Trump and 18 allies charged in Georgia election meddling as former president faces 4th criminal case

Donald Trump, along with 18 of his associates, was indicted in Georgia on Monday, marking the fourth criminal case against the former president. The indictment, filed under a statute typically employed against mobsters, charges Trump and his aides with engaging in a “criminal enterprise” with the intention of maintaining his power.

The extensive 100-page indictment details various efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. These actions include pressuring Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find additional votes for Trump to win the state, harassing an election worker who was falsely accused of fraud, and trying to convince Georgia lawmakers to ignore the voters’ will and select new electoral college electors favorable to Trump.

One specific plot mentioned involves a Trump lawyer attempting to access voting machines in rural Georgia to steal data from a voting machine company. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case forward, spoke about the defendants’ efforts to undermine Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, characterizing it as a criminal racketeering enterprise aimed at overturning the state’s presidential election result.

Key figures indicted alongside Trump include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and other lawyers who promoted legally questionable tactics to overturn the election results.

The indictment culminates a series of criminal cases against Trump, with four in five months, each in a different city. This comes just weeks after a special counsel charged him in a conspiracy to overturn the national election results.

While the Georgia indictment shares some similarities with the Washington case against Trump, it distinguishes itself by involving a broader array of 19 defendants. It alleges a scope of criminal activity that extends far beyond the former president himself, painting an image of a criminal organization.

The day was marked by confusion when a list of charges against Trump briefly appeared on a county website before being quickly taken down. Trump and his allies used the incident to claim that the process was rigged, even using it as a fundraising opportunity.

The indictment in Georgia also includes accusations against Trump for making false statements to state election officials, and against Giuliani for allegedly lying about mail-in ballots and voting machines. Other individuals were charged for assisting Trump and his allies in attempts to influence and intimidate election workers.

In addition to this case, Trump faces a federal indictment for unlawfully hoarding classified documents and a New York state charge for falsifying business records. Despite these legal battles, Trump, a leading Republican candidate for 2024, has been campaigning and fundraising around these issues, painting himself as a victim of Democratic prosecutors targeting him.

His Republican allies continue to support him, dismissing the charges as a desperate ploy. Meanwhile, as the legal pressure mounts, the former president remains defiant, with plans to hold a news conference to discuss a yet-unproven report on alleged fraud related to the 2020 election.