UPDATED 10:30 P.M.
(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump was hit with a sweeping fourth set of criminal charges on Monday when a Georgia grand jury issued an indictment accusing him of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The charges, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, add to the legal woes facing Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
The sprawling 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal counts in all. All of the defendants were charged with racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Among the other defendants were Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
“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 said.
Lawyers for those named either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol four days later in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his associates allegedly committed, including falsely testifying to lawmakers that election fraud had occurred and urging state officials to violate their oaths of office by altering the election results.
Prosecutors also cited the breach of a voting system in a rural Georgia county and the harassment of an election worker who became the focus of conspiracy theories.
It also mentions an alleged scheme to subvert the U.S. electoral process by submitting false slates of electors, people who make up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president.
The indictment reaches across state lines, saying that Trump advisers, including Giuliani and Meadows, advanced the conspiracy by calling officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania and elsewhere seeking to change the outcome in those states.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump has already pleaded not guilty in three criminal cases.
He faces a New York state trial beginning on March 25, 2024, involving a hush money payment to a porn star, and a Florida trial beginning on May 20 in a federal classified documents case. In both cases Trump pleaded not guilty.
A third indictment, in Washington federal court, accuses him of illegally seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump denies wrongdoing in this case as well, and a trial date has yet to be set.
Georgia, once reliably Republican, has emerged as one of a handful of politically competitive states that can determine the outcome of presidential elections.
Trump persists in falsely claiming he won the November 2020 election although dozens of court cases and state probes have found no evidence to support his claim.
NOT HURTING HIS CAMPAIGN
Strategists said that while the indictments could bolster Republican support for Trump, they may hurt him in next year’s general election, when he will have to win over more independent-minded voters.
His lead over Republican presidential rivals has widened since the New York charges were filed in April, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
But in a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 37% of independents said the criminal cases made them less likely to vote for him, compared to 8% who said they were more likely to do so.
Willis’s investigation drew on testimony from Trump advisers including Giuliani, who urged state lawmakers in December 2020 not to certify the election, and Republican state officials like Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, who refused to echo Trump’s false election claims.
While many Republican officials have echoed Trump’s false election claims, Kemp and Raffensperger have refused to do so.
Raffensperger has said there was no factual basis for Trump’s objections, while Kemp certified the election results despite pressure from within his party.
Trump has been mired in legal trouble since leaving office.
Apart from the criminal cases, a New York jury in May found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in a civil case. A trial is scheduled for Jan. 15 on a second defamation lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages. Trump denies wrongdoing.
Trump is due to face trial in October in a civil case in New York that accuses him and his family business of fraud to obtain better terms from lenders and insurers.
Trump’s company was fined $1.6 million after being convicted of tax fraud in a New York court in December.
(Additional reporting by Jack Queen, Tim Ahmann, Jacqueline Thomsen, Jack Queen; Writing by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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(Reuters) -The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss handed up a criminal indictment on Monday, though it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
Officials with the Fulton County Court handed the indictment to Judge Robert McBurney, but did not make them public.
Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
The case, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, could add to the legal woes facing Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Fulton County court clerk Che Alexander told reporters it could take her office up to three hours to process the indictments after they were accepted by the judge.
The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis’s office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.
Over the course of a two-year investigation, Willis has examined Trump’s efforts to pressure state leaders to reverse his 11,000-vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden and organize a slate of illegitimate electors to undermine the process of formalizing Biden’s victory. She has also looked into an attempt by Trump’s allies to manipulate voting equipment in rural Coffee County.
Willis has said she might invoke a racketeering law used to go after organized crime organizations.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat.
He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Willis could invoke the racketeering law to bring criminal charges against allies who worked with Trump to reverse his defeat.
Prosecutors interviewed 75 witnesses, including Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who asked the state’s top election official to examine absentee ballots in Democratic-leaning areas after Trump’s defeat, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who urged lawmakers not to certify Biden’s victory.
Other Republicans, like Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, resisted the effort to change the outcome.
The case stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol four days later on Jan. 6 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
Georgia, once reliably Republican, has emerged as one of a handful of politically competitive states that can determine the outcome of presidential elections.
Trump persists in falsely claiming he won the November 2020 election although dozens of court cases and state probes have found no evidence to support his claim.
His legal woes have not hurt his political prospects so far as his lead over Republican rivals has grown in recent months, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
(Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann, Jacqueline Thomsen, Joseph Ax and Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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(Reuters) – The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss handed up a criminal indictment on Monday, though it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
Officials with the Fulton County Court handed the indictment to Judge Robert McBurney, but did not make them public.
Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
The case, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, could add to the legal woes facing Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Earlier, Fulton County court clerk Che Alexander told reporters it could take her office up to three hours to process the indictments after they were accepted by the judge.
It stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Four days later, on Jan. 6, 2021, and two weeks before Trump was due to leave office, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
Willis also investigated an alleged scheme by the Trump campaign to subvert the U.S. electoral process by submitting false slates of electors, people who make up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat.
He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
(This story has been refiled to change ‘imagines’ to ‘images’ in paragraph 3)
(additional reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen, Joseph Ax and Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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