Trump, advisers charged in Georgia for 2020 election overthrow scheme (updated)

WaFd

15/08/2023 06:36

(Adds Trump lawyers statement in paragraph 7 and 8)
    By Andy Sullivan, Jacqueline Thomsen and Joseph Ax
       WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President
Donald Trump was hit with a fourth set of criminal charges when
a Georgia grand jury issued a sweeping indictment accusing him
of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe
Biden.
    The charges, brought late on Monday by Fulton County
District Attorney Fani Willis, add to the legal woes facing
Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican
nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
    The sprawling 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41
criminal counts in all. All of the defendants were charged with
racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime
groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
    Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, and
lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman were among those charged.
    "Rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election
challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal, racketeering
enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result,"
Willis said at a press conference.
    Trump and the other defendants have until noon EDT (1600
GMT) on Friday, Aug. 25, to surrender voluntarily, rather than
face arrest, Willis said. She said she intends to try all 19
defendants together.
    "This one-sided grand jury presentation relied on witnesses
who harbor their own personal and political interests," Trump
lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg said
in a statement.
        "We look forward to a detailed review of this
indictment, which is undoubtedly just as flawed and
unconstitutional as this entire process has been," Trump lawyers
added. 
  
    The 13 felony charges against Trump matched those listed on
a document that was briefly posted on the court website earlier
in the day and reported by Reuters before it disappeared.
    Lawyers for those named either declined to comment or did
not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
    In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call, Trump urged Georgia's top
election official, Brad Raffensperger, to "find" enough votes to
reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to
do so.
    Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol four days later
in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying
Biden's victory.
    The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his
associates allegedly committed from before the Nov. 3, 2020,
election until September 2022, including falsely testifying to
lawmakers that election fraud had occurred and urging state
officials to alter the results.
    It says the defendants tried to subvert the U.S. electoral
process by submitting false slates of electors, people who make
up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice
president.
    
    BREACHING VOTING MACHINES, HARASSING ELECTION WORKERS
    It alleges that defendants breached voting equipment in a
rural Georgia county, including personal voter information and
images of ballots. 
    Prosecutors also said the defendants harassed an election
worker who became the focus of conspiracy theories.   
    The indictment reaches across state lines, saying that
Giuliani, Meadows and others called officials in Arizona,
Pennsylvania and elsewhere to urge them to change the outcome in
those states.
    The indictment mentions 30 other co-conspirators, though
they were not named or charged.
    Trump has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement before the
indictment was released, his campaign accused Willis, an elected
Democrat, of being a "rabid partisan" who was trying to
undermine his reelection bid. 
    "It is a dangerous effort by the ruling class to suppress
the choice of the people," the statement said.
    Trump has already pleaded not guilty in three criminal
cases.
    He faces a New York state trial in March 2024 involving a
hush money payment to a porn star, and a federal trial beginning
in May in Florida for allegedly mishandling federal classified
documents. In both cases Trump pleaded not guilty.
    A third indictment, in Washington federal court, accuses him
of illegally seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump
denies wrongdoing in this case as well, and a trial date has yet
to be set. 
    Georgia, once reliably Republican, has emerged as one of a
handful of politically competitive states that can determine the
outcome of presidential elections.
    Trump persists in falsely claiming he won the November 2020
election although dozens of court cases and state probes have
found no evidence to support his claim. 
    
    NOT HURTING HIS CAMPAIGN
    Strategists said that while the indictments could bolster
Republican support for Trump, they may hurt him in the November
2024 general election, when he will have to win over more
independent-minded voters.
    In a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 37% of independents said the
criminal cases made them less likely to vote for him.
    Willis's investigation drew on testimony from Trump advisers
including Giuliani, who urged state lawmakers in December 2020
not to certify the election, and Republican state officials like
Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, who refused to echo
Trump's false election claims.
    While many Republican officials have echoed Trump's false
election claims, Kemp and Raffensperger have refused to do so. 
    Raffensperger has said there was no factual basis for
Trump's objections, while Kemp certified the election results
despite pressure from within his party. 
    Trump has been mired in legal trouble since leaving office. 
    Apart from the criminal cases, a New York jury in May found
him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean
Carroll and awarded her $5 million in a civil case. A second
defamation lawsuit scheduled for January seeks $10 million in
damages. Trump denies wrongdoing.
    Trump is due to face trial in October in a civil case in New
York that accuses him and his family business of fraud to obtain
better terms from lenders and insurers.
    Trump's company was fined $1.6 million after being convicted
of tax fraud in a New York court in December.

 (Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Rami Ayyub, Jack
Queen, Tim Ahmann, Andrew Goudsward, Kanishka Singh, Nilutpal
Timsina; writing by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and
Howard Goller)
 ((andy.sullivan@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 421 5603;))