Latest
FRESH OFFENSE
Donald Trump indicted on conspiracy & racketeering charges in Georgia over 2020 election interference
DONALD Trump has been indicted on conspiracy and racketeering charges over allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election.
The rap sheet, which was issued in Georgia on Monday, is the fourth indictment that the former president has faced this year.
8
8
8
8
Trump has been accused of several conspiracy charges, soliciting a public official to violate their oath, making false statements and writings, and violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) law.
He could be hit with a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted of violating the RICO law.
Trump and his allies have been accused of refusing to accept his election loss and "knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."
Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Trump campaign lawyers Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Georgia GOP chair David Shafer are among the defendants that have been named.
Nineteen defendants, including Trump, are named in the indictment.
The complete list includes:
- Donald Trump
- Rudy Giuliani
- Mark Meadows
- John Eastman
- Kenneth Chesebro
- Jeffrey Clark
- Jenna Ellis
- Robert Cheeley
- Mike Roman
- David Shafer
- Shawn Still
- Stephen Lee
- Harrison Floyd
- Trevian Kutti
- Sidney Powell
- Cathy Latham
- Scott Hall
- Misty Hampton
- Ray Smith
THE CHARGES
The indictment lists 41 charges against the 19 defendants.
Most read in The US Sun
"Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia," the indictment reads.
"Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.
"That conspiracy contained 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 indictment claims that the defendants "unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere."
All of the defendants face racketeering charges.
The indictment also includes charges for forgery, perjury, influencing witnesses, solicitation of state legislatures, and high-ranking state officials, as well as the creation and distribution of false electoral college documents.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the defendants must turn themselves in by noon on August 25.
She said that she plans to try all 19 defendants in the same trial.
The proposed schedule for the trial is expected within the week.
"We do want to move this case along and so we will be asking for a proposed order that occurs a trial date within the next six months," Willis said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has been assigned to the case, according to CNN.
The latest indictment is on state charges, meaning Trump will not be able to pardon himself if convicted and if he wins the 2024 election.
A Trump-friendly governor would also not have the power to pardon him.
LENGTHY INVESTIGATION
Prosecutors had been investigating Trump, 77, and his allies since December 2020 to determine if they broke state laws in their bid to keep him in power after the 2020 .
Earlier on Monday, before the grand jury vote, the website for Fulton County briefly displayed a list of criminal charges against Trump.
The document was quickly taken down.
Trump's attorneys, Drew Findling and Jennifer Little, ripped the district attorney's office for the move, saying they showed no respect for the grand jury process.
"The Fulton County District Attorney's Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process," the statement read.
"This was not a simple 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.
"This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception."
When questioned by reporters on Monday night, Willis declined to provide information on the document, which was later dubbed "fictitious."
"I can't tell you anything about what you refer to," the district attorney said, adding that she is "not an expert in clerk's duties or even administrative duties."
Trump branded Willis a "phony" hours before the indictment was filed.
"Would someone please tell the Fulton County grand jury that I did not tamper with the election," the former president wrote on his Truth Social feed.
"The people that tampered with it were the ones that rigged it, and sadly, phoney Fani Willis, who has shockingly allowed Atlanta to become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world, has no interest in seeing the massive amount of evidence available, or finding out who these people that committed this crime are.
"She only wants to 'Get Trump.' I would be happy to show this info to the G.J."
Trump has accused Willis of being "out of control" and said the charges were part of a "witch hunt."
Since leaving office in January 2021, Trump has been charged with three other indictments in , , and .
A statement from the Trump campaign called the indictments "bogus" and accused Willis of trying to "maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign."
"They are taking away President Trump's First Amendment right to free speech, and the right to challenge a rigged and stolen election that the Democrats do all the time.
"The ones who should be prosecuted are the ones who created the corruption."
WAVE OF INDICTMENTS
The wave of indictments against the former president began in March when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed 34 felony charges against Trump for what prosecutors described as a hush-money scheme.
Prosecutors said Trump and his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an affair.
The case also reportedly includes claims of separate payments to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Trump allegedly played a role in paying $150,000 to McDougal, who claims that she began a 10-month relationship with the former president in 2006, according to the .
The former US president also allegedly paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 to silence his claims that Trump had a "child out of wedlock."
Trump is also facing charges in a separate case in Miami brought by special counsel Jack Smith, where he's accused of mishandling national secret documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
The executed a search warrant on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in on August 8, 2022, searching the residence for classified material that the president is accused of taking after leaving office.
Federal officials found more than 80 boxes of classified documents in Trump's estate, including six with the highest level of classification in his office, according to court records.
FBI officials said boxes were found in several rooms at Mar-a-Lago, including the Lake Room, various storage rooms, on the stage of the White and Gold Ballroom, Pine Hall, and the Trump family suite.
Trump also took boxes of documents to his golf club in Bedminster, , according to the indictment.
Meanwhile, Trump appeared in a Washington, DC, courtroom on August 4 after being arraigned on four charges connected to his alleged involvement in the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to prevent from counting the electoral votes to confirm Biden as the new president.
The rally turned violent when the MAGA mob breached Capitol Hill, smashing through windows and doors and clashing with Capitol police officers.
Four rioters died during the siege, including Ashli Babbitt, 34, a former Air Force veteran who was shot by a Capitol police officer, Kevin Greeson, 55, who suffered a heart attack during the breach, Rosanne Boyland, 34, and Benjamin Philips, 50.
Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick also died after the incident.
In the years since, over 1,000 rioters have been arrested and hit with a slew of federal charges, including assault on law enforcement officials, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, trespassing, and disrupting Congress.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
As of May, approximately 485 defendants had been sentenced - 277 were handed time behind bars, while 113 were sentenced to home detention.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases against him.
8
8
8
8
Topics