Aug 14 (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump was handed a fourth set of criminal charges on Monday as a Georgia grand jury returned an indictment accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The charges, filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, add to the legal issues against Trump, the favorite in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
The lengthy 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal charges in total. All of the defendants were charged with extortion, which is used to target members of organized crime groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Among the other defendants were Mark Meadows, a former Trump White House chief of staff, and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
“Trump and the other defendants in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost and knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully shift the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment reads.
Lawyers for those named declined to comment or did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case stems from a January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to overturn his narrow defeat in the state. Raffensperger refused to do so.
Trump supporters assaulted the United States Capitol four days later in a failed attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his associates allegedly committed, including falsely testifying to lawmakers that voter fraud had occurred and urging state officials to violate their oath by tampering with election results.
Prosecutors also cited the violation of a voting system in a rural Georgia county and the harassment of a poll worker that became the focus of conspiracy theories.
It also mentions an alleged plan to subvert the US electoral process by introducing fake blackboards of voters, people who make up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president.
The indictment cuts across state lines and says Trump advisers, including Giuliani and Meadows, furthered the conspiracy by calling officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania and elsewhere seeking to swing the outcome in those states.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump has already pleaded not guilty in three criminal cases.
He faces a New York state trial beginning March 25, 2024, involving a hush money payment to a porn star, and a Florida trial beginning May 20 in a federal classified documents case. . In both cases, Trump pleaded not guilty.
TO third accusationin federal court in Washington, accuses him of illegally seeking to undo his 2020 election loss. Trump also denies any wrongdoing in this case, and a trial date has not yet been set.
Georgia, once reliably Republican, has become one of the few politically competitive states that can determine the outcome of presidential elections.
Trump persists in falsely claiming that he won the November 2020 election, though dozens of court cases and state investigations have found no evidence to support his claim.
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The strategists said that while the allegations could bolster Republican support for Trump, they could hurt him in next year’s general election, when he will have to win over more independent-minded voters.
His lead over Republican presidential rivals has widened since the charges were filed in New York in April, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
But in a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 37% of independents said criminal cases made them less likely to vote for him, compared with 8% who said they were more likely to.
Willis’ investigation was based on testimony from Trump advisers, including Giuliani, who urged state lawmakers in December 2020 not to certify the election, and Republican state officials such as Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused to certify the election. echo of 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 embroiled in legal trouble since leaving office.
In addition to the criminal cases, a New York jury in May found him responsible for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded him $5 million in a civil case. A trial is scheduled for January 15 in a second defamation lawsuit seeking $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 get better terms from lenders and insurers.
Trump’s company was fined $1.6 million after it was convicted of tax fraud in a New York court in December.
Additional reporting by Jack Queen, Tim Ahmann, Jacqueline Thomsen, Jack Queen; Written by Andy Sullivan; edited by Scott Malone and Howard Goller
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