Georgia Grand Jury Has Indicted Donald Trump

The grand jury investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia has indicted the former president, in what is the fourth criminal case Trump now faces. Trump was indicted on 13 charges in all, including violating Georgia's RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) law, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, and conspiracy to commit forgery. CNN reports the 98-page document charges 19 defendants, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Trump Justice Official Jeffrey Clark. The others charged:

• John Eastman
• Kenneth Chesebro
• Jenna Ellis
• Robert Cheeley
• Mike Roman
• David Shafer
• Shawn Still
• Stephen Lee
• Harrison Floyd
• Trevian Kutti
• Sidney Powell
• Cathy Latham
• Scott Hall
• Misty Hampton
• Ray Smith

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had been investigating the efforts by Trump and his associates to swing the results in his favor for more than two years in a probe spurred 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" to flip his narrow loss in the state. In a press conference late Monday night, Willis said defendants have until noon on Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender, that the trial date will be within the next six months, and that she intends to try all the defendants together, reports NBC News. The introduction to the indictment reads:

• "Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. 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. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states."

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It alleges that the 19 defendants, plus 30 "unindicted co-conspirators ... and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury." (More Donald Trump stories.)