Trump, 18 others charged with 41 counts in Georgia election fraud case
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
For the fourth time this year, former President Donald Trump will face a new set of criminal charges, this time from a Georgia prosecutor over Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
On Monday evening, the grand jury returned a total of 41 counts against 19 people, including Trump.
Besides Trump, the other people facing charges are:
Rudy Giuliani, Trump attorney
Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff
John Eastman, Trump lawyer
Kenneth Chesebro, lawyer
Jeffrey Clark, former Justice Department official
Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer
Robert Cheeley, lawyer
Mike Roman, Trump campaign official
David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair and fake elector
Shawn Still, fake GOP elector
Stephen Lee, pastor
Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump
Trevian Kutti, publicist
Sidney Powell, Trump campaign lawyer
Cathy Latham, fake GOP elector
Scott Hall
Misty Hampton
Ray Smith
“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 favor 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 97-page indictment reads.
In addition to the 19 people charged, there were also 30 unnamed co-conspirators, the indictment says.
The charges include violating the Georgia RICO Act — the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.
Not all defendants will face all charges.
At a press conference late Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she wants to try the case within the next six months, and she plans to try all 19 defendants together.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the defendants, and they have until noon on August 25 to turn themselves in, she said.
She would not say whether she has spoken to special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought two sets of charges against Trump related to the 2020 election and to his handling of classified documents.
Willis said defendants would face jail time if convicted of the RICO charges.
She said some of the charges were from actions outside Fulton County, but were “included because the grand jury believes they were part of the illegal effort to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.”
In response to Trump’s allegations that the charges were politically motivated, Willis said, “I make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law. The law is completely nonpartisan.”
Trump’s campaign released a statement Monday saying the charges were “election interference.”
“The timing of this latest coordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes true motivation driving their fabricated accusations. They could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign,” the statement said according to CNN.
Earlier in the day, Willis presented her case to a grand jury.
After the closed-door court proceedings began and as two witnesses — former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and independent journalist George Chidi — got ready to testify, a document listing possible charges against Trump was posted on the court’s website, then was quickly taken down without explanation, as reported by Reuters.
The two-page document included a list of charges, including violation of the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
At her press conference Monday evening, Willis was asked about the leaked document, but said she had no knowledge of how that occurred.
After the document leaked, the Trump campaign responded by saying the charges “were filed before the Grand Jury officially voted.”
Related
Special Counsel Jack Smith adds more charges against Trump, requests trial date
Trump pleads not guilty to latest charges, says indictment is ‘persecution’
“The Grand Jury testimony has not even FINISHED – but it’s clear the District Attorney has already decided how this case will end,” a fundraising email from the Trump campaign said. “They are trying to rob me of my right to due process. They want me BEHIND BARS for the rest of my life as an innocent man, and will do anything in their power to get their way.”
Trump’s lawyers Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said the uploaded charges weren’t simply an administrative mistake.
“A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk’s office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated,” they said in a statement.
Trump, the front-runner in the Republican primary, has already been indicted three times this year — he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
This is the second indictment relating to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Willis launched an investigation into the former president after an hour-long phone call in January 2021 between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger became public.
“The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump said on the call. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
Related
Trump has attacked Willis and a witness in the case. His campaign released a minute-long ad saying all the prosecutors investigating Trump are part of “The Fraud Squad.”
Willis denied the many allegations the video makes, including involvement with a gang member she was prosecuting, calling the statements “derogatory and false,” in an email to her co-workers.
Of witness Duncan, Trump said on Truth Social the lieutenant governor should not testify.
“I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the election fraud that took place in Georgia,” he said.
