NC’s Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell indicted in Georgia with Trump over 2020 election loss
President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows — a former North Carolina congressman — was charged Monday for his connection to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump’s fourth indictment, unsealed Monday night in Georgia, also includes charges against Sidney Powell, a former Trump lawyer who grew up in Raleigh and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. They are two of 19 people charged, including the former president and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
This is the first time Meadows has been charged in connection to his work with Trump. The Republican who once represented the 11th Congressional District faces two charges: racketeering and solicitation of violation of oath of a public officer, according to the indictment.
He is accused of working with Trump to direct Trump adviser John McEntee to disrupt and delay the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress proceedings to certify President Joe Biden’s election.
Powell faces seven charges: racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to defraud the state and conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy.
Powell is an alleged co-conspirator in Trump’s last indictment involving the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Powell and the other co-conspirators were not mentioned by name and have not been charged.
The defendants have until noon Friday, Aug. 25, to voluntarily turn themselves in.
Phone call seeking votes
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis warned in recent weeks that an indictment might come before Aug. 18.
Willis launched an immediate investigation into Trump and his co-defendants following the release of a recorded phone call between the former president and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that Meadows helped facilitate. The call also featured North Carolina attorney Cleta Mitchell, who has not been charged.
The Washington Post first obtained a recording of the phone call where Trump begged Raffensperger to find additional votes in order for him to win Georgia.
“I only need 11,000 votes,” Trump shouted at Raffensperger during the call. “Fellas, I only need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Portions of the call were played when Raffensperger testified before the U.S. House’s January 6 committee.
Mark Meadows accusations
The 98-page indictment provides a timeline of events since Trump lost the 2020 election that led to the charges.
Meadows is believed to have been a key player in the events surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election results. But until Monday night, he had escaped any charges, leading many to believe that he had turned on his former boss.
Meadows’ name was included on the charging list, and his name is mentioned 12 times.
▪ On Nov. 20, 2020, Trump and Meadows met in the White House with leadership from the Michigan legislature to spread election conspiracy theories, the indictment accuses. Trump’s lawyer, Giuliani, was on the phone.
The next day, Meadows texted Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, asking for phone numbers for his state lawmakers so Trump could speak to them, according to the indictment.
▪ Trump and Meadows met with Pennsylvania legislators at the White House on Nov. 25, 2020, after an earlier meeting that day in Pennsylvania spreading election fraud conspiracy theories, the indictment states. At the White House meeting, which Meadows attended, officials asked Pennsylvania lawmakers to hold a special session of their legislature, according to the indictment.
Those conversations would continue without Meadows asking for Pennsylvania to send a second set of electors from the state.
▪ In December, Meadows is accused in the indictment of meeting with McEntee to prepare a plan to disrupt and delay Congress from certifying Biden’s election. The plan called for Vice President Mike Pence to count the electoral votes for only some of the states and send the other half back, the indictment charges.
▪ On Dec. 22, 2020, Meadows traveled to Cobb County, Georgia, where he attempted to enter the Civic Center to observe the signature match audit that law enforcement officers performed. The indictment says it took Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson and Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Bahan Rich to prevent him from entering the room where the audit was taking place.
▪ The next day, Meadows arranged a phone call between Trump and Watson, the indictment says. Trump is accused of claiming that he won the election in Georgia “by thousands of votes” and that Watson would be praised “when the right answer comes out.”
▪ On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump and Meadows are accused of asking Raffensperger to violate his oath by altering the election returns for Georgia.
Sidney Powell accusations
Powell, who currently lives in Texas, is mentioned 21 times in the indictment.
On Sunday, CNN first reported that Atlanta prosecutors had emails and text messages that tied Powell to a breach in Coffee County, Georgia’s election machines.
Here are dates where Powell is cited in the indictment:
▪ On Nov. 19, 2020, Powell, Giuliani and attorney Jenna Ellis, who is also charged, held a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters and discussed election fraud conspiracy theories regarding Biden’s election.
▪ On Dec. 6, Powell is accused in the indictment of entering into a written agreement for SullivanStrickler LLC to perform forensic collections and analysis on Dominion Voting Systems and breach the company’s machines.
▪ On Dec. 18, Trump, Giuliani and Powell are accused in the indictment of meeting about strategies and theories to influence the outcome of the election, including seizing voting machines. Powell was put in charge of investigating voter fraud in Georgia and other states during that meeting.
▪ On Dec. 21, Powell emailed the chief operations officer of SullivanStrickler LLC and told him that she and three other people, who aren’t named, should receive copies of all data the company obtained from Dominion Voting Systems in Michigan.
▪ On Jan. 7, 2021, the day after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Powell is accused of interfering with the election by tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines in Coffee County. She’s also accused of using a computer in Coffee County to take data, information and software and attempting to remove voter and Dominion Voting Systems data.
▪ On April 22, 2021, the indictment states Powell asked SullivanStrickler LLC’s COO to send data copied from Coffee County’s election machines to an unnamed individual — an attorney known to be associated with Powell and the Trump campaign.
▪ On May 7, 2022, Powell is accused of lying under oath to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol.
Much of the indictment includes information previously reported, but some of the investigation revealed new details about Trump’s alleged attempts to retain his office that hadn’t been known before.
This indictment is Trump’s fourth since March. He is also accused of falsifying business documents, keeping classified documents that belonged to the federal government, obstructing Congress from certifying Biden’s election.
This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 11:46 PM.
