15th August, 2023
The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss handed up a criminal indictment on Monday, the fourth time the former president was indicted.
Prosecutors said Trump and 18 others “joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome” of the election, according to the 98-page indictment.
In addition to Trump, they include his lawyers, John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, as well as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In an introduction to the indictment, prosecutors allege there was a conspiracy to change the outcome of the 2020 election “in favour of” Donald Trump.
“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favour of Trump.
“That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the indictment reads.
The grand jury approved charges against Trump for a violation of Georgia’s RICO law – or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization – which accuses Trump of being part of a broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the election result.
The grand jury approved of several conspiracy charges against the former president.
Additionally, Trump was charged with several counts of soliciting a public official to violate their oath. He faces charges related to false statements and writings, and to the filing of false documents as well.
The case, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, could add to the legal woes facing Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden and organise a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalising Biden’s victory.
She has also looked into an attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee County.
Willis has said she might invoke a racketeering law used to go after organised crime.
The case stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged then Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by U.S. 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.”
Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol four days later on Jan. 6 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
Here is the full list of the 19 people charged in the Georgia case:
Donald Trump, former US president, Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer, Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, John Eastman, Trump lawyer.
Others are Kenneth Chesebro, pro-Trump lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, top Justice Department official, Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer, Robert Cheeley, lawyer who promoted fraud claims.
The list also includes: Mike Roman, Trump campaign official, David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair and fake elector, Shawn Still, fake GOP elector, Stephen Lee, pastor tied to intimidation of election workers
Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump, Trevian Kutti, publicist tied to intimidation of election workers, Sidney Powell, Trump campaign lawyer, Cathy Latham, fake GOP elector tied to Coffee County breach
Scott Hall, tied to Coffee County election system breach, Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor and Ray Smith, Trump campaign attorney.