ATLANTA (AP) — After the 2020 election, a Georgia ballot employee who was falsely accused of voting fraud by former President Donald Trump was pressured and threatened with imprisonment throughout a gathering organized with the assistance of an ally of the Trump marketing campaign, a prosecutor stated in a courtroom submitting Friday.
Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis is investigating whether or not Trump and others illegally tried to affect the 2020 election in Georgia. As a part of the probe, Willis filed courtroom paperwork on Friday in search of testimony from Willie Lewis Floyd, a director of Black Voices for Trump, a gaggle at rising the then-president’s help amongst Black voters.
It was reported early Tuesday {that a} Republican official in Espresso County in southeastern Georgia has been seen in surveillance video escorting a pair of Trump operatives into the county election workplace on the identical day in January 2021 that the voting system there was reportedly breached.
That incident is of curiosity to Willis’s investigation in Fulton County, CNN reported.
In December 2020, Floyd was requested to rearrange a gathering to debate an “immunity deal” with Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election employee whom Trump and his allies falsely accused of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase, in keeping with Willis.
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Willis stated Floyd organized for Trevian Kutti — whom Willis described as a “purported publicist” based mostly in Chicago — to fulfill with Freeman. The prosecutor has beforehand sought Kutti’s testimony.
Kutti informed Freeman that “an armed squad” of federal officers would strategy her and her household inside 48 hours and that Kutti had entry to “very high-profile individuals that may make explicit issues occur with a view to defend your self and your loved ones,” in keeping with to Willis’ courtroom submitting.
The district legal professional cited video footage as proof of these statements.
Kutti didn’t instantly reply to an e mail message in search of remark Friday. A message to Floyd’s Instagram account was additionally not instantly returned.
Freeman and Kutti met on the Cobb County Police Division, the place Kutti informed Freeman that “freedom and the liberty of a number of of your loved ones members” could be disrupted if Freeman declined her help. Kutti stated Freeman was “a unfastened finish for a celebration that should tidy up,” in keeping with Willis.
The assembly was captured partially by a physique digital camera, Willis stated.
Kutti additionally stated she wished to attach Freeman to Floyd, whom she described as a “Black progressive disaster supervisor, very excessive degree, with authoritative powers to get you safety that you just want,” Willis stated.
Throughout a subsequent cellphone name with Kutti and Floyd, Freeman was pressured to disclose data below menace of imprisonment, Willis stated.
Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, appeared in June earlier than the Home Jan. 6 committee and have informed lawmakers how the lies about election fraud upended their lives. Moss was additionally a ballot employee in Fulton County.
Republican officers from Arizona and Georgia recalled in testimony to the Home Jan. 6 Committee Tuesday how former President Donald Trump and his allies pressured them to attempt to alter the outcomes of the 2020 election. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
Willis has sought testimony from quite a few witnesses with ties to Trump as a part of her investigation, together with former New York Metropolis Mayor Rudy Giuliani and US Sen. Lindsey Graham. Giuliani, who’s been informed he is a goal of the investigation, examined earlier than the particular grand jury final month. A federal choose on Thursday dominated that constitutional protections do not protect Graham from testing.
Trump has blamed voter fraud for his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. State officers and federal investigators, together with Trump’s personal legal professional common William Barr, have stated there was no proof of widespread fraud within the 2020 contest.
MarketWatch contributed.
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