A grand jury in Georgia has issued an indictment accusing Donald Trump of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Prosecutors brought 41 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups.
The defendants were indicted on charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act. The act essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.
Prosecutors charged 18 people in addition to Trump, including Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis said that all 19 defendants would be tried at the same time and that she would be asking for a trial within the next six months.
Willis said she was “giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than Friday the 25th day of August at noon.” This is the normal procedure. Trump will (most likely) arrive, be processed, and will plead not guilty.
Asked about accusations that the charges are politically motivated, Willis said, “I make decisions in this office based on facts and the law”.
This is the fourth time that Trump has been indicted. But this case is different because Trump cannot interfere in the case, even if he is elected president in 2024, and cannot issue a pardon.
The Trump campaign has responded to the indictment, saying, “President Trump will continue to power through this unprecedented abuse of power”.
A news conference featuring district attorney Fani T Willis is expected to take place after the indictment is released.
The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis’s office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state and organise a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalising Biden’s victory. She has also looked into an alleged attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee county.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”.
