Columns, Criminal law

“Oh Georgia, No Peace I Find”: The Fourth Indictment of Donald Trump and the Criminalization of Election Controversies

Below is my column in The Messenger on the Georgia indictment. As expected, the indictment is a sweeping racketeering based prosecution involving former president Donald Trump and the 18 other defendants. The scope of the alleged conspiracy is massive.  “The call” is one of those steps but the famous line that has occupied hours of coverage (and led to the investigation) is not the central allegation. Indeed, every call, speech, and tweet appears a criminal step in the conspiracy. District Attorney Fani Willis appears to have elected to charge everything and everyone and let God sort them out.

Here is the column from yesterday before the release of the indictment:

“Oh Georgia, no peace I find (no peace I find).”

Those lyrics made famous by the late, great Ray Charles could have been written for former president Donald Trump this week as he awaits his expected fourth indictment. The long-anticipated indictment by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected in the coming days and will focus on alleged election tampering and related offenses in the 2020 presidential election.

If indictments were treated like frequent flyer miles, Donald Trump would get the Georgia indictment for free. However, it will be anything but costless. Regardless of the merits, it will magnify both the cost and complications for Trump.

Like the New York indictment, a Georgia indictment would not be subject to a presidential pardon. Not only have GOP candidates indicated that they would pardon Trump on any federal charges if elected to the presidency, Trump could pardon himself (including a preemptive pardon before trial) if elected — but that power does not reach state convictions.

As with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, many view Willis as a Democratic prosecutor pursuing the highly unpopular former president. However, given the three grand juries and the three years that have passed, Willis may have found new evidence or witnesses that could tie Trump to criminal conduct in seeking to challenge the results in the election.

Thus far, the focus has been on the controversial call that Trump had with Georgia officials — a call widely cited as indisputable evidence of an effort at voting fraud. Yet, the call was similar to a settlement discussion, as state officials and the Trump team hashed out their differences and a Trump demand for a statewide recount. Trump had lost the state by less than 12,000 votes. That might be what he meant when he stated, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”

While others have portrayed the statement as a raw call for fabricating the votes, it seems more likely that Trump was swatting back claims that there was no value to a statewide recount by pointing out that he wouldn’t have to find a statistically high number of votes to change the outcome of the election. It is telling that many politicians and pundits refuse to even acknowledge that obvious alternate meaning.

For Trump’s part, he is not helping with his signature, all-caps social media attacks.

In addition to attacking Willis for a supposedly “racist” and “unethical” past, Trump recently declared that Willis “wants to indict me for a perfect phone call; this was even better than my perfect call on Ukraine.” I have previously disagreed with the claimed perfection of that Ukraine call, the subject of Trump’s first impeachment. However, neither call needs to be “perfect” to be protected.

The importance made of the call in the likely Georgia indictment will be one of the greatest “tells” as to what Willis has in terms of evidence. If the call is a critical linchpin to the prosecution, it will look like a political stunt out of the Bragg-school of prosecution.

There have also been stories indicating that Willis is focusing on connections of Trump team members like Rudy Giuliani to a “breach” of the voting system on Jan. 7, 2021. The team was seeking access to the voting machines to show that they could be compromised or manipulated. Text messages state that the team secured an “invitation” to examine the machines in Coffee County.

That “invitation” was reportedly from a Coffee County elections official, who also reportedly claimed, incorrectly, that votes could be “easily” flipped from Trump to Biden.

Coffee County was also discussed as an example of voting irregularities to justify a proposed draft executive order to seize voting machines. However, that order was never sent out.

The problem is that these messages also apparently refer to “voluntary access” and that may have been what was conveyed to Trump. One message reads: “Most immediately, we were just granted access — by written invitation! — to Coffee County’s systems. Yay!”

Yet, the Coffee County allegations highlight another risk in the Georgia prosecution. There are clearly a number of people beyond Trump who are being targeted, including his lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Indictments can unnerve associates who lack the money or support of Trump. That can lead to flipping key figures to offer state evidence.

The greatest challenge for Georgia is to offer a discernible limiting principle on when challenges in close elections are permissible and when they are criminal. There is a relatively short period between the presidential election in November and counting of electoral votes in January. That means that challenges are often made on incomplete data or unresolved allegations. Generally, candidates are suing election officials who control the machines, data, and other evidence needed to make a case. They often (as they did in 2020) resist demands for access to evidence.

That is not to excuse the claims made by the Trump team. In the coverage after the election, I criticized both sides. I could not understand how many experts were declaring that there was no evidence of voting irregularities a day after the election, before any data were available. However, I also said that the Trump campaign had failed to supply such evidence in critical court filings. I also publicly disagreed with Trump’s fraud claims.

It is important for campaigns to seek judicial review of election challenges without fear of prosecution. Some Democratic lawyers after 2020 made their own controversial (and unsuccessful) allegations of machines flipping or altering election outcomes. No one suggested that they should be criminally charged or disbarred.

The pile-on of prosecutions could create a chilling effect for campaigns in seeking recounts and reviews in close elections. That does not mean that there may not be evidence of knowing fraud or criminal wrongdoing. However, another anemic filing like the one in New York will only fuel the deep political divisions and unrest in the country. It needs to be clearly based on a desire for justice, rather than “just deserts.”

For Trump, of course, he may feel that (as Ray Charles sang) it always seems that “the road leads back to you” for Democratic prosecutors. That itself is not a problem so long as the road is both straight and well laid.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.

322 thoughts on ““Oh Georgia, No Peace I Find”: The Fourth Indictment of Donald Trump and the Criminalization of Election Controversies”

  1. Judge Tanya Chutkan
    Letitia James
    Alvin Bragg
    Fani Willis

    I wonder if they are trying to destroy Donald Trump because of his very light skin color?

    2. Yes, and Trump is just the trial run. If they can destroy a former President, his won’t be the only white meat on that rotisserie.

    3. No, they’re just handy hatchet men because they are blindly loyal to the democrat party and care very little about appearances or norms… mostly because they aren’t good at their jobs and really aren’t qualified. And I’ll leave it at that.

  2. Turley couldn’t even be bothered to link to the indictment. Here it is:
    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23909543/23sc188947-criminal-indictment.pdf

    41 counts (only some of which apply to Trump) — which include violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents — 19 people indicted, 30 unindicted co-conspirators.

    1. Defendants:
      Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeff Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith, Robert Cheeley, Mike Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Prescott, Trevian Kutti, Harrison Floyd, Sidney Powell, Cathy Latham, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton.

    2. Distribution of counts:

      DONALD JOHN TRUMP: Counts 1,5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 27-29, 38-39

      RUDOLPH WILLIAM LOUIS GIULIANI: Counts 1-3, 6-7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23-24

      JOHN CHARLES EASTMAN: Counts 1-2, 9, 11,13, 15, 17, 19, 27

      MARK RANDALL MEADOWS: Counts 1, 28

      KENNETH JOHN CHESEBRO: Counts 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19

      JEFFREY BOSSERT CLARK: Counts 1, 22

      JENNA LYNN ELLIS: Counts 1-2

      RAY STALLINGS SMITH III: Counts 1-2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25

      ROBERT DAVID CHEELEY: Counts 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 23, 26, 41

      MICHAEL A. ROMAN: Counts 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19

      DAVID JAMES SHAFER: Counts 1, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 40

      SHAWN MICAH TRESHER STILL: Counts 1, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18

      STEPHEN CLIFFGARD LEE: Counts 1, 20-21, 30-31

      HARRISON WILLIAM PRESCOTT FLOYD: Counts 1, 30-31

      TREVIAN C. KUTTI: Counts 1, 30-31

      SIDNEY KATHERINE POWELL: Counts 1, 32-37

      CATHLEEN ALSTON LATHAM: Counts 1, 8, 10, 12, 14, 32-37

      SCOTT GRAHAM HALL: Counts 1, 32-37

      MISTY HAMPTON AKA EMILY MISTY HAYES: Counts 1, 32-37

      1. ATS relishes fictitious charges. When he reads about Stalins charges against the innocent, ATS goes, ‘way to go Joe’. Amazingly ATS doesn’t have to change the name Joe when applauding Stalin or Biden.

    2. The American Communist party. Buckle your seatbelts, folks. Can arrests of normies be far behind? Or our outright murders?

  4. very few countries in the world allow mail-in ballots…
    For example France got rid of them for almost all cases…because they are easily used for FRAUD…which NO QUESTION Democrats in metro areas did. Just like the Russian Hoax…Democrats COMMIT CRIMES…and nothing happens.

  5. time for DAs from republicans states…to JAIL DAs from Democrats States….makes as much sense!

  6. Bidens ACTUALLY commit Crimes
    Clintons ACTUALLY commit Crimes

    anyone go to jail for the RUSSIAN Hoax?

  7. America is LAWLESS

    Democrats are funded by people who wish TO DESTROY America

  8. Trump’s call to Raffensperger was not a “settlement discussion “ to hash out differences. That’s not how recounts or election challenges are handled. Turley also ignores the fake electors who signed false Electoral College ballots and the fact that Trump tried to pull the same scam in other swing states. Overarching all of this is the fact that there never was any reason to claim widespread election fraud in the first place, other than Trump’s ego. He tried to cheat American voters out of our choice of president and if some Republican were to pardon him that would be cheating us from the vindication of our criminal justice system.

    1. Hey Gigi
      Do you still think Texas makes electricity from crude oil???

      Best stop cutting and pasting from your daily democrat talking points email.

      1. Texas Electricity by type
        Natural gas 46%
        Wind 23%
        Coal 18%
        Nuclear 11%
        Solar 2%

    2. Gigi whines, ‘He tried to cheat American voters out of our choice of president’

      WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS?

      Trump voters are being cheated and deprived of OUR civil and constitutional RIGHTS to VOTE for the president of our choice. Lawless Democrats are taking this right away from us.

      INDICT FANI WILLIS!

      1. You are essentially saying that cheating your way into the US Presidency is a get out of jail free card for life. It’s not. You can still vote for him if you want, but in the opinion of many legal experts, he’s already disqualified under the 14th Amendment.

        I find it rich that someone who flaunted the dignity of the Office of the President by constantly lying and insulting our allies wants to use as a shield. The presidency to him was nothing more than a means to get attention, adulation and power. And he did a lousy job to boot.

        1. Hey Gigi
Do you still think Texas makes electricity from crude oil???
          Best stop cutting and pasting from your daily democrat talking points email.

          Texas Electricity by type
          Natural gas 46%
          Wind 23%
          Coal 18%
          Nuclear 11%
          Solar 2%

        2. The election was rigged and stolen.
          Joe Biden did not get 81 million votes, more than ever in the history of the country.
          Joe Biden was installed, not elected.
          Joe Biden is the most divisive president this country has ever had to endure.
          Joe Biden is a liar, a fraud, a sellout, a backstabber, a cheater, a pedo, a plagiarizer, a criminal, and a total disgrace to this country.

          Tom Elliot said it perfectly ——>

          “Joe Biden is the most embarrassing thing about America today — his arrogance, his ignorance/stupidity/senility, his elitism, his total disregard for normal people, his corruption … the air of entitlement he carries everywhere — it all makes me sick.”

          Yes, Tom, it ALL makes all of us sick. FJB to hell.

    3. It is quite sad watching the Republicans dance around trying to say how Trumps obvious crimes are a nothing burger. They claim to love the country and the constitution but are cool with Trump trampling both.

      1. It is quite sad watching the Democrats dance around trying to say how Biden’s obvious crimes are a nothing burger. They claim to love the country and the constitution but are cool with Biden trampling both.

        There. Fixed it for you.

  9. Did the Framers even contemplate that Federal election charges could be brought by county District Attorneys? Did they even have counties back then? There were 13 colonies, which later became states, but I can’t imagine that the Framers ever thought they were authorizing Federal charges against a Presidential candidate at the county level. That would encompass thousands of counties throughout the U.S., each with its own prosecutor to bring charges. I think it’s highly questionable that charges concerning a Federal election could be brought in a state court, but to bring them at the county level appears ridiculous. The charges will ultimately be tossed by a higher court, but in the meanwhile will cause the defendants a great deal of financial and emotional turmoil, which is perhaps the goal.

    1. TIN, I understand were you want to come from. But there are no federal elections. Just state elections for federal office. At the county level? interesting take. But it concerns jurisdiction. The Prosecutor has jurisdiction in the county she was elected in. But Trump was talking to the Governor and Sec of State. Seems like a stretch for jurisdiction. I’ll let the lawyers explain

      1. Point well taken. But still…there are 3,143 County (District) Attorneys in the U.S. Are we to allow every attention seeking or politically motivated county prosecutor to bring charges against a leading candidate for President if the United States? I still can’t believe that our Constitution would allow for such mayhem.

    2. They’re not charged with Federal election charges. They’re charged with breaking multiple GA state laws. Read the indictment.

        1. Local DAs charge state crimes all the time. Are you under the mistaken impression that only the state AG can charge state crimes?

    3. See, its comments like this that show the ignorance of trump supporters. Federal elections? Please learn your civics, as was pointed out, States run elections, not the feds. Which makes the attempt at the Feds seizing state election voting machines so egregious.

    4. Trump was charged under Georgia state law, and, thanks to past corruption by GA state officials who were members of the Klan and sold pardons, Brian Kemp cannot pardon Trump.

      1. Hey Gigi
Do you still think Texas makes electricity from crude oil???
        Best stop cutting and pasting from your daily democrat talking points email.

        Texas Electricity by type
        Natural gas 46%
        Wind 23%
        Coal 18%
        Nuclear 11%
        Solar 2%

      1. But Wally is one of the lying partisans that says “there isn’t one piece of evidence linking Joe Biden to any corruption”. This is how a banana republic is formed, guys like Wally.

        1. HullBobby,
          Yep.
          It is okay when they do it!
          In the past I have said I was voting for whomever the Republican candidate is, even if it is Trump from jail.
          Actually, if Biden is the Democrat candidate, I am voting against corruption. I am voting against censorship. I am voting against pornography in elementary schools. I am voting against the mutilation of children. I am voting against discrimination. I am voting against a proxy war with Russia that just might get us into WWIII.
          I am voting against wokeism.
          I am voting against the Democrat party as they are the party of woke.

      2. Even Biden won’t be going to prison and he is guilty. Trump is guilty of availing himself of America’s judicial system. That used to be the way disputes were handled, but the left only knows about force and intimidation.

        Wally is an innocent. He knows nothing.

  11. 41 counts, 19 defendants.

    This is way too bloated of an indictment. Willis claims all the defendants will be tried together. This is as legal mess to sort out in a courtroom I feel like that’s a feature. In all the confusion, all she needs is on guilty count.

  12. “,,, a Coffee County elections official, who also reportedly claimed, incorrectly, that votes could be ‘easily’ flipped from Trump to Biden.”

    Why “incorrectly”? If there is some substantiated basis for that conclusory statement, the Professor has kept it as a secret to himself. Why not let readers in on the presumed EVIDENCE that votes could not be easily flipped? What experts have testified to this conclusion? Were the machines examined by opposing experts?

  13. Turley has outdone himself in attacking what he says are the specifics of the ageorgia indictment, before it was released. In typical Turley fashion, he tells us what the main issue is, and why it’s a simple matter of contesting a close election result.
    “Thus far, the focus has been on the controversial call that Trump had with Georgia officials — a call widely cited as indisputable evidence of an effort at voting fraud.”
    The only thing I credit Turley for is not being part of the Fox News reporting, if you can call it that, where no-names who presumably have a law degree attacked the prosecutor and the process without addressing any of the charges. Hopefully Georgia will do as promised and follow the legal process by putting Trump in handcuffs and taking a mug shot. When Trump invariably keeps attacking judges and prosecutors on Truth Social, he should get what any other defendant would get which is contempt of court and jail.

      4. Beautiful and meaningful, quite a difference from the hate and foaming of the mouth by Enigma. You express yourself beautifully with this song. Thanks.

  14. These politically driven prosecutors and judges are well past dangerous. They don’t actually believe that they are “protecting” our democracy, do they?

    1. Don’t know about Georgia tort law, but here in Ohio there would have to be a dismissal of the case. If the case goes to trial and is then sent to the jury for deliberation, that’s generally considered prima facie evidence that the case wasn’t malicious — that there was enough there to require the case to be pursued. Of course that assumes that the defendant’s lawyers TRIED to get the case dismissed.

      1. LOL….it is funny when people cite laws….like the USA is run by laws…LOL

        1. Then I guess you’re wasting your time playing around on this page and you should go polish your musket. As for me, I’ll finish the fight in court before I start whining about the USA being lawless. Sometimes the right court case pursued the right way can make all the difference between winning and losing.

    2. After the charges are dismissed or acquittal. Instead, Trump should pursue “abuse of process” against the prosecutors since all charges are being brough by Democrats for ulterior political purposes. Just look at the timing.

      2. Fani Willis started investigating in February, 2021. The grand jury only met on Mondays and Tuesdays. She gathered an impressive amount of evidence to support the charges.

        1. Hey Gigi
Do you still think Texas makes electricity from crude oil???
          Best stop cutting and pasting from your daily democrat talking points email.

          Texas Electricity by type
          Natural gas 46%
          Wind 23%
          Coal 18%
          Nuclear 11%
          Solar 2%

  16. Fani Willis was a former member of the black panther party.
    Historica Wiki

        1. “Trump’s father was arrested at a Klan rally”

          eb, the Bug adopted a play by Enigma blaming Donald Trump for something that happened 20 years before Trump was born. It demonstrates how ignorant Bug is, along with the rest of the Anonymous posters on the left.

          There is no certainty it was Fred Trump, but it doesn’t matter, for the person under question was released as innocent while others had to provide bail. Whoever he was, he was not found siding with the KKK. For all we know, he could have been protesting them, or doing nothing.

          This is typical of eb Bug’s stupidity, and his anonymous posts are among the most ignorant. Listening to him is listening to pure stupidity.

  17. Citizens serving on juries will ultimately decide this, not a prosecutor.

    1. They don’t care about whether they win or lose these cases. All they care about is breaking Donald Trump’s back. All it is succeeding in doing is causing people like me to get back on the Trump train and loathe the leftists that much more. And political division is not something they want to end either.

    2. Fulton County is almost totally Democrat. The question is, who put Willis up to this? Something that has never been done before simultaneously occurring in 4 Democrat venues smacks of conspiracy and Collusion.

  19. “… Donald Trump and the 18 other dependents.”

    Dependents? LOL — If they were charging Trump’s dependents, there would be a MUCH longer list of blood-sucking lawyers named in the indictment. Maybe the Professor means “defendants”?

    I gotta say that these pre-dawn typos and the resulting laughter are better than coffee for waking up in the morning, and almost as addictive.

  20. Nothing but legal chumming in the hope that one will at least catch ‘something’.

Comments are closed.