Former President Donald Trump has just been hit with a fourth set of criminal charges after a Georgia grand jury approved indictments connected to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The sprawling 98-page indictment lists 41 criminal counts against Trump and 18 of his associates who are listed as co-defendants.
Among the other high-profile individuals prosecutors have charged are former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former legal counsel Jenna Ellis, and lawyers John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Sidney Powell, who rose to prominence after the 2020 election by raising concerns and doubts about electronic voting machines.
The full list of the 18 who were charged:
- Rudy Giuliani, Former New York City mayor and Attorney
- John Eastman, Attorney
- Mark Meadows, Former Trump White House Chief of Staff
- Ken Chesebro, Attorney
- Jeffrey Clark, Former Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General
- Jenna Ellis, Attorney
- Ray Smith III, Attorney
- Robert Cheeley, Attorney
- Mike Roman, Trump Campaign Aide
- David Shafer, Former Georgia GOP Chairman
- Sidney Powell, Attorney
- Misty Hayes, Coffee County Elections Supervisor
- Shawn Still, Alternate Elector
- Stephen Lee, Pastor
- Harrison Floyd, Former Executive Dir. of Black Voices for Trump
- Trevian Kutti, Kanye West Publicist
- Cathleen Latham, Alternate Elector
- Scott Hall, Poll Watcher
“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,” the indictment states. “That conspiracy contained a 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.”
Prosecutors are bringing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, an act often reserved for going after criminal organizations like the Mafia. As defined by law, racketeering may include any crimes involving gambling, arson, murder, robbery, kidnapping, bribery, theft, fraud, embezzlement, murder-for-hire, and obstruction of justice.
Fulton County district Attorney Fani Willis is bringing charges under the RICO act including: Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.
The DA’s Office alleges in the legal filing that the 19 defendants “constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.”
During a press conference announcing the indictments, Willis confirmed that arrest warrants have already been issued for all defendants.
Willis said the defendants have until noon on August 25 to surrender. She is seeking a trial date within six months, wedging the case alongside three other cases. If the court ultimately grants Willis’s trial timeline, it would force Trump’s attorneys to maneuver a fourth legal case as he makes his re-election pitch to the American people. Willis also said she plans to try all 19 defendants together.
When asked during a press conference to address arguments that this was a politically motivated indictment, Wills replied, “I make decisions in this office based on the facts and law.”
She added, “The law is completely nonpartisan. That’s how decisions are made in every case. To date, this office has indicted, since I’ve been sitting district attorney, over 12,000 cases. This is the 11th RICO indictment. We followed the same process. We look at the facts, we look at the law.”
In a statement released on his social media network Truth Social after the charging decision, Trump said, “So the Witch Hunt continues! 19 people Indicated [sic] tonight, including the former President of the United States, me, by an out of control and very corrupt District Attorney who campaigned and raised money on, ‘I will get Trump.'”
Earlier in the night before the indictment documents were made public, Trump said Willis “strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign.”
Willis’s office began investigating the case in February 2021, following reports that Trump allegedly pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to hand Trump a win.
“They could have brought this two and half [sic] years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign,” Trump’s statement added.
The transcript of the call shows that Trump associates, including former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows — the highest ranking official other than Trump named in the indictments — believed that hundreds of thousands of ballots might have had forged signatures, making them ineligible to be counted, if true.
The indictment also lays out numerous charges, including Powell and others’ examination of voting machines, copying data from Dominion voting Systems machines, and tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines.
