Lou

Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.

The nearly 100-page indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including beseeching Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors favorable to Trump.

In one particularly brazen episode, it also outlines a plot involving one of his lawyers to access voting machines in a rural Georgia county and steal data from a voting machine company.

“The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office brought the case, said at a late-night news conference.

Other defendants include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced the then-president’s efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia. Other lawyers who supported legally dubious ideas aimed at overturning the results, including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, were also charged.

Willis said the defendants would be permitted to voluntarily surrender by noon Aug. 25. She also said she plans to seek a trial date within six months and that she intends to try the defendants collectively.

For those keeping score, Trump is now facing 91 charges across four indictments in all

The charging document in Georgia unsealed Monday offers a sweeping indictment of Trump’s conduct after the election, documenting a breathtaking number of ways that Trump tried to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

Willis uses racketeering charges, a violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, to outline a ‘criminal enterprise’. Usually used to try mob bosses and crime syndicates.

Willis alleged that the 19 co-defendants “engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.”  In addition, the indictment cited 30 unindicted co-conspirators who participated in the enterprise.

Prosecutors say the criminal actions the charge is built around include: making false statements, filing false documents and forgeries, impersonating officials, computer breaches and attempts to influence witnesses. Among the 161 alleged acts that indictment alleges were done in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy to reverse Trump’s electoral loss were the several episodes of outreach from Trump and his advisers to state legislators in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona.

The Georgia indictment marked the first time that two of Trump’s top lieutenants supporting his efforts to overturn the 2020 election – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani – are facing charges related to election subversion.

another sad but necessary day for the country.

Read the indictment

Special counsel Jack Smith delivered a powerful indictment of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday for his alleged scheming and actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump was criminally charged Tuesday with illegally conspiring to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020., following a sprawling investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency.

The indictment accuses Trump of three conspiracies: . Trump was also charged with a fourth count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

The first charge alleges a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. “by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” according to the Justice Department.

The second details “a conspiracy to impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional proceeding where the election results were certified.

The third was “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted,” said DOJ in a statement.

Trump was also charged with a fourth count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

The charges signify an extraordinary moment in US history: a former president, in the midst of a campaign to return to the White House, being charged over attempts to use the levers of government power to subvert democracy and remain in office against the will of the voters.

In sweeping terms, the indictment described how Trump and six co-conspirators employed a variety of means to reverse his defeat in the election almost from the moment voting ended.

It depicted how Trump promoted false claims of fraud, sought to bend the Justice department toward supporting those claims, oversaw a scheme his vice president, Mike pence, to use the fake electors to subvert the certification of the election at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 2021, that was cut sort by violence at the Capitol.

The indictment did not name the co-conspirators, but the descriptions of their behavior match publicly known episodes involving prominent people around Trump. They are Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark and John Cheesman.

This is the third indictment for the twice impeached, sexual assaulter (and likely rapist) leader of the Republican Party. It is a sad day for the country but a good day for democracy and the rule of law. We will be severely tested in the upcoming months whether we can hold on to our democracy for ourselves and our children. Are we up to the task?! We must be.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday posted a campaign ad promoting his legislative wins by using clips from a recent speech GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gave at the Turning Point Action Conference where she compared Biden to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs, that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete,” Greene said in the video set to cheerful music.

The ad continues with another clip from the speech Greene gave over the weekend in which she explains the Biden administration’s investments. “Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid labor unions, and he still is working on it,” Greene said.

In response to Greene’s speech, the White House tweeted: “Caught us. President Biden is working to make life easier for hardworking families.”

The conservative Supreme Court made 3 rulings this week.

• The Supreme Court ended the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions, overruling nearly 50 years of precedent and depriving selective universities of a tool essential for keeping campuses diverse. Vote was 6 to 3.
• The Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s controversial proposal to cancel $400 billion in higher education loan repayments. Vote was 6 – 3.
• The Supreme Court ruled that a Christian graphic artist can refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, saying a Colorado anti discrimination law violates the First Amendment, spelling a major defeat for gay rights at a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is erupting across the nation. Vote was 6 – 3.