ATLANTA — Donald Trump and several allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the vote.
A grand jury voted Monday evening to bring a total of 13 felony charges against the former president, including violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, law, as well as violating his oath of office.
The Fulton County grand jury indictment of Trump follows a two-year investigation ignited by a January 2021 phone call in which the then-president suggested that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state could help him “find 11,780 votes” needed to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Other defendants included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced his efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia.
Trump was previously indicted in early August by a federal grand jury for conspiring to undermine the 2020 vote and prevent the peaceful transfer of power through a series of lies and unlawful actions taken after the general election and leading up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty.
As indictments mount, Trump — the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024 — often invokes his distinction as the only former president to face criminal charges. He is campaigning and fundraising around these themes, portraying himself as the victim of Democratic prosecutors out to get him.
The criminal case comes as Trump leads the field of Republicans seeking their party’s 2024 presidential nomination. It’s his fourth indictment this year, following charges in two federal cases, as well as a hush-money case in New York.
Trump famously called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, and suggested the state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes Trump needed to beat Biden. It was the release of a recording of that phone call that prompted Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to open her investigation about a month later.
Trump has repeatedly accused Willis’ team of haranguing him over what he has described as a “perfect phone call.” In the day leading up to the indictment, Trump posted to his Truth Social site that Willis “is using a potential Indictment of me, and other innocent people, as a campaign and fundraising CON JOB.”
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