Trump Facing 5 - 20 Years In Georgia Case | Fani Willis

Hackers threaten to release Trump documents from Georgia case if they don't get a ransom by Thursday
Jacob Shamsian, Business Insider

Updated Wed, February 28, 2024 at 12:19 PM MST

Hackers set a ransom deadline of Thursday morning to release Fulton County court documents.

They claim the documents include a cache of files related to the criminal case against Donald Trump.

An international law enforcement raid took them down earlier this month, but they appeared to quickly recover.

The hacking group responsible for taking down Fulton County's websites in Georgia is threatening to publish documents from the government's court system — including ones related to the criminal case against Donald Trump — unless it gets paid a ransom.

In a message posted online Saturday, in both English and Russian, the hacking group called LockBit 3.0 said the stolen documents "contain a lot of interesting things and Donald Trump's court cases that could affect the upcoming US election."

Initially, LockBit 3.0 set a Saturday, March 2 deadline for payment, according to the cybersecurity reporter Christopher Krebs.

It has since moved up that deadline to 8:49 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, February 29, LockBit's 3.0's restored website shows.

It's not clear how much money the group is demanding. The hacking group's demands are often negotiated in private, according to Dan Schiappa, the chief product officer at the cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf.

The group — led by a hacker using the pseudonym LockBitSupp — appeared to become operational again over the weekend after a February 20 law enforcement raid. A group of agencies, including the FBI and the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, took down 34 of its servers and changed its website to a series of messages bragging about the law enforcement operation. The same day, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing two Russian nationals of being involved in the group's hacking operations.

By Saturday, LockBit 3.0 was back.

On a new website, the group posted a new message claiming that it had backup copies of documents taken from the Fulton County government's website, and renewing ransom demands.

The post claimed that the FBI acted so quickly because the leak of documents in Trump's criminal case would affect the 2024 presidential election — although court documents show that the FBI's investigation into LockBit 3.0 and coordination with international law enforcement agencies has been ongoing for years. It characterized its relationship with the FBI as a sort of romantic rivalry, promising to hack more government websites in the future.

"Personally I will vote for Trump because the situation on the border with Mexico is some kind of nightmare, Biden should retire, he is a puppet," the message says.

As of Wednesday, it had ongoing ransom demands for 11 different companies on its website in addition to the one for Fulton County. Over the years, the hacking group has targeted over 2,000 victims and obtained over $120 million in ransom funds, according to the Justice Department. Its targets in recent years include Boeing, the United Kingdom's mail service, Britain's nationalized healthcare system, and the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The group doesn't always conduct hacks itself, according to law enforcement agencies. It operates on a service model, where it develops sophisticated ransomware hacking tools and leases them out to other hackers to deploy against targets, taking a cut of the ransom.

It's not clear which other affiliate organizations LockBit 3.0 is working with for the Fulton County hack. LockBit 3.0 has claimed to be "completely apolitical" in the past, according to Oz Alashe the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity firm CybSafe. But it is also deeply involved in the Russian cybercrime scene, according to Krebs on Security. Because it works with so many different affiliates, its own organization's motives are hard to discern, Alashe told Business Insider.

"Even if one could discern the organization's motives outside of the obvious financial one, the same cannot be said for all its partners and affiliates," Alashe said.

Alashe said that LockBit's more overt political messages — taking a shot at Biden and expressing support for Trump — shouldn't necessarily be taken literally.

"It's always difficult to discern the meaning of messages like the one published by LockBit on Saturday," he said. "Whether the declaration of support for Trump is genuine, posturing aimed at taunting what they see as 'strong competitors and the FBI,' or even an attempt to grab headlines, we don't know."

Authorities appeared to negotiate with hackers earlier

Fulton County's computer systems were taken down in a hack on January 27, leaving some of its services down for weeks. Its court website still isn't fully operational. Officials have put up a separate webpage with filings in the case for the public to access in lieu of the official court docket.

The hack has taken a national resonance in part because of the charges against Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accused the former president of forming an illegal racketeering conspiracy with more than a dozen other allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him; several codefendants have pleaded guilty to their own charges.

It's not clear whether LockBit is in possession of any court documents in the Trump case that are not already part of the public record. George Chidi, an Atlanta-based independent journalist, reported earlier in February that a sampling of files published by LockBit includes sealed court records in other, unrelated cases.

A Fulton County court administration spokesperson declined to comment.

The earlier countdown timer, which had been set for February 16, disappeared from LockBit's site that day without offering a link to download files from the hack. Such removals normally happen when extortion targets pay ransom, or are in negotiations to pay it, according to Krebs.

Schiappa, the Arctic Wolf executive, told Business Insider that there was nothing usual about the situation. LockBit might be trying anything to keep its credibility with its hacking affiliate organizations in the wake of the law enforcement raid earlier this month, he said.

"Lockbit built its image on being loud and garnering the attention of other groups that wanted assurance that they could conduct business with them unhindered," Schiappa told Business Insider. "The law enforcement action presents a threat to that narrative. The more attention that the group can focus on anything other than the fact that their image was compromised by law enforcement, the more likely that they will be able to salvage their image with affiliates and continue operations."

At a press conference on February 20, Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said no ransom was paid.

"We did not pay, nor did anyone pay on our behalf," Pitts said during the briefing.

In Saturday's message, LockBit said its "partner" was in "negotiations" over the ransom, but that they had "stalled." Pitts didn't respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

On Tuesday, county officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it would not pay a ransom.

"Our focus remains on safely restoring services for our citizens and we continue to work in close coordination with law enforcement," a county spokesperson said in a statement.

An FBI representative declined to comment.

Although LockBit 3.0 appeared to recover from the law enforcement takedown earlier this month, its reputation has been severely damaged, Schiappa said. Its grandstanding messages about the FBI may be a way to shore that up.

"We expect that LockBit will suffer consequences from this law enforcement action," Schiappa said. "Their attempts to establish new partnerships will be challenging with the cloud of this takedown looming over them and tarnishing their reputation."

The renewed ransom threat comes as Willis's investigation is beleaguered by a series of heated hearings playing out in a Fulton County courtroom.

A judge is hearing testimony from several of her associates — and Willis herself — over the question of whether the district attorney had an improper relationship with a prosecutor she hired to work on the Trump case.

The judge may decide to remove Willis from the case, which would be a significant setback for the prosecution.

Judge throws out 6 counts of Trump's Georgia election interference indictment
OLIVIA RUBIN and LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN, ABC News
Wed, March 13, 2024 at 10:01 AM MDT

A Fulton County judge on Wednesday quashed multiple counts contained in the election interference indictment against former President Donald Trump and several of his co-defendants.

The order from Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six counts related to a specific charge: Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.

Of the 13 counts Trump faced, three of them were tossed by the judge's order. Trump now faces 10 counts in the case.

The ruling is a win for Trump and several of his co-defendants, who filed to dismiss the counts on the grounds that they were legally deficient.

Judge McAfee essentially agreed, writing that they "fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission." He said the "lack of detail concerning an essential legal element" is "fatal."

"They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways," the order says.

The motions, called demurrers, were brought by Trump, his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, election lawyer John Eastman, and others.

Wednesday's order by the judge quashes three of the 13 counts against Giuliani, who no longer faces two counts of solicitation and one count of false statements and writings, according the order.

The conduct underpinning those now-dropped counts dates back to December of 2020, when Giuliani made three public appearances at hearings before Georgia state lawmakers -- one in the Georgia House of Representatives and two in the Georgia Senate -- where he aired unfounded allegations of fraud in the 2020 election and encouraged lawmakers to assign a false slate of electors.

Giuliani now faces 10 counts in the Fulton County indictment.

The judge's order quashes one of the two counts against Meadows, who now faces one count -- the racketeering or RICO count that all 19 defendants were charged with.

It quashes one of the nine counts against Eastman; three of the 12 counts against Georgia lawyer Ray Smith III; and one of the 10 counts against Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley.

"The Court made the correct legal decision to grant the special demurrers and quash important counts of the indictment brought by DA Fani Willis," Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement. "The ruling is a correct application of the law, as the prosecution failed to make specific allegations of any alleged wrongdoing on those counts."

The Fulton County district attorney's office declined to comment to ABC News.

Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.

The former president has blasted the district attorney's investigation as being politically motivated.

Fani Willis can stay on Donald Trump Georgia election meddling case if lawyer quits
1 hour ago
By Madeline Halpert & Brandon Drenon ,
BBC News

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has charged Trump and others with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia.

The prosecutor in Donald Trump's election fraud case in Georgia can stay on the trial, if the lawyer she had an affair with quits, a judge has ruled.

Mr Trump and his co-defendants had tried to get Fani Willis disqualified, saying her relationship with Nathan Wade - whom she hired - had compromised the integrity of the case.

The judge disagreed - but said it did create an "appearance of impropriety".

He said either Ms Willis or Mr Wade should leave the case to resolve that.

In his ruling, Judge McAfee said Ms Willis had committed a "tremendous lapse in judgement" by engaging in an affair with Mr Wade, and also called her testimony last month "unprofessional".

Mr Trump and his 18 co-defendants claimed the relationship created a conflict of interest, saying Ms Willis benefited financially from the relationship.

But Ms Willis and Mr Wade denied this - saying there was no financial benefits, for example they split the cost of their holidays together.

Judge Scott McAfee ruled there was not sufficient evidence that there had been an actual conflict of interest.

But he found there had been an "appearance of impropriety" - and there was a "need to make proportional efforts to cure it" before the case can continue.

In his 23-page ruling on Friday, Mr McAfee presented Ms Willis with two options: to step down, along with her team, and have the Prosecuting Attorney's Council take the case over, or have Mr Wade step down and allow "the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case".

"An outsider could reasonably think that the district attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences," Mr McAfee wrote. "As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist."

Mr McAfee added: "An odor of mendacity remains".

Donald Trump and 18 others are being prosecuted in Georgia for conspiracy to overturn the state's 2020 election results - which they deny.

Mr Trump's lead lawyer on the Georgia case released a statement on Friday, saying: "While respecting the court's decision, we believe that the court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade.

"We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place."

Mr Trump and his co-defendants could appeal the judge's ruling and further delay the proceedings.

Special prosecutor Nathan Wade also testified in the hearing last month

Earlier this year, Fulton County District Attorney Ms Willis - who brought the case - admitted she had a romantic relationship with Mr Wade, but said it had no bearing on the case.

Mr Trump and his co-defendants alleged that this relationship created a financial conflict of interest, saying the couple used the money paid to Mr Wade to fund luxury trips together.

Ms Willis fiercely denied those allegations from the witness stand during a days-long evidentiary hearing before Judge McAfee.

Visibly upset, she held up papers presented to her by the defence and shouted: "It's a lie!"

Her fiery testimony drew scrutiny from legal experts and also from judge McAfee who, in his decision released on Friday, described her testimony as "unprofessional".

The evidentiary hearing laid bare multiple intimate details about Ms Willis's private life, including that she kept large sums of cash in her home, some of which she said she used to pay for trips she took with Mr Wade on trips overseas.

She said their romantic relationship began in early 2022, after she hired Mr Wade in 2021. They stopped dating in August 2023, she said, after a "tough conversation", although they are now "very good friends".

But testimony from Ms Willis's former friend Robin Yearte disputed that timeline. Ms Yearte said she believed the two lawyers began dating in 2019, after she saw them hugging and kissing.

The details of her romance came forth after one of Mr Trump's co-defendants, Michael Roman, filed a motion accusing Ms Willis of engaging in an "improper, clandestine personal relationship" with Mr Wade.

How Georgia prosecutor's affair affect