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Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis made her intentions for Donald Trump clear in emails and said the aim was to put him behind bars.
The Fulton County District Attorney brought the Georgia election case against Trump in which he and 18 other defendants are facing racketeering charges in connection with alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"We have a long road ahead," she wrote in one email with defense lawyers on November 29, according to a report by The Guardian. "Long after these folks are in jail, we will still be practicing law."
A spiky response to an email from Trump Attorney Steve Sadow was also seen. Willis complained that she was not being referred to by her title as District Attorney and the exchange began when Sadow complained a transcript relating to co-defendant and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was incomplete.
"No one placed me here and I have earned this title," Willis responded. "I've never practiced law by hiding the ball, I've enjoyed beating folks by making sure they have the entire file."
She told defense lawyers that the full transcript would be included in the next round of discovery. The exchange ended with Willis saying, "Yours in service," to which Sadow replied, "Thank you for your email."
Four of the 18 co-defendants have so far pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to a plea deal. Currently, Trump is not expected to be offered a deal.
Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and bail bondsman Scott Hall are the four defendants to have accepted plea deals.
Ellis referred Newsweek to comments previously made to Politico. She said: "At no time did I advocate for overturning the election or that Mike Pence had the authority to do so. As part of my role as a campaign lawyer and counsel for President Trump, I explored legal options that might be available within the context of the U.S. Constitution and statutory law."
This week, CNN reported sources that said former Vice President Mike Pence will be called to testify at Trump's trial, saying Pence could be a "key witness as one of the few one-time Republican allies of the former president to strongly rebuke Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud in the Peach State."
Trump faces 13 charges in total in Georgia and denies all of them. Newsweek approached Trump's team regarding Cheney's comments.
Pence's testimony could be key to the trial. Earlier this week, former Republican Congresswoman and staunch Trump critic Liz Cheney said on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show that she heard Ellis in a briefing describing a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence would refuse to count the votes of the 2020 presidential election.
The call, Cheney said, was between Ellis, Trump lawyers and "surrogates", who are advisers close to Trump given license to publicly defend him. The supposed call discussed fake electors being used to give Pence freedom to deny to certification of results.
"There had been talk [that] we were going to have these electors meet...but it wasn't clear to me what the contours of this particular part of the plan were until I dialed into that phone call," Cheney, a member of the January 6 committee, said.
"Listening to them describe how these fake electors were going to be used and the fact that they anticipated that Vice President Pence was gonna use them to refuse to count the legitimate electors was certainly a moment of intense concern. As I got off that call I ran in the Capitol into the office of the parliamentarian of the House to say...'This is what I am hearing is going to happen...how do we stop this?' It was very clear there were not a lot of good answers to that."
House parliamentarians give guidance on rules and procedures.
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About the writer
Benjamin Lynch is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national affairs and he ... Read more