Global Courant 2023-05-07 01:45:24
Eight so-called fake voters who sought to cast Georgia’s 2020 electoral votes for former President Donald Trump instead of Joe Biden, agreed to immunity deals with prosecutors investigating the plan, said a trial on Friday.
The development of the investigation in Georgia comes as local prosecutors continue a wide-ranging investigation involving the former president and his allies, electoral fraud and the role of voters in casting fake Trump ballots.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis said possible criminal charges could emerge from the survey between July 11 and September 1; whether the grand jury will decide to indict is still unknown, but she asked for “heightened security and preparedness” during that time anyway.
Here’s what experts say that means for the Georgia probe and Trump.
Alleged bogus voter scheme What we know
Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president for a third time at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., November 15, 2022.
What was the electoral regime for 2020?
After the 2020 presidential election, when it became clear that Trump had lost the election and Joe Biden would become president, the now ex-president and his allies allegedly devised a plan to use slates from alleged false voters in battleground states to overturn the 2020 election.
The plan, based on a debunked the legal theory, relied on key states to find Trump-supporting voters and former Vice President Mike Pence to kick out the real voters. pennies wrote a letter on Jan. 6 about the debate over the objectionswho said his “oath to support and defend the Constitution prevents me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
The failure of the election was a motivator for pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
How does it compare to the Georgia probe?
On December 14, 2020, alleged fake voters gathered in seven states — Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin — and signed documents falsely claiming to be their state’s “duly elected” voters were, at the Trump campaign request, USA TODAY previously reported.
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“Georgia’s bogus voters sought to confuse the Electoral College vote count on January 6 by suggesting that there were two competing lists of voters, with the Trump list claiming to represent the legitimate voters,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor. at Georgia State University.
Why were eight voters given immunity?
Kay Levine, a law professor at Emory University in Georgia, told the US TODAY that with no official charges — and no knowledge of specific alleged crimes — the role that voters who received immunity deals play in the Georgia investigation remains speculative. is. But the basics of immunity deals may offer some answers.
“Without knowing the details, it suggests to me that there are eight people that the agency at one point thought would be the target of this investigation and has decided would be more useful to this investigation as witnesses than targets,” she said. . “That’s the reason for an immunity deal.”
Looking at the broader context of the investigation, it’s possible that election fraud conspiracy is on the table, both Kreis and Levine said.
Why didn’t two voters get immunity?
Friday’s lawsuit found that two of the alleged fake voters did not receive immunity agreements. That could be because prosecutors believe those voters were more central to organizing and planning the electoral system, Kreis said.
“So the prosecutor wants to prosecute them for their role, or prospectuses slowly work their way up the food chain, using additional information uncovered through immunity deals as leverage for future negotiations,” he said.
More: Eight Alleged Fake Trump Voters in Georgia Accept Immunity Deals in Grand Jury Inquiry
What does that mean for Trump?
The revelation that the eight so-called bogus voters received immunity deals sheds no additional light on the specific charges Trump or his allies could face as a result of the Georgia investigation, Levine said.
But the immunity deals may indicate that Willis’s investigation could lead to charges for more central players in the 2020 election program, such as Trump, Rudy Giuliani or attorney John Eastman, Kreis said. Trump and his allies could be charged with inciting a broad conspiracy to overturn the election or perpetrating a criminal racketeering scheme, though it’s unclear at this time to what extent the former president played a role in spearheading the scheme , he said.
“The bogus voter scheme was central to that conspiracy to foment electoral fraud, and therefore their actions could put Trump in serious legal jeopardy,” Kreis said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GA Probe: What 8 So-Called Fake Voter Immunity Deals Mean for Trump
