‘You lost the state.’ Top Georgia election official says he expects Trump to be indicted this week

As Fulton County District Attorney gets ready to present her case to a grand jury, a top elections official says he fully expects that former President Donald Trump will be indicted this week.

Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer of Georgia’s Secretary of State’s Office, appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” on Sunday to talk about the case.

Sources within the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office have said that they expect DA Fani Willis to begin presenting her case this week about possible election interference by Trump and others in the 2020 election here in Georgia.

Sterling said, from all indications that he’s seen, Trump will be indicted this week.

“The Fulton County case is different from some of the other ones. It looks a little more expansive, a RICO kind of case. But, you know, the system has to work its way through one way or the other,” Sterling said.

Sterling came under fire by Trump and many of his allies after the Secretary of State’s Office certified the election for Joe Biden here in Georgia after numerous vote recounts and confirming that no fraud took place, despite what the former president was claiming at the time.

“You lost the state,” Sterling said about Trump. “We’ve been saying this over and over again, we counted the ballots three times, he lost the state. And he continued to say he didn’t lose it. And it’s just creating a lot of tension and a lot of chaos. It’s completely unnecessary. I mean, there’s real issues in this country. Anybody talking about the 2020 election is going to lose the general election. You’re not gaining any voters by doing that.”

Despite three indictments that have been handed up against him at this point, Trump is continuing his run for president in the 2024 election. He has released an ad against Willis and others who have already brought indictments against him, labeling them as the “Fraud Squad.”

“This Week” anchor Jon Karl asked Sterling if he thought ads like this were going to fuel violence.

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“At this point, you never know what’s going to happen,” Sterling said. “My biggest concern for years now … is somebody will be motivated by some of this kind of language at some point and do something stupid.”

“It’s not going to be a bunch of conspirators together to make one -- probably mentally unstable -- individual who’s going to be radicalized to this process. And that’s my biggest concern through this,” Sterling said.

Channel 2′s Sophia Choi spoke to Karl earlier in the day Sunday. Karl said he expects to there to be at least a dozen people to be indicted this week.

“We know there is potentially a dozen, maybe even more, of his associates who could be charged as well,” Karl said. “As you know, this is a RICO case, as we believe, and they could all face indictment.”

Karl said some people who could also face charges besides Trump include his former attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and his former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.

“Donald Trump clearly has a legal strategy of trying to delay the cases until after the election. This is because if he can get elected president again, he can pardon himself or call off the justice department from continuing the prosecution, but he can do neither in Georgia.” Karl explained. “You can’t pardon yourself from a state conviction and call off a state prosecution.”

Sterling told Karl That he doesn’t believe a fourth indictment against Trump is going to do anything to hurt his current lead in the race.

“This has been giving oxygen to his campaigns, this is raising tons of money,” Sterling said. “And a lot of that money now is I think, was pointed out earlier, it’s being used to pay for his lawyers and not for the actual campaign, but it’s driving him being ahead because he is becoming make himself a victim. He’s making himself a martyr. And a lot of the American people are going behind him.”

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Atlanta journalist George Chidi have both confirmed they have been asked to testify before the grand jury on Tuesday morning.

The purpose of presenting a grand jury with a case is for grand jurors to determine if there is enough evidence of alleged wrongdoing to proceed to a trial. Anyone who is indicted by a grand jury is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court trial.

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