A host of emails and documents discovered by state investigators probing a voting systems breach in Georgia is now being handed over to the Fulton County prosecutors responsible for bringing forth a comprehensive racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his associates.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation unearthed over 15,000 emails and documents related to Misty Hampton, the former election supervisor for Coffee County, earlier this month. This discovery came after the board of elections for the rural county claimed that this information had been lost.
Misty Hampton stands accused alongside Trump and 17 other co-defendants of attempting to undermine the 2020 election results in Georgia. She is alleged to have facilitated the unlawful breach of Coffee County’s voting systems.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been scrutinizing the Coffee County incident since the summer of 2022. Recently, they completed their investigation and provided the case file to Fulton County prosecutors to be included as part of the discovery process for the defendants in the Trump election interference case.
The exact contents of the trove of emails and documents remain unclear, but the Coffee County breach plays a central role in the Fulton County indictment. Prosecutors argue that Trump’s associates unlawfully breached the voting systems to find evidence of election fraud. They also possess evidence linking Trump campaign lawyers to the breach.
Sidney Powell, the former Trump campaign attorney facing charges related to the Coffee County voting systems breach, has built her defense around the assertion that Hampton had authorized access to the data. Powell and fellow pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro are the first two defendants slated for trial, with jury selection scheduled for Friday.
CNN previously obtained text messages suggesting that Hampton allegedly extended a “written invitation” to Trump’s attorneys for access to Georgia’s voting systems.
Jonathan Miller, the attorney representing Hampton, expressed his belief that the recently discovered emails and their contents will vindicate his client.
Miller stated, “There is nothing in the 15,000 emails that would do anything to make my client culpable of a crime, and I look forward to reviewing it all,” Miller told CNN. “She was acting under authority of Georgia statutes in doing what she did, and the evidence is going to show that. She did not commit any crimes.”
Both Hampton and Powell face seven charges in Fulton County, including conspiracy to commit election fraud, computer trespassing, and racketeering. A trial date for Hampton has not yet been established, and Miller indicated that his client has not received a plea offer she is willing to consider.
Except for one defendant, bail bondsman Scott Hall, who has agreed to cooperate as a witness for the prosecution, all others have pleaded not guilty.
The security of Georgia’s elections had been a subject of legal disputes even before the 2020 presidential election. The Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit organization, initiated a lawsuit against the Georgia secretary of state regarding this issue in 2017. Hampton’s alleged involvement in the Coffee County breach was revealed as part of this ongoing civil lawsuit.
The coalition released a statement, noting, “Few people believed the bizarre claims made by the Coffee County Board of Elections and their attorneys that Misty Hampton’s emails were suddenly lost shortly after she was terminated in February 2021.”
