Eighteen allies of Former President Donald Trump have been indicted in Georgia on a slew of charges relating to the state's 2020 election results amid speculation about the identities of others involved but not named in the indictment.
The 98-page indictment spurred by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into alleged election interference includes 41 total charges against Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump lawyer and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and others under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
A total of 13 charges against Trump alone include the RICO violations, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer; conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; false statements and writings and filing false documents, and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. Trump, who has now been indicted for the fourth time this year, maintains his innocence in this and all other cases.
One part of the indictment, described within as "Act 90," describes a White House gathering on or about December 18, 2020, involving Trump, Giuliani, indicted Trump associate Sidney Powell and an unindicted co-conspirator described as "Individual 20."
The unnamed individual, whose identity is known by the grand jury, and the others aforementioned "discussed certain strategies and theories intended to influence the outcome of the November 3, 2020, presidential election, including seizing voting equipment and appointing Sidney Katherine Powell as special counsel with broad authority to investigate allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere."
That meeting was cited by the grand jury as "an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy."
National security attorney Bradley Moss, who declined to speculate about who the unindicted co-conspirator could be, told Newsweek that the most recent indictment may legally be the most perilous for Trump and associates.
"The Georgia indictment poses the most direct threat of imprisonment for Mr. Trump and his allies," Moss said. "It outlines a wide-ranging criminal scheme with a host of lawyers and political operatives to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, including breaching voting systems, making knowing false statements to state officials, and seeking to have state officials engage in criminal conduct on their behalf.
"Most importantly, it involves state offenses for which there is no easily-leveraged pardon option for Mr. Trump," he said.
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok speculated on X, formerly Twitter, that there's a "good chance" that Individual 20 is either Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser who resigned after lying to then-Vice President Mike Pence about communication with Russian diplomats, or former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who resigned in 2019 and was present at that December 18 meeting. Flynn was later pardoned by Trump.
Byrne, who testified last year for the January 6 Committee, recently claimed he had damning video evidence against Jack Smith, who has overseen investigations into Trump's alleged criminalities involving classified documents and the events surrounding January 6, 2021.
Former United States Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal wondered whether the unmentioned individual has possibly flipped to federal officials.
"It looks that way," former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance posted on X. "And also, it looks like there are more cooperators around the events in Coffee County, where they breached the voting machines, perhaps two."
In a statement from his 2024 campaign, Trump referred to the 2020 election as rigged and said the newest charges were issued by corrupt Democrats.
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
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