Trump’s Georgia indictment: 5 takeaways

Former President Trump has been indicted with 18 co-defendants in a sweeping indictment that touches nearly every aspect of his efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 Georgia election.

The 98-page indictment outlines President Trump’s pressure campaign against numerous Georgia officials, a conspiracy to submit false electoral rolls, and a lawsuit involving false allegations Trump affirmed to overturn the state’s results. are doing.

And he spends a good deal of his time lying about elections by Trump and his allies, including a series of threats against election officials in Georgia who have been accused of voter fraud and ballot fraud in the state.

The indictment ended a more than two-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis, a Democrat, who ordered the defendants to turn themselves in by noon on August 25 in Georgia.

“I make decisions in this office on the facts of the law,” Willis said after the charges were filed late Monday. “This law is completely bipartisan.”

Willis throws no punches at co-defendant

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at a press conference at the Fulton County Government Center in Atlanta Monday, August 14, 2023. Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to reverse the state’s 2020 election loss. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Trump’s substantive charges match the long list of people indicted with him.

Nearly everyone in Trump’s defense team was named in the indictment, and an investigation led to charges against Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. ing. Former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clarke, who Trump was considering as attorney general, is also named in the indictment.

Chesebro, who drafted the memo describing the fake electoral conspiracy, was indicted along with just three other “alternate” electors: Sean Still, David Shaffer and Kathy Latham. Sixteen Georgians participated in the scheme, but many later obtained exemption agreements in the investigation.

Trump expands Georgia indictment coverage further

And away from the federal election interference case, Willis is also alongside President Trump, former Mark Meadows, who has been charged with soliciting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Ravensperger to overturn the election results. Trump’s chief of staff is also indicted. Find enough votes for Trump to take over the states Joe Biden won.

Those who tried to pressure Trump campaign staffers and campaign official Ruby Freeman were also charged after Giuliani alleged he mishandled ballots.

The indictment is based on Coffee County Election Commissioner Misty, who sent a written invitation to Trump’s legal team after posting a viral video alleging that the machinery of the Dominion voting system may have been manipulated. It also targets those involved in breaking into Coffee County election offices, including Mr. Hampton.

Georgia litigation is more extensive than federal litigation

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 56th Annual Silver Elephant Gala in Columbia, South Carolina, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.)

The core of the indictment is to label Trump’s work in the state as a criminal enterprise, which allows the state’s Extortion and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to apply.

The indictment lists the 161 acts that underpinned RICO’s indictments, and recounts virtually every act and lie committed by Trump and his associates in the process of trying to overturn the election. .

The use of the law allows Willis to take actions outside his jurisdiction, including an attempt to undermine the Coffee County electoral system and Clark’s allegations that the Department of Justice should send a letter to the state requesting a stay. It will also be possible to wipe out crime. The accreditation of President Biden’s victory in Georgia comes while the Justice Department is investigating President Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

Like federal indictments filed earlier this month, Willis focuses on fraudulent allegations by Trump and his team. But while Special Counsel Jack Smith has condensed the act into a single fraud charge, Willis’ indictment is based on the crimes of forgery, false statements and prohibition of filing false documents.

The Fulton County indictment also alleges specific violations of Georgia election law.

focus on one voter

Rudy Giuliani will appear in federal court in Washington on Friday, May 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semanski)

The indictment devotes considerable energy to the lies spread by Guiliani that changed the life of Georgia election official Ruby Freeman.

Guilliani shared a video of Freeman working with his daughter, Shay Moss, during a vote-counting operation at the State Farm Arena, and the two later described it as “like a vial of heroin or cocaine.” I was walking around USB ports.”

Freeman actually gave his daughter mints.

Trump will continue to call Freeman a “professional voter fraudster.”

These lies have completely disrupted both women’s lives and are the basis for a civil defamation lawsuit filed by the women.

Moss continued to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, saying she felt her life was in danger and that she and her mother had been advised by police not to return home for safety. He tearfully told me what happened.

Two black women also faced a series of racist threats after stepping into the spotlight.

“There were a lot of death threats against me, like going to jail with my mother and saying, ‘I’m glad it’s 2020, not 1920,'” Moss said at the hearing. .

Other Trump campaign allies, including Harrison Floyd and Trevian Kutty, have also been charged with coercing others to make false statements about running the election on Election Day 2020.

President Trump’s effort to overturn the election continued for months

Former President Donald Trump and President Biden

By mid-November, it was clear that Mr. Trump had lost the 2020 election and Mr. Biden was sworn in as president by January 2021.

But Mr. Willis’ indictment alleges a conspiracy that extends from November 4, 2020, the day after Election Day, to September 2022, almost two years later.

Trump’s final allegations were in a letter dated September 17, 2021 to Ravensperger, citing his request to begin “decertification” of state election results long after he took office. ing. The move reflects Trump’s previous efforts in the state and allegations Trump has made in other lawsuits that he should be excused for actions taken during his presidency. are doing.

Lawyer Robert Chealy and former teacher and former Coffee County Republican Party chairman Kathy Latham each accused them of “knowingly, willfully and unlawfully” making at least one false statement about their involvement in the alleged conspiracy. indicted for perjury.

Prosecutors allege Latham lied under oath about his role in the Coffee County Election Registrar’s election equipment breach during a deposition in another legal matter involving Ravensperger. . Cheeley allegedly perjured before a Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury.

Federal indictment involves mostly uncharacteristic conduct

Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Des Moines International Airport after visiting the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Charlie Neighborgal)

Details such as Trump’s call to Ravensperger and his attorney’s false electoral vote scheme have long been suspected to play a central role in the Georgia prosecution, but the details have not been revealed. , also played a key role in Smith’s federal investigation into the aftermath of the 2020 election.

But Mr. Willis’ indictment ultimately implied a little-known local effort that allegedly fueled a broader conspiracy.

The indictment details the efforts of Trump’s lawyers to convince state lawmakers of the former president’s false election fraud allegations, as well as allegations of Trump allies’ pressure on campaign official Freeman. ing. Prosecutors have also linked the election equipment breach case in Coffee County to Mr. Powell, one of the former president’s most powerful agents in allegations of election fraud.

The result of Mr. Willis’ extensive rhetoric is the most comprehensive indictment to date, detailing the efforts of Mr. Trump and his allies to prevent the 2020 election results from taking effect.