Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed about a dozen witnesses she plans to call in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump in a legal filing on Wednesday. Willis named the witnesses to illustrate potential conflicts of interests for defense attorneys.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), and his wife Patricia, will both be called as witnesses by the prosecution, according to Willis’s filing.
Trump and Raffensperger feuded as the former president contested the 2020 election, with the tensions culminating in a leaked, January 2021 phone call in which Trump grilled Raffensperger about drop boxes, signature matching, and other allegations about fraud and election mismanagement. Willis added that Patricia Raffensperger was party to that phone call, and claimed the family received death threats after the feud went public when the phone call was leaked to The Washington Post.
It was reported in August that Raffensperger’s testimony in a federal court, where he testified in former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ efforts to remove the case from Fulton County, seemed to support Trump’s defense in Georgia. The elected official acknowledged the tense call with Trump, while “extraordinary,” was a “settlement negotiation” for an ongoing legal case, according to Breitbart News.
Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, who 11 Alive notes testified before Willis’s special grand jury and served as President of the Georgia State Senate in 2020, will also be called as a witness by Fulton County.
Other high-profile witnesses include conservative media personality CJ Pearson, who was slated to serve as a Republican elector before relocating to Alabama to attend college, and retired defense attorney Lin Wood, who Fulton County claims held meetings at his home “for the purpose of exploring options to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere” that were allegedly attended by Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and others associated with the election contest, according to 11 Alive.
Four of the Republican electors who met on December 14, 2020 to continue Trump’s election contest – Vikki Townsend Consiglio, Gloria Kay Godwin, James Kenneth Caroll, and Carolyn Hall Fisher – will also be called as witnesses, as will SullivanStriker COO Paul Maggio, who performed data services for Powell related to the election contest, and lawyers Chris Anulewicz and Keith Williams, who represented Raffensperger and the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, respectively, during the 2020 election contest.
Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who is accused of conspiring to create a false set of Electoral College electors fraudulently, cited a transcript of the December 14 meeting in a legal filing that argued the Republican elector effort was built upon legal advice from attorney Ray Smith, who represented the Trump campaign at the time. Chesebro argued the alternative slate of electors only gathered “to preserve any potential victory” for Trump “that may transpire through litigation.”
The transcript was first obtained by the media in early September, and The Federalist asserted its significance meant Willis was withholding “exculpatory evidence” from defendants.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fani Willis” by Fani Willis.
