Former president Donald Trump and 18 top allies were indicted on Monday on felony charges in connection with efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential election results.
The charges against Mr Trump and his co-defendants were handed down by a grand jury in Fulton County and include felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy charges.
Mr Trump himself faces a total of 13 charges, accused of heading a criminal racketeering scheme in which he pressured public officers and conspired to commit forgery, create false statements and file false documents.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged 18 additional defendants under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations law, known as Rico, alleging they engaged in a pattern of illegal scheming, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The 98-page indictment also lists an additional 40 types of charges, ranging from perjury and forgery to impersonating a public officer.
Here, The National takes a look at who Mr Trump's co-defendants are and what role they allegedly played in the scheme.
The co-defendants
Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Mr Trump, is alleged to have been involved in a scheme that would have fake electors to falsely declare themselves as Georgia's “duly elected and qualified” electors and falsely swear Mr Trump won the election. He was also a key supporter of promoting conspiracies that were repeatedly debunked. Mr Giuliani lost his law licence in Washington and his law licence in New York has been suspended.
Rudy Giuliani calls election outrageous and threatens lawsuits
Mark Meadows was Mr Trump's final chief of staff in the White House. Mr Meadows participated in the Mr Trump's January 2021 phone call with Georgia's top election official that prompted prosecutors to launch their investigation.
John Eastman was involved in several last-ditch efforts to ensure Mr Trump remained in power after losing the election. One of those plans argued that former vice president Mike Pence could overturn the election when the electoral votes were counted by Congress.
Sidney Powell was one of the most ardent supporters of Mr Trump and floated a number of conspiracy theories. The indictment alleges that Ms Powell hired a team “for the performance of computer forensic collections and analytics on Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Michigan and elsewhere”. This agreement led to the unlawful breach of election equipment in Coffee County.
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Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, was a promoter of Mr Trump's conspiracy theories. Mr Trump considered appointing him as acting attorney general so that he could pressure the department to elect new electors. He helped draft a letter that would have urged Georgia to appoint new electors and declare Mr Trump won the state. White House chief counsel Pat Cipollone and Justice Department officials had threatened to resign en masse over the letter and Mr Clark's plan was ultimately binned. This episode was discussed in detail during the January 6 Committee public hearings.
Kenneth Cheesebro is accused to have been part of the plan to have fake electors falsely declare Mr Trump won the state of Georgia.
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer, wrote memos to Mr Trump and his lawyers suggesting Mr Pence should disregard the certified votes when Congress was to certify the election results.
Robert Cheeley tried to connect Mr Eastman with Georgia officials to help with the lawyer's fake-electors effort.
Ray Smith represented Mr Trump in litigation to try to overturn Georgia's election results. He previously suggested he was a target of this investigation.
Cathy Latham, who was the head of the Coffee County Republican Party, was one of 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Mr Trump had won the state, declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. She was at the county elections office for much of the day on January 7, 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, the Associated Press reported.
David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was one of the 16 Republican electors. He joined Mr Trump in a lawsuit challenging the certification of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Shawn Still was one of the 16 Republican electors. He was elected to the Georgia state Senate in November 2022 and represents a district in Atlanta’s suburbs.
Misty Hampton was the elections director in Coffee County, a small south Georgia jurisdiction, and was present in the office on January 7, 2021, when the computer forensics team came and copied software and data from the election equipment. Ms Hampton also allegedly allowed two men who had been active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to gain access to the elections office later that same month and spend hours inside with the elections equipment.
Scott Graham Hall was an Atlanta-area bail bondsman who was allegedly involved in taking voting information belonging to Dominion Voting Systems from Coffee County offices.
Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor, is accused of working with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after Mr Trump and his allies falsely accused them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count. Mr Lee allegedly knocked on Ms Freeman’s door, frightening her and causing her to call 911 three times, prosecutors said in a court filing last year, according to AP.
Harrison William Prescott Floyd served as director of Black Voices for Trump. He is accused of recruiting Mr Lee to arrange a meeting with Ms Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti.
Trevian C Kutti, a publicist, allegedly claimed to have high-level law enforcement connections, presenting herself as someone who could help Ms Freeman but then pressured her to falsely confess to election fraud.
Michael Roman is a former White House aide who served as the director of Mr Trump’s election day operations. He was allegedly involved in efforts to develop the set of fake electors after the 2020 election.
