dowless was indicted on felony charges on february 27, consisting of three counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and two counts of possession of absentee ballots. four others were also charged in relation to the absentee ballot collection. in march 2019, the public integrity section of the united states department of justice began to issue subpoenas for a federal grand jury investigation related to the case. documents were requested for a grand jury proceeding to be held april 16-18, 2019. in july 2019, the wake county district attorney also announced charges against lisa britt, ginger s. eason, woody d. hester, james singletary, jessica dowless and kelly hendrix, and additional charges against leslie mccrae dowless.