ATLANTA - Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.
The nearly 100-page indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including beseeching Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing a state election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of Electoral College electors favorable to Trump.
In one particularly brazen episode, it also outlines a plot involving one of his lawyers to tamper with voting machines in a rural Georgia county and steal data from a voting machine company.
“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 presidential election result,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office brought the case, said at a late-night news conference.
Other defendants include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani; and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced the then-president’s efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia. Multiple other lawyers who devised legally dubious ideas aimed at overturning the results, including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, were also charged.
Willis said the defendants would be allowed to voluntarily surrender by noon Aug. 25. She also said she plans to ask for a trial date within six months and that she intends to try the defendants as a group.
The indictment bookends a remarkable crush of criminal cases - four in five months, each in a different city - that would be daunting for anyone, never mind someone like Trump who is simultaneously balancing the roles of criminal defendant and presidential candidate.
It comes just two weeks after the Justice Department special counsel charged him in a vast conspiracy to overturn the election, underscoring how prosecutors after lengthy investigations that followed the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol have now, two-and-a-half years later, taken steps to hold Trump to account for an assault on the underpinnings of American democracy.
The Georgia case covers some of the same ground as Trump’s recent indictment in Washington, D.C., including attempts he and his allies made to disrupt the electoral vote count at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But its sprawling web of defendants - 19 in total - stands apart from the more tightly targeted case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, which so far only names Trump as a defendant.
In charging close Trump aides who were referenced by Smith only as unindicted co-conspirators, the Georgia indictment alleges a scale of criminal conduct extending far beyond just the ex-president.
The charging document, in language conjuring up the seedy operations of mob bosses and gang leaders, accuses the former president of the United States, the former White House chief of staff, Trump’s attorneys and the former mayor of New York as members of a “criminal organization” who were part of an “enterprise” that operated in Georgia and other states.
The indictment capped a chaotic day at the courthouse caused by the brief but mysterious posting on a county website of a list of criminal charges that were to be brought against the former president. Reuters, which published a copy of the document, said the filing was taken down quickly.
A Willis spokesperson said in the afternoon that it was “inaccurate” to say that an indictment had already been returned but declined to comment further on a kerfuffle that the Trump legal team rapidly jumped on to attack the integrity of the investigation.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney looks through paperwork, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at a fundraiser event for the Alabama GOP, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, in Montgomery, Ala. Just one month after Donald Trumpâ??s January 2021 phone call to suggest Georgiaâ??s secretary of state could overturn his election loss, district attorney Fani Willis announced she was looking into possibly illegal â??attempts to influenceâ? the results. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)
The indictment in Georgia against former President Donald Trump is photographed Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
FILE - White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks with reporters at the White House, Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks with reporters as he departs the federal courthouse, May 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - Attorney John Eastman, the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump in power, talks to reporters after a hearing in Los Angeles, June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
A sheriff's deputy looks on near the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Court officials in Atlanta published a list of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. But as a Fulton County grand jury began hearing from witnesses Monday, there was no public indication that Trump had been indicted in a long-running investigation of the 2020 presidential election. The list was later deleted. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz)
Media vehicles stage outside the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. The indictment Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may bring as soon as this week could be the most sprawling case against former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan leaves the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. A list of criminal charges in Georgia against Donald Trump briefly appeared Monday on a Fulton County website, but prosecutors said the former president had not been indicted in their long-running investigation of the 2020 presidential election. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz)
A police officer stands outside the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. The indictment Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may bring as soon as this week could be the most sprawling case against former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Media vehicles stage outside the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)
The indictment in Georgia against former President Donald Trump is photographed Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The criminal case announced Monday is the fourth brought against the ex-president in a matter of months. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell, leaves the Federal Court in Washington, Thursday, June 24, 2021. A federal judge on Thursday appeared skeptical of arguments to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over baseless 2020 election claims made by Trump allies Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and the MyPillow Guy. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - Boris Epshteyn, former special assistant to President Donald Trump arrives for the 2019 Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act Celebration in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
FILE - Jeffrey Clark, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on Sept. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool, File)
FILE - Former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, appears in court Nov. 15, 2022, in Sarasota, Fla., to try to quash an order to appear before a Georgia special purpose grand jury investigating attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. (Mike Lang/Sarasota Herald-Tribune via AP, Pool, File)