As Trump’s legal cloud lifts, 45 allies still threatened by state-level 2020 election charges

By Marshall Cohen and Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump derailed his 2020 election subversion indictments by winning back the White House, but dozens of his allies still face state criminal prosecutions that he, even as president, can’t shut down through his Justice Department or short-circuit with pardons.

Since the election, Democratic prosecutors in Georgia,  Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin have pledged to move ahead with cases against Trump allies who were involved with the “fake electors” plot, which tried to overturn his 2020 defeat in those states.

Prosecutors in Wisconsin significantly beefed up their case late Monday night, hitting all three defendants with 10 new felony charges.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, another Democrat, also told CNN he is planning to soon bring a new indictment recharging the 2020 fake electors from his state. (His original case was thrown out by a judge due to jurisdictional issues.)

“I don’t make decisions based on who is the president. I make decisions based on the rule of law. And these state electors, in our estimation, violated laws of the state of Nevada that are worthy of prosecution,” Ford said, adding, “This case is not going away.”

Forty-five Trump allies and aides are facing charges across these four states, with another six expected to be reindicted soon in Nevada. While many defendants are state party officials or little-known GOP activists, some are prominent figures from Trump’s orbit, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and adviser Boris Epshteyn.

The federal election subversion indictment against Trump, filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, has already been dismissed. And while the Georgia case against Trump and his  14 co-defendants remains in limbo, the state likely won’t move forward with charges against Trump while he’s the sitting president. Trump’s lawyers recently asked a court to throw out his charges, citing his reelection.

“It all speaks to the uniqueness of the legal issues surrounding President Trump,” said Elliot Williams, a CNN legal analyst and former Justice Department prosecutor. “What happens where a defendant is the only person in the country immune from prosecution, but has co-defendants charged with the same conduct? Every other defendant is stuck.”

Four years after the alleged crimes, none of the other cases are expected to go to trial anytime soon, either. A Michigan judge will decide in the coming months whether that case can proceed to trial. There’s a 2026 trial date for the Arizona indictment. And the Wisconsin defendants have their initial court appearances later this week.

Georgia case remains in limbo

The courts have never definitively settled the question of whether a state-level prosecutor, like Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, can prosecute a sitting president.

It also remains unclear what Trump’s victory could mean for Willis’ ability to move forward with the case against the other co-defendants. Some sources familiar with the case have suggested that prosecutors could try to sever Trump’s case from the other defendants.

Other than Trump, Giuliani and Meadows are the two highest-profile defendants in the Georgia case. Giuliani’s lawyer previously warned his client that he could become the top target for prosecutors if Trump is ultimately severed from the case, a source familiar with the discussion told CNN.

Meadows also continues to fight the charges against him in Georgia. Last month, the US Supreme Court refused to let him move his case into federal court, which he hoped to do so he could invoke federal immunity protections.

Two weeks after the November election, the Georgia Court of Appeals abruptly canceled oral arguments on the issue of whether the Atlanta-area district attorney who brought the case should be disqualified over allegations she had an improper romantic relationship with her top deputy handling the case.

Trump now wants the appeals court to bypass that matter and throw out the entire case. In a filing Wednesday, Trump attorney Steve Sadow argued that “a sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal.”

Beefed-up charges in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul significantly ratcheted up his case against the state’s fake electors by filing new charges Monday night.

The three defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy. But prosecutors added 10 forgery charges for each defendant – which substantially increases their legal jeopardy, because each count comes with a possible maximum six-year prison sentence.

The defendants are Jim Troupis, Trump’s top 2020 campaign lawyer in Wisconsin; Kenneth Chesebro, one of the architects of the fake electors scheme; and Mike Roman, a Trump campaign official. Their first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday in Madison.

A spokeswoman for Kaul, a Democrat, declined to comment about the new charges. Chesebro’s attorney also declined to comment. CNN has reached out to an attorney for Roman. Troupis’ lawyer declined to comment but previously claimed in a motion to dismiss the charges that the prosecution violates the US Constitution and has “layers and layers of problems.”

Moving forward in Michigan

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, was the first prosecutor in the nation to bring charges against any of the fake electors. But since announcing the charges in July 2023, the process has bogged down in pretrial maneuvering.

A Michigan judge is mulling whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial. The earliest a decision could come for some defendants is January, but for some other defendants, there won’t be a decision before March, according to court documents.

A spokesman for Nessel’s office, Danny Wimmer, said in an email that the prosecution “remains ongoing and unwavering, unchanged by the outcome of the election in November.”

Of the 16 original defendants, only one has agreed to cooperate, in exchange for the charges being dropped. The rest have pleaded not guilty.

“For the Michigan 16, as we came to be known … it’s been four years, and we have not had our fair and speedy trial,” said Michele Lundgren, a fake elector from Detroit. “We’ve had this horrible accusation looming over our heads. When it first came out, I was the scourge of my friends … then (Nessel said) I tried to overthrow democracy – come on.”

“I share in the frustration that this process is taking a lot longer than usual, but I want to make sure the court reaches the correct decision,” said Kevin Kijewski, an attorney for Clifford Frost, one of the charged fake electors.

He noted that the Justice Department under Trump could throw its support behind an appeal that he is pursuing in federal court seeking to shut down the state prosecution, alleging the case was politically tainted.

Kijewski also raised the possibility that his Justice Department might initiate “some kind of investigation” into Nessel’s office for bring a “bad faith” prosecution. Trump has repeatedly lambasted the prosecutions against him and his allies, and has publicly called for some of the prosecutors to be jailed.

Arizona trial in 2026

The Arizona case also remains up in the air. A judge previously set a 2026 trial date, but the same judge recently recused himself from the case after an email surfaced in which he told other judges to speak out against attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.

While the judge previously made clear he intended to step away before a trial, his earlier-than-planned departure raises questions about the next steps. In part, that’s because he hasn’t yet ruled on a motion by multiple defendants arguing that they were unfairly targeted for prosecution and that the case tramples their free speech rights.

While Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, he has been identified in charging documents as “co-conspirator 1.” CNN previously reported that the grand jury expressed interest in charging Trump, along with 18 of his allies, but that state prosecutors urged them not to.

New charges coming in Nevada

Ford, the Democratic attorney general in Nevada, charged the state’s 2020 fake Republican electors in December 2023. But a state judge dismissed the charges in June, agreeing with the electors’ argument that it wasn’t filed in the proper jurisdiction.

Prosecutors appealed that decision, which was reached on procedural grounds. (The GOP electors signed the fraudulent certificates in Carson City, not Las Vegas, where the original case was filed.) Regardless of how the Nevada Supreme Court decides that appeal, Ford said he’s moving forward and isn’t deterred by Trump’s election victory.

“Depending upon the outcome of that ruling, we will either be going back to Las Vegas, to Clark County, to prosecute these actions, or we will be filing a new prosecution in a different venue,” Ford told CNN. “If we don’t hear back by early December, we’ll be filing a new prosecution in a different jurisdiction, to preserve the statute of limitations.”

Two fake electors who faced charges – Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and Clark County GOP chair Jesse Law – are serving as real electors this year. They will sign authentic elector certificates on December 17, because Trump carried Nevada.

This story has been updated to reflect additional developments.

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