President-elect Donald Trump has managed to gain 16 electoral votes and political vindication in Georgia—despite four years of bruising indictments.
But Trump refused to sidestep these allegations on his return to the White House, making them an integral part of his campaigning, even theatrically naming his courtroom and political adversaries during rally speeches.
And his arch-nemesis, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is still in place, after comfortably beating her Republican rival to win reelection.
It was Willis who indicted Trump and 18 of his campaign allies on election fraud charges, alleging they had illegally sought to overturn Joe Biden‘s victory in Georgia in 2020. In her 2023 indictment, Willis went after some big Republican fish, as well as Trump. The list also included Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
She also indicted Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and senior Trump campaign organizer, Mike Roman.
But she also went after some much smaller fish—people like Coffee County elections director, Misty Hampton, who allegedly allowed Trump campaign officials to copy data from voting machines in their failed attempt to show that the machines were rigged in Joe Biden’s favor.
All the accused in the vast indictment, including Trump, pleaded not guilty, although some began to fold as the pressure grew.
Attorney and Trump supporter, Jenna Ellis, made a tearful courtroom confession in October, 2023 as she admitted to aiding and abetting Rudy Giuliani’s false statements of election fraud.
Ellis was placed on probation for five years and had to pay a $5,000 fine. In exchange for her cooperation and possible testimony, Willis agreed to drop charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a piece of legislation normally reserved for organized crime.
Much of the case against Trump revolved around a taped January 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked the official to help him “find” more than 11,000 votes that he needed to win the state.
The indictment took a major hit in early 2024, when Mike Roman’s lawyer revealed in court that Willis had been in a relationship with Nathan Wade, the chief prosecutor in the Trump case. The trial judge forced Wade to resign from the case and the controversy gave Trump ample grounds for appeal, which is still being heard by a Georgia court.
Newsweek sought email comment from Willis’ office and from the Trump campaign on Wednesday.
Trump campaigned heavily in Georgia in the 2024 election, and far from avoiding the indictment in his speeches, he made it a central theme of his campaign and his list of villains drew loud jeers at Georgia campaign rallies.
In March, 2024, he spoke in Rome, Georgia, at the heart of the state’s conservative north west, and within the constituency of Majorie Taylor Green, a Trump supporter who was reelected Tuesday, in the state’s 14th Congressional District.
He called out Fani Willis by name in his speech, making fun of how she pronounced her first name and mocking her relationship with Nathan Wade.
“You have a woman named Fani Willis. I believe it’s spelled F-A-N-I. To my way of thinking, that’s Fanny. But once she became the district attorney, I think she put a little emphasis on the U. Fani,” he said, to laughter and applause from the crowd.
“So corrupt Fani Willis hired her lover, Nathan Wade, so they could fraudulently make money together. ‘Let’s make money, darling. Let’s see. Who can we go after? Well, if we go after somebody that nobody ever heard of, we can’t make much. I got an idea. Let’s do what Joe Biden and everybody else wants. Let’s go after Trump’,” he said.
African Americans make up one third of Georgia’s voters. They are mostly based in urban areas. Trump was never going to win Atlanta, focusing instead on rural areas and smaller towns.
As expected, Harris did very well in African American-majority counties within the Atlanta metropolitan area, winning over 84 percent of the vote in Clayton County, which is over 68 percent Black.
The county has experienced a major decrease in the percentage of white residents in recent years, down from 35 percent in 2000 to 8 percent in 2020, a demographic change that is helping Democrats in Atlanta and bolstering Republican support in counties outside Atlanta.
Harris’ wins in Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta, were not strong enough to overcome Trump’s wins in all areas outside of major urban centers.
In the rural north and south east of the state, Trump won over 80 percent of the vote in many counties.
In Brantley County, southeast Georgia, he won over 91 percent of the vote, beating his previous record of 90.2 percent in 2020. The county, which is over 90 percent white, has not recorded a Democratic Party win since Bill Clinton in 1992.
In Coffee County, scene of the infamous voting machine copying that led to several indictments, Trump won 72.5 percent of the votes.
The President-elect may have severed President Joe Biden’s slim hold over Georgia, but the case surrounding the 2020 election is still proceeding.
Where it goes from here is hard to tell. It is likely to be tied down by the Georgia Court of Appeal for several months.
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