ATLANTA (CN) — In the sweeping indictment unsealed Monday night against Donald Trump, defendants range from key high-level figures in the former president's inner circle to local folks on the ground in Georgia — each with a part to play in what prosecutors say was a multistate racketeering plot.
Once a household name for his roles as a onetime New York City mayor, U.S. attorney and U.S. attorney general, Rudy Giuliani is among the most prominent of the defendants named after Trump himself.
The figure christened "America's mayor" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks returned to the national spotlight in the last presidential administration as one of Trump's personal attorneys, and the indictment paints him as a key figure in falsely holding up Trump as the winner of the 2020 election.
After the votes were counted, and Georgia was called for Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden, prosecutors say Giuliani spread false statements concerning election fraud as a witness in three hearings of the Georgia Legislature.
One of Giuliani's angles was a claim that the Trump campaign had proof of election workers pulling out "suitcases" of ballots. Though Giuliani presented purported surveillance footage of ballots being tabulated at Atlanta's State Farm Arena, an investigation by Georgia election officials found that the footage showed regular ballot containers used in Fulton County.
Giuliani specifically attacked two election workers, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, falsely accusing them of pulling fraudulent ballots from the "suitcase." Moss and Freeman have brought two civil defamation lawsuits over their treatment, with the most recent naming Giuliani as a defendant.
In the Georgia criminal case, Giuliani faces 13 charges, just as Trump does: three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer; three counts of false statements and writings; conspiracy to commit impersonation of a public officer; two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree forgery; two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; and conspiracy to commit filing false documents, on top of violating Georgia's RICO act, an anti-racketeering law.
The election workers figure again in the five charges against Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor and police chaplain from Illinois, who prosecutors say tried to intimidate Freeman into a false admission of committing election fraud.
Lee made an unexpected visit to Freeman’s home in mid-December 2020, and Freeman called 911 after Lee repeatedly knocked on her door. Footage from a police officer's body-worn camera shows Lee telling officer that he was offering to provide Freeman with “pro bono service” and "get some truth." After Freeman turned him down, Lee allegedly tried to arrange a meeting with Freeman by contacting Harrison Floyd, a former Illinois congressional candidate and former director of Black Voices for Trump, and Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for singer R. Kelly and associate of Kanye West, the rapper now known as Ye.
In a lengthy ensuing discussion, the indictment says Kutti and Floyd told Freeman she was at risk of incarceration but could secure an immunity deal if she falsely confessed to committing election fraud. Prosecutors sought to question Floyd before the special-purpose grand jury, but he successfully challenged his subpoena to appear. Lee, Floyd and Kutti all faces charges related to influencing witnesses.
The indictment also mentions several instances in which Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, an attorney hired by the Trump campaign, purportedly contacted state officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan to further spread his false election fraud claims and request that they unlawfully appoint presidential electors in favor of Trump. Ellis reportedly wrote memos for Trump and his lawyers that detailed how Vice President Mike Pence should disregard certified electoral college votes from Georgia and other states they contested.