Donald Trump has been charged over attempts to illegally overturn the 2020 election – along with a large group of alleged associates.
The former president and 18 other people have been indicted by a court in the US state of Georgia on charges including racketeering, which is most often used to target people involved in organised crime.
Among the incidents cited in the new indictment was Trump’s infamous phone call in which he urged Georgia’s top elections official, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, to “find” the votes needed for Trump to overtake Joe Biden and claim victory in the state.
It is the fourth set of charges against the former president this year, but it is the first time he has been charged alongside other people.
So who are Trump’s alleged co-conspirators?
They include some of his allies and closest advisors, as well as lesser-known Georgia officials.
Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff
Donald Trump might welcome the Georgia election charges, but his co-accused might be tempted to ‘flip’
Donald Trump: Georgia court charges former US president with trying to illegally overturn 2020 election
Trump set to face charges including forgery conspiracy from Georgia prosecutors – report
Once one of Trump’s top allies in the House of Representatives before becoming the former president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows is accused of helping fuel the conspiracy by making false statements about the election.
The indictment alleges he also conspired with Trump to develop a plan to disrupt and delay the congressional certification of the electoral votes on 6 January, 2021.
It also alleges he tried to pressure a chief investigator in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, Frances Watson, to speed up the Fulton County signature verification and that he took part in a phone call in which Trump pushed Mr Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer
Once the mayor of New York City and a renowned prosecutor of the mafia, Rudy Giuliani has been better known recently for his association with Trump.
He played a prominent public role in the Trump campaign’s efforts to push false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
He and other Trump allies are accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election, including claims about vote counting errors by Dominion voting machines. Giuliani’s lawyer declined to comment to the Reuters news agency.
Read more:
Trump co-accused might be tempted to ‘flip’
What are the investigations Trump is facing?
John Eastman, former Trump lawyer
Lawyer John Eastman represented Trump in a long-shot lawsuit to overturn voting results in four states Trump lost in 2020.
The Georgia indictment alleges he was part of a plot to appoint fake electors. Electors are the people who cast the state’s electoral college votes for the candidate who won the state.
He has also been under scrutiny, both in Georgia and elsewhere, for penning a series of legal memos which claimed that former vice president Mike Pence could reject electors from certain states to deny Democrat Joe Biden a majority of Electoral College votes.
Jeffrey Clark, former justice official
A former high-ranking official in the justice department, Jeffrey Clark tried to persuade Trump to oust acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen so he could take over the department and open an investigation into voter fraud in Georgia and other swing states.
The indictment cites Clark’s efforts to persuade Rosen to submit a letter to Georgia falsely claiming the justice department had detected voting irregularities there.
Sidney Powell, former Trump adviser
Sidney Powell is a lawyer who played a leading role in promoting false fraud claims after the 2020 US election.
The indictment accuses her of tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulators in Coffee County, Georgia, computer theft and unlawfully possessing ballots.
Kenneth Chesebro, Trump campaign lawyer
Kenneth Chesebro is accused in the indictment of helping devise a plan to submit fake slates of electors for Trump.
The Georgia indictment alleges he wrote a memo that provided instructions for how alternate slates of electors in states including Georgia should proceed to meet and cast votes for Trump.
Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer
The indictment accuses Jenna Ellis of being part of an effort to get false electors appointed by state lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The court papers assert that she wrote legal memos for Trump on how vice president Pence could delay the certification of Biden’s election win.
David Schafer, Georgia Republican Party chairman
David Schafer is accused of playing a key role in organising and executing the plan to submit an alternate slate of electors.
Serving as the chairman of Georgia’s Republican Party since 2019, Schafer is among those charged with mailing a fake certificate of the so-called Trump electors to a federal courthouse, as well as other offences tied to the fake elector plot.
He is also charged with making false statements to Fulton County investigators.
Michael Roman, Trump 2020 campaign
Michael Roman is accused of playing a role in orchestrating the fake elector plot.
The indictment claims he was in touch with those organising a meeting of the fake Trump electors in Georgia.
Ray Smith III, Trump lawyer
A lawyer who represented Trump in 2020 election challenges in Georgia, Ray Smith III was indicted for allegedly lying to a Georgia Senate committee.
Robert Cheeley, Trump lawyer
A lawyer who represented the former president in Georgia, Robert Cheeley is alleged to have lied to the Georgia grand jury.
The only defendant charged with perjury, it stems from Cheeley’s testimony about the so-called fake electors.
Shawn Still, Republican finance chairman
A member of the Georgia Senate, Shawn Still is among those accused of falsely claiming to be state electoral college voters (electors).
Stephen Lee, an Illinois police chaplain
Also among those indicted is Stephen Lee, who is accused of travelling to the home of Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker, “with intent to influence her testimony”.
Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss testified to US Congress last year about how Trump and his allies latched onto surveillance footage from November 2020 to accuse both women of committing voter fraud – allegations that were quickly debunked, yet spread widely across conservative media.
Harrison Floyd, executive director of Black Voices for Trump
Harrison Floyd, who has served as director of Black Voices for Trump, is accused of recruiting Lee to arrange a meeting with Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti.
Trevian Kutti, publicist who represented Kanye West
Prosecutors say that Trevian Kutti claimed to have high level law enforcement connections. They say Freeman met with Kutti at a police precinct, where she brought Floyd into the conversation on a speakerphone.
Prosecutors say Kutti presented herself as someone who could help Freeman but then pressured her to falsely confess to election fraud.
Cathy Latham, former chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party
Cathy Latham is one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
She was at the county elections office for much of the day on 7 January, 2021, and welcomed a computer forensics team that arrived to copy software and data from the county’s election equipment in what the secretary of state’s office has said was “unauthorised access” to the machines.
Scott Hall, 2020 Fulton County Republican poll watcher
Scott Hall is among those charged in relation to events in Coffee County.
He was allegedly involved in commandeering voting information that was the property of Dominion Voting Systems.
Misty Hampton, former Coffee County elections director
Like Hall, Misty Hampton is accused in relation to Coffee County.
She was allegedly present in the county elections office on 7 January, 2021, when a computer forensics team copied software and data from the county’s election equipment.
She also allowed two other men who had been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to access the elections office later that month and to spend hours inside with the equipment.
