Fourth indictment against ex-US President
Georgia prosecutors have indicted Donald Trump on 13 counts
Not pleased: Ex-US President Donald Trump
© Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP
Now also Georgia: The local prosecutor’s office has indicted Donald Trump because he is said to have tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The mountain of legal problems for the ex-president is growing at a dizzying pace.
Second charge of losing election
It is the fourth charge against the 77-year-old ex-president – and the second charge relating to the 2020 presidential election. Also indicted were 18 other suspects, including Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani, who once rose to international prominence as mayor of New York.
“Trump and the other defendants refused to acknowledge Trump’s election defeat and knowingly and willfully conspired to unlawfully alter the outcome of the election in Trump’s favour,” the indictment said. “The conspiracy had a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of organized criminal activity.”
The prosecutor wants the trial to start quickly
The responsible public prosecutor strives for a quick start of the process. Fani Willis said there should be a negotiation date within the next six months. However, the timing is at the discretion of the judge. It is considered unlikely that the process could start so soon. The defendants have until August 25 to appear and report in court in Atlanta, Willis said.
Capitol Storm on January 6, 2021
Next indictment against Donald Trump – these are his six co-conspirators
Trump was only indicted by the federal judiciary in early August for his attempts to overturn the outcome of the election after his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden and thus stay in the White House.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which includes much of Atlanta, is investigating the post-election actions of Trump and his allies in parallel with the federal judiciary, focusing on Georgia. After two and a half years of investigations, the indictment was decided by a grand jury known in the USA.
Donald Trump: “Find” 11,780 votes
In a famous phone call on January 2, 2021 – about two months after the election – the president who was voted out asked Georgia’s election officer Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 votes needed for a victory in the southern state.
In addition, the confirmation of Biden’s election victory should be prevented by false electoral votes in favor of Trump. Trump supporters also broke into an election office after the election and obtained sensitive data.
Ex-US President under pressure
Donald Trump has these legal problems on his hands
Georgia had played an important role in the 2020 presidential election. The state in the south-east of the USA is a so-called swing state, in which Democrats and Republicans often have very close races. Biden’s narrow win in Georgia, along with victories in other swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, was crucial to the outcome of the entire election.
No evidence of voter fraud
However, Trump did not acknowledge his defeat and raised allegations of massive election fraud – unsubstantiated allegations that have been rejected by numerous judges and authorities and refuted by independent fact-checkers. The right-wing populist’s actions in the fight against the outcome of the election culminated in the attack by radical Trump supporters on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Biden’s election victory was to be finally certified.
Trump has firmly rejected the allegations made against him in Georgia and repeatedly sharply attacked the responsible chief prosecutor, Fani Willis. His campaign team described Willis, who belongs to Biden’s Democrats, on Monday as a “fanatical partisan” who only follows Trump for political reasons.
Republicans rail against “radical” prosecutor
Leading Republicans also backed the ex-president. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the “radical” prosecutor was attacking Trump to raise money for her “political career.” Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said the indictment in Georgia was just “the latest political attack in the Democrats’ witch hunt against President Trump.”
Trump has now been indicted four times in the past six months. In the spring, the presidential candidate was indicted by the New York judiciary in the affair of a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Charged with attempting to overturn the election.
In June, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith obtained indictment against Trump over the classified documents affair, which Trump took to his luxury Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida at the end of his term in early 2021. Two weeks ago, Trump was accused of trying to overturn the outcome of the election, also at the instigation of Jack Smith.
Trump is by far the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2024 election. The 77-year-old could run in the November 2024 presidential election even if convicted – even if he were sentenced to prison.