2023-08-15 07:11:14
A grand jury in Atlanta has indicted Donald Trump and 18 others for trying to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, where Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won. The 41 charges have been filed following an investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for “conspiring and unlawfully engaging in the direction and participation in criminal activity,” according to CNN.
The former president and his associates face more than a dozen charges for violating Georgia’s Corrupt and Influenced by Racketeering Organizations (RICO) law, including conspiring to nullify election results. Among those charged with the former president are his former personal attorney and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, and his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
In addition, Trump has been accused of inciting public officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence, to violate their oaths, making false statements, distributing fraudulent documents at polling stations, harassing poll workers after his defeat in Georgia, and acts of obstruction. Specifically, according to the accusation document, of almost 100 pages, the former president faces a total of 13 charges.
Until August 25 to deliver
“Trump and the other defendants refused to accept that they lost, and knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully shift the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment, which also included 30, has stated. accomplices who have not finally been charged. “That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in Georgia, and in other states,” the prosecution added.
The Prosecutor’s Office has also alleged that Trump and his collaborators “engaged in various interrelated criminal activities such as” impersonation of a public official, trying to bribe witnesses, computer theft, computer trespassing, computer invasion of privacy , conspiracy to defraud the State and acts related to theft and perjury”.
In addition, Willis has announced an arrest warrant for the defendants, although he has given them until August 25 to “voluntarily surrender.” For their part, Trump’s lawyers Drew Findling and Jennifer Little have called the accusation “shocking” and “ridiculous”, and that they await review of a “flawed and unconstitutional” accusation. The Prosecutor’s Office intends to prosecute Trump in the next six months, a process that has already been assigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
A call to “seek” votes, the origin of the case
According to leaks about the investigations of the case published by the US media, the origin of the investigation was a call between Trump and the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, in which the former president would have asked him to “seek” the necessary votes. to nullify Biden’s victory in that state.
Before the accusation was officially known, the former president attacked prosecutor Willis on his social network, Truth Social, and rejected the accusations. “I made a perfect phone call in protest, why didn’t they file the charges two years ago?” the former president wrote. “The phony Fani Willis, Fulton County District Attorney, desperately wants to indict me under the ridiculous claim of rigging the 2020 presidential election. No, I did not rig the election!” Trump asserted.
In recent months, various Trump allies have gone before the grand jury to testify, such as Giuliani or Raffensperger himself, who was responsible for ratifying the electoral results in Georgia.
Trump’s other pending cases
This is the fourth indictment that Trump has received, and the second for trying to interfere in the elections. Unlike the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, which accuses him of trying to reverse his electoral defeat – which would culminate in the storming of the Capitol – Trump would not be able to pardon himself or his associates if convicted in Georgia. , even if he is re-elected president, as it is a state sentence.
Trump, the first US president to be charged in the history of the North American country, was already charged in March in the framework of the investigation against him for the alleged bribery of porn actress Stormy Daniels, and also faces 40 charges. for the case of the classified documents that he took from the White House after finishing his term and were found in his mansion in Florida.
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