Daily Beast: “Local prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are actively researching whether they can apply ‘false statement’ charges against Rudy Giuliani and other members of Donald Trump’s team for their mendacity-packed attempts to meddle with the state’s 2020 election results, according to a person familiar with the matter. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and a former New York City mayor, twice presented Georgia state legislators with fake evidence and wild allegations of a conspiracy theory to commit widespread election fraud. Separately, on two recorded phone calls to state election officials, then-President Trump made specific false claims that votes for him were discarded and suitcases full of votes for Joe Biden were trucked in.”

“In a Feb. 10 letter to state officials that was first made public by The New York Times, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did note that her investigation includes – among other crimes – potential violations of Georgia laws prohibiting ‘the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.’ But, until now, there has been no focus on the legal team’s efforts to explore that specific criminal charge. Instead, news stories have touched on the district attorney’s potential use of election fraud or racketeering charges against Trump’s inner circle. The latter would require that prosecutors prove a pattern of corruption – similar to the way law enforcement finds that mafia bosses direct underlings. The idea here would be to prove that Trump and his lieutenants conspired in a ‘criminal enterprise’ to undermine a legitimate election.”