Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted on conspiracy charges as part of an alleged “criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.”
(Video: Fox News)
Shortly before midnight Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) held a brief press conference to announce the nearly 100-page indictment with 41 charges related to the 2020 presidential election.
“Every individual charged in the indictment is charged with one count of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia and elsewhere to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on Jan. 20, ’21,” she announced.
Named alongside Trump were Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathy Latham, Scott Hall and Misty Hampton. Among those were lawyers, Georgia election officials, and the then-president’s chief of staff.
“The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result,” Willis stated Monday.
At the beginning of the indictment, the filing presented, “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. 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. 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.”
Trump Criminal Indictment … by PJ Media
Reacting to Willis’ announcement, former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Michael Moore joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper and laughed off the notion that the DA was going to attempt to try the co-defendants together and do so prior to the 2024 presidential election.
“It was interesting to me to hear her insist that she wanted to try the case within six months and that she was going to try all 19 of these folks together. I appreciate the fact that she wants to move the case, but that’s not gonna happen,” Moore told Cooper.
(Video: CNN)
“There’s just no feasible way to do it. You can’t try 19 defendants, and you’re certainly not gonna try them on this kind of indictment with these allegations in six months,” he continued.
“She also knows where she falls, that she’s been last to indict and there are other trials already scheduled,” the former U.S. Attorney reminded of Trump’s other three indictments in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. “So again, I read that this is a case, based on what we are seeing here, based on the number of defendants, based on what’s gonna clearly be a marathon trial, not to mention a marathon jury selection — this case will be well past the election.”
In his own response issued after the indictment was announced, Trump posted to Truth Social, “So, the Witch Hunt continues! 19 people Indicted 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.’ And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me! Why didn’t they Indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Witch Hunt!”
Details on an arraignment had yet to be announced, but Willis noted during her press conference that the co-defendants had been given until Friday to surrender themselves before issued warrants would be utilized to forcibly take them into custody.
“Subsequent to the indictment, as is the normal process in Georgia law, the grand jury issued arrest warrants for those who are charged,” she explained. “I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday, the 25th day of August, 2023.”
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