The grand jury investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' case against former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia announced its decision to indict Trump and 18 other individuals, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell, late last night.
Trump himself was hit with 13 counts for attempting to overturn President Joe Biden's 11,779 vote victory in Georgia. The headline-grabbing charge was a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, a law associated with the American mafia.
Willis' case that Trump and his co-conspirators exerted pressure on Georgia election officials in public and behind closed doors included testimony from 75 witnesses, from former Trump advisers and attorneys to Peach State office-holders.
The probe by the Atlanta Democrat began two years ago after it was revealed Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat.
As Vox reports:
“The indictment alleges that, rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's election result,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said late on Monday, noting that each of those named in the indictment are innocent until proven guilty. Willis also said arrest warrants had been issued for each of the defendants, though they would be allowed “to voluntarily surrender no later than noon” on August 25.
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Under Georgia law, a racketeering enterprise is the vehicle through which racketeering happens. It's defined as a person, business, legal entity, group, or association, and can be either legitimate or illegal. The indictment says the enterprise consisted of Trump, his 18 named co-conspirators, 30 unnamed (and unindicted) co-conspirators, and “others known and unknown to the Grand Jury.” Many of the named co-conspirators were prominent members of Trump's legal team in the days following the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
There are dozens of qualifying crimes for purposes of bringing racketeering charges, from homicide to insurance fraud. In this case, the defendants are accused of lying to elected officials, trying to “solicit” elected officials, harassing an election worker, and illegally acquiring voter data.
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State law doesn't require that Trump be prosecuted for those crimes in order for him to be convicted of racketeering — just that prosecutors demonstrate that he tried to solicit or coerce those crimes. That makes the state's racketeering statute more expansive than its federal counterpart, which means that the burden of proof may be easier to meet than if racketeering charges were brought on the federal level.
Another grand jury previously issued a report with charging recommendations based on the presented evidence, which the new grand jury considered before announcing its decision. (RELATED: Media Outlets Refuse To Air ‘Potentially Dangerous' Trump Speech)
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney made parts of that report and concerns jurors had about witnesses lying under oath public.
Among its findings, the jury unanimously concluded that there wasn't widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
Other findings – including potential charging recommendations – remained redacted.
After swearing in the latest batch of jurors on July 11, Judge McBurney reiterated the importance of the process they were about to partake in:
“You receive presentations from the prosecutor… and you all discuss it in private… and you vote; if there is a true bill, that creates a criminal case. You are a check to make sure folks don't go to trial just because that's what the district attorney wants to do.”
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Note these:
Charges timing
Charge 18 more
& Make into Show Trial
Hah! Why would I want to try your job out when the government pays me more than that to sit at home and do nothing!!!
This is just more proof todays’ Democrats can’t be trusted with the power to lead.
O.K. So one of the defenses for Donald Trump’s situation in Georgia is that he was listening to the attorney’s like Giuliani and Powell, among others, that the election in Georgia was not conducted honestly. The same sort of charges that Stacy Abrams made against the elections in Georgia when she didn’t win the election for Governor and yet has paraded her self before the public ever since claiming to have won with the support of all of her cronies. If she was indicted, I’ve yet to hear about it.
I’m voting for Trump, regardless.
Just like the rest of America.
So Georgia is prosecuting Trump and his election legal team for legally challenging the election results ???
That’s a crime?