Donald Trump indicted: The key figures ignored in sweeping Georgia RICO indictment
Kaelan Deese
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Former President Donald Trump and 19 other defendants were named in a sweeping 41-count Fulton County indictment Monday night under racketeering charges related to the 2020 election.
But while there were many familiar faces from Trump’s orbit, such as Rudy Giuliani, who were named among the defendants, there were several others who were noticeably absent from the charges.
Among those not indicted but questioned at some point by a special grand jury commissioned by District Attorney Fani Willis include Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Boris Epshteyn, and attorney Lin Wood.
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The indictment cites 30 “unindicted” co-conspirators who testified before the special grand jury about the defendants named in the case. And because not every person involved in Trump’s efforts to challenge his 2020 election loss is named in the indictment, it prompted speculation about whether the absent figures agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for some form of immunity.
For example, on page 43 of the 98-page indictment, it states that “unindicted co-conspirator Individual 20” presented “certain strategies and theories intended to influence” the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including one proposed scheme that involved “seizing voting equipment and [appointing] Sidney Katherine Powell as special counsel with broad authority to investigate allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Neal Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general, questioned whether Individual 20 possibly flipped to federal officials in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“It looks that way,” former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance posted on X in response. “And also, it looks like there are more cooperators around the events in Coffee County, where they breached the voting machines, perhaps two,” Vance added.
It is not clear at this time whether anyone known to have testified before the special grand jury “flipped” on Trump or one of the 18 other defendants. In May 2022, the special grand jury convened with 23 people and three alternate jurors. The jury was given subpoena power but not the power to indict. Over the course of the investigation, jurors interviewed 75 witnesses and subpoenaed documents from more people.
Here is what we know about the figures in Trump’s orbit who cooperated with the grand jury in the events leading up to the sweeping indictment on Monday:
Lindsey Graham
One of the most high-profile witnesses interviewed by the special grand jury last year was Graham, who vehemently fought his subpoena all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court before being ordered to testify.
Graham’s office released a statement in November last year stating that he was interviewed for two hours and “answered all questions.” Willis’s team had sought to grill Graham about two calls he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during the fallout from the 2020 election, the same official who Trump urged in a separate call in January 2021 to “find” 11,780 votes.
During one of the calls, Graham floated the notion of rejecting mail-in ballots from locations with questionable signatures on ballots, according to Raffensperger, who has testified before the panel. Graham defended the call as a part of a “legislative fact-finding” mission in his capacity as a senator.
Graham is not mentioned in the indictment. The Washington Examiner reached out to his spokesperson for comment.
Jody Hice
The former congressman attended a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House and huddled with colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus to devise plans to challenge the 2020 election, Politico reported. His testimony may have helped shed light on key behind-the-scenes machinations for Willis’s team.
Hice also attempted to thwart a subpoena before finally offering testimony in July last year. He positioned himself as a strong Trump acolyte and was endorsed by the former president to challenge Raffensperger in the Republican primary during the 2022 election, though that effort ultimately failed.
Hice is not mentioned in the indictment.
Michael Flynn
Trump’s former national security adviser notably made suggestions that the former president could invoke martial law to seize voting machines during an interview with Newsmax.
“He could order within the swing states if he wanted to — he could take military capabilities and basically rerun an election each in those states,” Flynn said at the time.
Prosecutors also highlighted reports that Flynn attended a White House meeting with lawyer Sidney Powell the day after that interview. She has also faced demands to testify before the panel.
Flynn is not mentioned in the indictment.
Boris Ephsteyn
Ephsteyn, who serves as counsel to Trump, was asked to testify before the special grand jury in September and the original request for his testimony stated he is a “necessary and material witness” in the investigation because he “is known to be affiliated with both former president Donald Trump and the Trump Campaign.”
Among other reasons why he was called to testify, the summons said he “possesses unique knowledge concerning the logistics, planning, and execution of efforts by the Trump Campaign to submit false certificates of vote to former vice president Michael Pence and others.”
Notably, the New York Times identified an email sent by Epshteyn that matches the description of an email that Trump’s federal indictment over alleged 2020 election subversion indictment attributed to one of six unnamed co-conspirators in that case.
Ephsteyn is not mentioned in the indictment.
Lin Wood
Wood is a pro-Trump former lawyer who led a failed legal challenge to overturn then-candidate Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, though he has doubled down that he was never a lawyer to the former president.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump lauded Wood as doing a “good job” filing lawsuits seeking to overturn his loss, though Trump’s campaign at times distanced itself from him. Dozens of lawsuits making such allegations were rejected in courts throughout the country.
Wood learned that he’d be asked to testify before the special grand jury through a lawyer who represented him in a State Bar of Georgia disciplinary case. Facing the likelihood of losing his license to practice law, Wood relinquished his law license last month and retired from being an attorney.
In a Telegram post at 1:34 a.m., Wood slammed online accusations that suggested he had “flipped” because he was not indicted in Willis’s sweeping investigation.
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“Some Deep State operatives are now saying on social media that I was not indicted in Atlanta today because I flipped!!! Are you kidding me?”
In response to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner, Wood declined and said, “God bless you.”