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
