Georgia DA: NAJ screen shot

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by an Atlanta grand jury on Monday in a vast racketeering case, accusing Trump and some of his former top aides of orchestrating a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

The 41-count indictment, an unprecedented challenge of presidential misconduct by a local prosecutor, brings charges against some of Trump’s most prominent advisers, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff at the time of the election, according to the New York Times and other news outlets with reporters on the ground in Atlanta.

“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,” prosecutors write in the indictment.

Trump, who is running again for president in the 2024 election and is the early favorite to win the Republican nomination, has now been indicted in four separate criminal investigations since April, including a federal indictment earlier this month over his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.

Although that case covers some of the same ground as the one in Georgia, there are crucial differences between state and federal charges: Even if Mr. Trump were to regain the presidency, the prosecutors in Georgia would not report to him, nor would he have the power to attempt to pardon himself if convicted.

And the new indictment presents the most extensive set of accusations yet against the former president, alleging a vast conspiracy reaching from the Oval Office to the Georgia Republican Party to an election official in a rural county.

The indictment laid out eight ways the defendants were accused of obstructing the election: by lying to the Georgia state legislature, lying to state officials, creating fake pro-Trump electors, harassing election workers, soliciting Justice Department officials, soliciting Vice President Mike Pence, breaching voting machines and engaging in a cover-up.

The indictment also spells out 161 separate actions that prosecutors say were taken to further the alleged criminal conspiracy, including events like Giuliani’s false testimony about election fraud to Georgia lawmakers in early December and Trump’s telephone call to the Georgia secretary of state in early January urging him to “find” 12,000 votes.

All 19 defendants are being charged under Georgia’s racketeering statute, which was originally designed to dismantle organized crime groups. The statute allows prosecutors to bundle together crimes committed by different people if they are perceived to be in support of a common objective.

The investigation was led by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney. On Monday, she said she was giving Trump until noon on Aug. 25 to turn himself into the authorities in Fulton County. She also said she would be seeking a trial date within the next six months.

A statement from the Trump campaign accused Willis of being a “rabid partisan” and said her election interference investigation was based on “fabricated accusations.” The campaign tied the investigation to the Biden administration, despite the fact that it came from a state prosecutor.

The former president has denied all of the charges against him, claiming they are part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” intended to keep him from being elected again next year. His hope of avoiding criminal convictions in the federal cases could hinge largely on his presidential campaign. He could theoretically pardon himself for federal crimes if re-elected.

___

If you support truth in reporting with no paywall, and fearless writing with no popup ads or sponsored content, consider making a contribution today with GoFundMe or Patreon or PayPal. We just tell it like it is, no sensational clickbait or pretentious BS.