在对推翻佐治亚州2020年总统选举结果的努力展开调查两年半后，富尔顿县地方检察官范尼·威利斯发出信号指控可能会到来反对前总统唐纳德·特朗普和其他人。

威利斯很可能陈述她的情况知情人士告诉ABC新闻，本周将向大陪审团提交报告，以便该小组可以权衡潜在的指控。

如果特朗普在调查中被起诉，这将标志着这位前总统的第四次起诉，他已经面临特别顾问的联邦指控1月6日和机密文件调查，以及曼哈顿地区检察官的堵嘴的贿赂凯斯。在特朗普之前，没有任何前任或现任总统被起诉。

上月，威利斯选举大陪审团这将最终决定是否批准对该案的指控。今年1月，由威利斯主持的一个特别大陪审团调查了对选举不当行为的指控发布了最终报告该委员会发现，“经一致投票，格鲁吉亚2020年总统选举中没有发生可能导致推翻选举的大规模欺诈。”

该大陪审团只被授权就刑事诉讼提出建议，它开庭大约八个月，听取了大约75名证人的证词。他们报告的公开发布部分没有透露任何建议的细节，只是建议检察官起诉他们认为可能在作证时撒谎的证人。

诺曼·艾森大使(已退休。)是布鲁金斯研究所(Brookings Institute)治理研究的高级研究员，曾在2019年至2020年担任众议院司法委员会(House Judiciary Committee)的特别顾问。他此前告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，有关推翻格鲁吉亚大选的努力的“大量证据”已经公开，“强烈指向一个预测，即该报告建议起诉唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)及其同谋者。”

“就像天气预报或下雨一样，没有任何保证，”艾森说，“但是当你向窗外看去，乌云密布...这就是我们对所有这些事实的看法。”

艾森说，可能的指控包括拉票选举欺诈、其他形式的欺诈、阴谋，可能还有敲诈勒索。

“指控非常严重。如果被起诉和定罪，人们将面临监禁，”威利斯去年在接受《华盛顿邮报》采访时谈到调查时说。

找到11，780张选票

富尔顿县地方检察官范尼·威利斯(Fani Willis)于2021年2月正式启动调查，部分原因是现在臭名昭著的2021年1月2日，电话特朗普在给佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬斯佩格的信中恳求Raffensperger“找到11，780票”，这正是特朗普赢得佐治亚州所需的票数。

特朗普一再为他给拉芬斯珀格的电话辩护，称之为“完美”。

威利斯写道，由于“大量证人和潜在证人在没有传票要求他们作证的情况下拒绝配合调查”，特别大陪审团于2022年5月成立。

从那以后，那些被传唤作证的人包括特朗普的一些最亲密的盟友和支持者，包括律师鲁迪·朱利安尼和约翰·伊斯曼，以及参议员林赛·格雷厄姆，他们没有成功拒绝了他的传票一直到美国最高法院。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普于2019年7月1日在华盛顿特区白宫椭圆形办公室举行的仪式上签署了H.R. 3151，即纳税人第一法案。

彭博通过盖蒂图片，文件

格雷厄姆辩称，除其他外，当他涉嫌在2020年大选后给佐治亚州官员打电话时，他是“在[他的]官方立法职责范围内”作为参议员和司法委员会主席行事。

据称，在给Raffensperger和其他人打电话时，格雷厄姆询问了“重新检查格鲁吉亚的某些缺席选票，以探索对前总统唐纳德·特朗普更有利的结果的可能性，”法官在该案的一份文件中写道。

威利斯还寻求一些佐治亚州最高民选官员的证词，包括Raffensperger，州长Brian Kemp和众议员Jody Hice。

探测器的目标

一些人还被告知，他们被认为是调查的“目标”，包括朱利安尼。选举结束后，朱利安尼出现在全国各地的一系列立法听证会上，包括佐治亚州，他敦促州议员拒绝选举结果。

在回应他作为调查目标的通知时，朱利安尼说:“我作为唐纳德·j·特朗普的律师出现在格鲁吉亚。所以我会因为我作为律师的所作所为而被起诉?”

该州有16人被认定为所谓的“假选民”也被通知了检察官在法庭文件中透露，去年夏天，他们被认为是正在进行的刑事调查的目标。

这16人据称参与了一项推翻该州选举结果的计划，他们收到了“警告那个人(他们的)证词是特别目的大陪审团所要求的，而且[他们]是调查的目标”的信件，检察官的文件称，他们正在调查“创建一份文件，确定[他们]是‘佐治亚州正式选举产生的合格的美利坚合众国总统和副总统选举人’，并将该文件提交给国家档案馆。”

调查1月6日美国国会大厦遇袭事件的众议院委员会描述了“假选举人”计划，该计划似乎有多次迭代，是由特朗普竞选团队在多个摇摆州设立的，他们试图在关键战场州召集一些人，让他们自称为选举人，创建与这些假选举人相关的假证书，然后将这些证书传输到华盛顿和国会，以便在1月6日的国会联席会议上进行统计。

今年五月，八名所谓的“假选民”公认的豁免权据他们的律师说。

律师金伯利·德布罗(Kimberly Debrow)在一份文件中说，“在审查了实际的书面豁免提议后，这八名选民都接受了他们的豁免提议。”

威利斯的挫折

威利斯去年遭遇了挫折，当时她未能成功争取皮尔森和她的法律伙伴取消代表这11人的资格，声称这是一种“利益冲突”。

富尔顿县法官罗伯特·麦克伯尼(Robert McBurney)在很大程度上拒绝了这一请求，只取消了一名选举人作为皮尔森的客户，但保留了其余的人。

早些时候，麦克伯尼不合格的威利斯威利斯为琼斯竞选副州长的政治对手举行筹款活动后，调查了16名所谓的假选举人之一，佐治亚州参议员伯特·琼斯。法官称其对调查“有害”，并说“光学是可怕的。”

“如此重要的调查，必然会引起公众的关注，并触动我们社会中如此多的政治神经，不能以对地区检察官动机的合理怀疑为边界，”麦克伯尼写道。

As Trump faces potential 4th indictment, what to know about Georgia election case

Two and a half years after launching an investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has signaled thatcharges could be comingagainst former President Donald Trump and others.

Willis is likely topresent her caseto the grand jury this week so the panel can weigh potential charges, sources familiar with the matter have told ABC News.

If Trump is indicted in the probe, it would mark the fourth indictment of the former president, who already faces federal charges in the special counsel'sJan. 6andclassified documentsprobes, as well as the Manhattan district attorney'shush moneycase. Prior to Trump, no former or current president had ever been indicted.

Last month, Willisempaneled a grand jurythat could ultimately decide whether to approve charges in the case. In January, a previous special grand jury seated by Willis to probe allegations of election misconductissued its final report, which found "by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election."

That grand jury, which was only empowered to make recommendations concerning criminal prosecutions, sat for approximately eight months and heard testimony from around 75 witnesses. The publicly released portion of their report revealed no details about any recommendations, beyond recommending that prosecutors seek indictments against witnesses who they believed may have lied during their testimony.

Ambassador Norman Eisen (ret.), a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, previously told ABC News that "the mountain of evidence" that has been made public regarding the efforts to overturn the election in Georgia "points strongly toward a forecast that the report recommends Donald Trump and his conspirators for prosecution."

"Like the weather forecast or rain, there's no guarantee," Eisen said, "but when you look outside your window and the rain clouds are dark ... that's where we are with all of these facts."

Possible charges could include solicitations of election fraud, other forms of fraud, conspiracy, and possibly racketeering, Eisen said.

"The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences," Willis said of the investigation in an interview with The Washington Post last year.

'Find 11,780 votes'

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamousJan. 2, 2021, phone callTrump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes," the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.

Trump has repeatedly defended his call to Raffensperger, calling it "perfect."

The special grand jury was seated in May 2022, after Willis wrote that the panel was needed because "a significant number of witnesses and prospective witnesses have refused to cooperate with the investigation absent a subpoena requiring their testimony."

Since then, those who have been subpoenaed for testimony include some of Trump's closest allies and supporters, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who unsuccessfullyfought his subpoenaup to the United State Supreme Court.

Graham argued, among other things, that he was acting "within [his] official legislative responsibilities" as a senator and chairman of the Judiciary Committee when he allegedly made calls to Georgia officials following the 2020 election.

During calls to Raffensperger and others, Graham allegedly asked about "reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump," the judge wrote in a filing in the case.

Willis also sought testimony from a number of Georgia's highest elected officials, including Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp and Rep. Jody Hice.

Targets of the probe

A number of individuals have also been informed that they are considered "targets" of the probe,including Giuliani. In the wake of the election, Giuliani appeared at a series of legislative hearings around the country -- including Georgia -- where he urged state legislators to reject the results of the election.

Responding to the notification of his status as a target of the probe, Giuliani said, "I appeared in Georgia as attorney for Donald J. Trump. So I'm going to be prosecuted for what I did as an attorney?"

Sixteen people identified as so-called "fake electors" in the statewere also notifiedlast summer that they were considered targets in the ongoing criminal investigation, prosecutors revealed in court documents.

The 16, who allegedly participated in a scheme to overturn the state's election results, received letters "alerting that person both that [their] testimony was required by the special purpose grand jury and that [they were a] target of the investigation" said the filing from prosecutors, who were investigating the "creation of a document that identified [them] as being among the 'duly elected and qualified Electors for president and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Georgia,' and the submission of that document to the National Archives."

The House committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol described the "fake electors" plan, which appeared to have multiple iterations, as being set up by the Trump campaign in multiple swing states in which they sought to assemble "groups of individuals in key battleground states and got them to call themselves electors, created phony certificates associated with these fake electors and then transmitted these certificates to Washington, and to the Congress, to be counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6th," according to the filing.

This past May, eight of the so called "fake electors"accepted immunityin the probe, according to their lawyer.

"After reviewing the actual, written offers of immunity, each of those eight electors accepted their immunity offer," a filing by the attorney, Kimberly Debrow, said.

Setbacks for Willis

Willis suffered a setback last year when she unsuccessfully fought to have Pierson and her law partner disqualified from representing those 11, alleging that it was a "conflict of interest."

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney largely denied the request, only removing one of the electors as Pierson's client, but keeping the rest.

Earlier, McBurneydisqualified Willisfrom investigating one of the 16 alleged fake electors, Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones, after Willis held a fundraiser for Jones' political opponent in the race for lieutenant governor. The judge called it "harmful" to the investigation and said the "optics are horrid."

"An investigation of this significance, garnering the public attention it necessarily does and touching so many political nerves in our society, cannot be bordered by legitimate doubts about the District Attorney's motives," McBurney wrote.