Politics

Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election interference indictment include Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and Kanye West's former publicist

Donald Trump
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 29: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a political rally while campaigning for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election at Erie Insurance Arena on July 29, 2023 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 other co-defendants with charges including racketeering, conspiracy, and making false statements in her wide-ranging investigation into efforts to overturn Georgia's election results in the 2020 election.

All told Willis' indictment alleges that Trump and several of his campaign advisors and political operatives orchestrated a plan to pressure Georgia election officials to "find" votes to reverse Joe Biden's win, and schemed to send fake electors to Congress on January 6, 2021, to falsely install him as president.

In February, the foreperson for the Fulton County grand jury, who heard months worth of witness testimony told CNN, that the amount of recommended indictments was "not a short list."

More than 75 witnesses were called before the grand jury throughout the probe, per CNN. Ultimately, the grand jury decided to charge the following people in addition to Trump:

  • 2 Republican activists who signed fake Elector Certificates: Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer and former Coffee County GOP chair Cathleen Latham

  • Former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Cheseboro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, and Ray Smith III

  • Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows

  • Former Trump staffer Michael Roman

  • Georgia attorney Robert Cheeley

  • Former GOP finance chairman Shawn Still

  • Police chaplain Stephen Lee

  • Harrison Floyd, a leader with the organization Black Voices for Trump

  • Trevian Kutti, a Chicago publicist for Kanye West

  • Dallas attorney Sidney Powell

  • Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman and Fulton County Republican poll watcher

  • Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the case and in a statement on Monday night said in part: "A left-wing prosecutor – with such extreme anti-Trump bias that EVEN CNN questioned her legitimacy – has INDICTED me despite having committed NO CRIME."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Center for Renewing America, said in part: "Jeff Clark was simply doing his job in 2020 and he doesn't deserve to be subjected to this naked political lawfare, especially not by a publicity hound like Willis."

Willis also elected to prosecute Trump and his allies with racketeering charges — a charge initially created to prosecute the mafia — which holds the harshest prison sentence among the laundry list of charges.

Correction: August 14, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misspelled Sidney Powell's name. It is Sidney Powell not Sydney Powell.

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Azmi Haroun is formerly Insider's Courts Reporter based in Los Angeles, California, working on Insider's News Team. He regularly covers high-profile celebrity court cases in Los Angeles, as well as legal and political affairs on a national and international level. In his time at Insider, he has profiled the legendary Nile Rodgers, scored court scoops on Vanessa Bryant and rapper Flo Rida, and kept an ear to the ground to cover landmark war crimes trials led by Syrians in Europe. He obtained a Master of Science from Columbia Journalism School in May 2020, and prior, worked in refugee resettlement during the fraught transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. He has lived in Morocco, France, and Dubai, during different stints and speaks French, Spanish, and Arabic.
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Katherine (Tangalakis-Lippert) Ortiz
Katherine (Tangalakis-Lippert) Ortiz was a senior reporter on Business Insider's West Coast team. For four and a half years, her coverage spanned topics and industries, including chasing breaking news — such as the assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, and major legal actions against companies like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI — as well as producing scoops about the Supreme Court, Starbucks, and many more. Katherine has worked on award-nominated projects and has appeared on Good Morning America, NBC, CNN, and other outlets to discuss her reporting.Prior to joining Business Insider, she covered retail, hospitality, and nonprofits at the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and received a master's degree in investigative reporting from the University of Southern California.Reach outDo you have feedback or a story tip? Contact Katherine on Signal at byktl.50, or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @scrawlgirl.Some of the highlights from her time at Business Insider include: Starbucks set up a new office. It's a 5-minute drive from the CEO's California home.Inside Starbucks' crackdown on cup notesEndless Shrimp was Red Lobster's rock bottom. Now it's clawing back.Clarence Thomas raised him 'as a son.' Now he's facing 25-plus years on weapons and drug charges.Call her Ivanka Kushner'Maybe I'll just resign:' Federal workers react to DOGE productivity emailSpaceX launches cause late-night booms that rattle windows, set off car alarms, and may damage property. Locals are pushing back.The US-China tech race is moving from chips to the raw materials they're made of
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