Donald Trump and 18 of his former aides have been charged with an alleged criminal conspiracy over attempts to overturn the 2020 US Presidential election result in Georgia.
The former Republican President now faces the fourth indictment brought against him in the last five months and the prospect of yet another criminal trial in the run-up to next November’s presidential election. Mr Trump is currently the frontrunner in the Republican Party’s race to pick its next candidate for the White House.
The latest case was announced on Monday by Fani T Willis, the district attorney for Fulton county in Georgia, after a grand jury returned a 98-page indictment accusing Mr Trump of multiple criminal conspiracies.
Among the allies to be charged is Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, who led efforts by Mr Trump’s team to overturn the 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.
Others to be charged including John Eastman, a constitutional scholar who developed the theory that Mr Trump’s vice-President Mike Pence could stop the election result from being formally certified, Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R-Kelly.
Charges have been brought under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, utilising a law which was originally aimed at tackling mafia activities and organised crime groups.
Mr Giuliani himself famously used RICO powers to take on mobsters when he was a prosecutor in New York in the mid-80s.
In a press conference to announce the charges, Ms Willis – a Democrat – denied the case is politically motivated.
“We look at the facts, we look at the law and we bring charges”, she said, describing the case as “violations of Georgia law arising from a criminal conspiracy to overturn the result of the 2020 Presidential election in this state.”
She told reporters Trump and his co-defendants have the option of voluntarily surrendering by August 25, while her office intends to ask a judge to schedule a trial within the next six months.
“We do want to move this case along”, she added.
Mr Trump won the state of Georgia in his 2016 victory, but narrowly lost it to Biden four years later.
As he and his team made frantic efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, Trump called Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and told him: “I just want to find 11,780 votes”.
That leaked phone call sparked a criminal investigation which ended with the current indictment.
Mr Trump swiftly denounced the charges last night, insisting: “Justice and the rule of law are officially dead in America.”
He added: “This marks the fourth act of election Interference on behalf of the Democrats in an attempt to keep the White House under Crooked Joe’s control and jail his single greatest opponent of the 2024 election.”
Mr Trump was first charged with criminal offences over money paid in the lead-up to the 2016 to two women who said they had sexual encounters with him.
He is accused of illegally retaining boxes of classified and sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his Presidential term ended, and Mr Trump also faces charges over the January 6 riot at the Capitol building in Washington DC and wider efforts to overturn his election defeat.
In the Georgia case, Ms Willis said the RICO charges allege “participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere, to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office, beginning on January 20, 2021”.
Co-defendants include lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powel, and Ken Cheseboro, as well as former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
Mr Trump personally faces 13 charges, including conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of conspiracy to make false statements under oath, two counts of conspiracy to file false documents, two counts of solicitation of a public officer, filing false documents, conspiracy to solicit false statements, and making false statements.
In his statement, the former president insisted he has committed “no crime”.
