Former U.S. President Donald Trump was indicted on another sweeping set of criminal racketeering and conspiracy charges on Monday involving efforts by him and his co-conspirators to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, reported multiple international news outlets.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the state of Georgia brought state charges against the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election after months of investigation into efforts to interfere with Georgia’s electoral vote count.
The indictment charges Trump and 18 other co-defendants with 41 criminal counts, 13 against the former president himself. All of the defendants were charged with racketeering under Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) statute, which is used to prosecute members of organized crime groups. Conviction carries a minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Unlike the previous federal elections fraud indictment which names only Trump, the Georgia state indictment names Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and a number of other lawyers, fake electors, and allegedly corrupt GOP election officials as co-conspirators in a wide-ranging scheme to commit election fraud.
“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,” read the indictment.
Specifically, the former president is accused of the following felony counts: violating Georgia’s racketeering act, solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, false statements and writings, and filing false documents.
The case stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” one more than was needed to reverse his narrow loss in the state.
Willis held a press conference late Monday after the Grand Jury delivered the indictment. Answering a press question about political motivation, she said “I make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law. The law is completely non-partisan.”
The former U.S. President has denied all 13 charges against him and accused Willis of being politically motivated. This is Trump’s fifth indictment, facing cases in New York, Florida, and Washington D.C., including a superseding indictment in the classified documents case in Florida.