The former president and 8 allies were indicted for what prosecutors described as a wide-ranging criminal enterprise.
By Kyle Cheney
A grand jury in Georgia has indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 allies on racketeering charges for a sweeping attempt to corrupt the 2020 election by subverting Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis leveled the charges Monday night after a two-year investigation that also tagged Trump with allegations that he conspired to derail the Electoral College process, marshaled the Justice Department to bolster his scheme, pressured Georgia officials to undo the election results and repeatedly lied about fraud allegations to ratchet up pressure.
In addition to Trump, Willis charged former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeff Clark, Ken Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, key figures in Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.
The 98-page indictment tracks several well-known aspects of Trump’s conduct in the chaotic weeks that followed his defeat in the Nov. 3, 2020, election, many of which were aired by the House Jan. 6 select committee and, more recently, in a federal indictment obtained by special counsel Jack Smith.
But Willis’ indictment was breathtaking in its scope and is the first to charge the coterie of Trump’s enablers with crimes for their efforts to help facilitate his bid to remain in power despite losing the election.
The indictment contains 41 total felony counts, 13 of which were lodged against Trump. The allegations rest on several key components:
Trump’s bid to assemble false slates of presidential electors to foment a controversy aimed at derailing the transfer of power. Mike Roman, a Trump campaign aide involved in that effort, was among those charged in the indictment. Some participants in the effort, including Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, were also charged.
A pressure campaign by Trump, Giuliani, Eastman, and others aimed at Georgia officials with responsibilities for certifying the presidential election.
The filing of false claims of ballot fraud in court documents associated with a last-ditch lawsuit by Trump to upend the results in Georgia.
A breach of sensitive election equipment by Trump-aligned officials in Coffee County, Ga. Cathleen Latham, one of Trump’s false electors, was charged for her role in this effort.
A campaign of harassment and false claims against Ruby Freeman, an election worker who became the target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories about voter fraud.
Willis also charged elements of Trump’s efforts that extended beyond Georgia’s borders, taking aim at Clark’s effort to disseminate a letter putting pressure on Georgia legislators to reconsider certifying a pro-Trump slate of electors. And she charged Trump and Eastman with orchestrating a pressure campaign against former Vice President Mike Pence to single-handedly overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to count Electoral College ballots.
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