which declared Trump as the winner in crucial states, to then-Vice President Mike Pence. The hope was that Pence would count these illegitimate certificates instead of the authentic ones, thereby overturning Joe Biden's victory. This strategy was defended by a fringe legal theory, developed by Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman, which claimed that the vice president had the constitutional discretion to swap official electors with an alternate slate during the certification process.

The plan was first proposed by Chesebro in mid-November 2020 and initially focused on the state of Wisconsin. However, it soon expanded to include six other battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. On December 14, 2020, as legitimate electors met to certify Biden's victory, false electors convened and signed false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner. These fraudulent certificates were then sent to Congress and the National Archives.

The role of these fake slates of electors is at the center of a four-count indictment against Trump, which includes charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States government and witness tampering. The indictment details a "corrupt plan" by Trump and his allies to "impair, obstruct, and defeat" the federal process for certifying election results, leading up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump and 18 other individuals, including Rudy Giuliani, Eastman, and Sidney Powell, were indicted in Georgia on August 15, 2023, on various charges related to the fake electors plot. Chesebro pleaded guilty to conspiring to file a false document and agreed to testify against the other defendants.

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