Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by an Atlanta prosecutor for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. This marks the fourth time the former president has been indicted in 2023.
Summary
Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by an Atlanta prosecutor for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. This marks the fourth time the former president has been indicted in 2023.
- Trump was indicted on 13 counts including racketeering and conspiracy charges. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former high-ranking Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark were among the others charged in the indictment.
- Also charged were former Trump attorneys John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, and Sidney Powell. The 98-page indictment laid out 41 counts including racketeering, conspiracy, perjury, impersonating a public officer and forgery, among others.
- Even if Republicans were to win the White House in 2024, neither Trump nor any other president could pardon him if he is convicted as the president’s pardon power only extends to federal cases.
- Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Atlanta’s chief prosecutor, called witnesses before the grand jury until late in the evening on Monday. Willis confirmed at a press conference late Monday evening that racketeering convictions in the state of Georgia carry a mandatory prison sentence and that she hopes to have the trial begin within six months.
- On Monday afternoon, the Fulton County court website briefly posted a document listing several criminal charges against Trump before taking it down. A court clerk later claimed the document was “fictitious” without explaining how or why it was posted and why it was removed.
- The former president is already facing 78 criminal charges in three other cases – the federal election conspiracy case in Washington DC, the federal classified documents case in Florida, and the state “hush money” payment trial in New York – but Georgia is the first to charge Trump with racketeering using a law typically used to convict mafia bosses.
- The Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act is broader than the federal statute and requires prosecutors to prove a criminal “enterprise” exists and “detail a pattern of racketeering that rests on at least two qualifying crimes.” A RICO Act conviction could carry a prison term of 5 to 20 years.
- The Trump 2024 campaign fired off a fundraising email after the document was released. ““The Grand Jury testimony has not even FINISHED – but it’s clear the District Attorney has already decided how this case will end,” Trump wrote in the email. “This is an absolute DISGRACE.”
- “The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process, Trump legal team members Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said in a statement released by his presidential campaign.
- “This was not a simple administrative mistake,” they added. “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.”
- Trump’s trial could be televised as Georgia law requires cameras to be allowed in judicial proceedings to ensure transparency. Georgia’s rules requiring cameras in most trials differ from the two federal cases and the New York trial, neither of which permit cameras.
- The Fulton County Sheriff confirmed on Monday that Trump would also have his mugshot taken at his arraignment. The former president has not had to submit to a booking photo at any of his prior arraignments.
- CNN broke the news that prosecutors have text messages and emails that “directly” connect members of Trump’s legal team to a voting system breach in Coffee County, Georgia in early January 2021. Investigators reportedly suspect the breach was a “top-down push” from Trump’s team to access voting software as part of their plan to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
- Witnesses paraded into the Fulton County courthouse throughout the day Monday to testify before the grand jury. NBC News reported those witnesses included former Democratic state lawmakers Bee Nguyen and Jen Jordan along with former GOP Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
- According to Axios, Trump’s Truth Social posts attacking potential witnesses by name – most recently his post urging Duncan against testifying – could be “the biggest short-term threat to his freedom.” Georgia law allows judges grant bail if a defendant does not pose a “significant risk of intimidating witnesses or otherwise obstructing the administration of justice” – and to revoke it if they feel otherwise.
- The Wall Street Journal explained how Trump’s phone calls to Georgia election officials urging them to overturn his defeat in the state could become the linchpin of his potential indictment in Georgia. Two phone calls Trump made– to the state’s chief elections investigator and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – could be used by prosecutors to argue that Trump was trying to recruit state officials to join a conspiracy to illegally overturn the election results.
- Fox News interviewed Trump rallygoers – the most diehard Trump fans – about how Trump’s legal woes would affect their support. Every attendee interview vowed to support Trump through thick and thin. Interestingly, even though the rally was in New Hampshire, only one person interviewed was actually a New Hampshire resident – the rest apparently traveled to New Hampshire to attend the rally like the political version of the Deadheads or Phish fans.
- Breitbart’s Joel B. Pollak mocked the Fulton County grand jury as a “clown court” for their “bizarre, unexplained act” of publishing then removing the list of charges against Trump. Pollak also quoted presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who called it a violation of Trump’s due process rights.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
