Trump lawyers slam indictment
Trump’s lawyers condemned the indictment, calling Monday’s events “shocking and absurd.” In an announcement to NBC News, Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg criticized a disputed report on a charging document that circulated ahead of the indictment.
“We look ahead to an in depth review of this indictment which is undoubtedly just as flawed and unconstitutional as this complete process has been,” Trump’s lawyers said within the statement.
Ahead of the indictment, Reuters had published quite a lot of headlines that Georgia had filed charges against Trump. But soon after a spokeswoman for Fulton County courts told CNBC that the reporting was “inaccurate” without clarifying how or why.
— Christine Wang
McCarthy slams Biden and ‘radical’ DA Willis following indictment
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, speaks to the press, as he meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2023. listens to
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote in a social media post that the Biden administration “has weaponized government” against Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“Justice ought to be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere within the 2024 election,” McCarthy wrote on X, formerly generally known as Twitter.
“Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political profession. Americans see through this desperate sham,” he said, referencing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
— Amanda Macias
Top Democrats in Congress: Trump pushed ‘Big Deceive steal an election’
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., conducts a news conference after the senate luncheons within the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
The 2 top Democrats in Congress blasted Trump after the brand new indictment, which they said underscores the indisputable fact that no American, not even a president, “is above the law.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in an announcement, said, “The fourth indictment of Donald Trump, identical to the three which got here before it, portrays a repeated pattern of criminal activity by the previous president.”
“This latest indictment details how Mr. Trump led a months-long plot pushing the Big Lie to steal an election, undermine our democracy, and overturn the desire of the people of Georgia,” the statement said.
“The actions taken by the Fulton County District Attorney, together with other state and federal prosecutors, reaffirms the shared belief that in America nobody, not even the president, is above the law,” the Democrats said.
“As a nation built on the rule of law, we urge Mr. Trump, his supporters, and his critics to permit the legal process to proceed without outside interference.”
— Dan Mangan
Warrants issued for Trump and his co-conspirators, who’ve until Friday to give up
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave former President Donald Trump and his co-conspirators until noon Friday to give up to Georgia authorities.
Warrants have been issued for his or her arrest, Willis added.
“I would like to try him and be respectful for our sovereign states,” Willis continued, “with a trial date inside six months.”
— Rohan Goswami
Conspirators ‘refused to simply accept that Trump lost’
US President Donald Trump looks on after speaking during election night within the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, early on November 4, 2020.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
The indictment against Trump and his co-defendants opens by noting that the conspiracy outlined within the document was set in motion after the alleged conspirators “refused to simply accept that Trump lost” to President Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020.
“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the US presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One in every of the states he lost was Georgia,” the indictment says.
“Trump and the opposite Defendants charged on this Indictment refused to simply accept that Trump lost, and so they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the end result of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment said.
“That conspiracy contained common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere within the State of Georgia, and in other states.”
— Dan Mangan
Who’s Mark Meadows?
Former Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., speaks during a forum on House and GOP Conference rules for the 118th Congress, on the FreedomWorks office in Washington, D.C., on Monday, November 14, 2022.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Meadows is a former U.S. congressman from North Carolina who stepped down from that role to grow to be Trump’s White House chief of staff for his final 12 months in office.
Meadows participated within the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call by which Trump pressed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to overturn his loss to Biden within the state.
He was also involved in other efforts to try to maintain Trump in office after his defeat. His actions on the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — as Trump’s allies flooded him with frantic texts — played a big role in a House select committee’s investigation in regards to the disruption of the transfer of presidential power.
— Kevin Breuninger
30 unindicted co-conspirators within the Georgia case, including 13 apparent false electors
The 90-page indictment details over 160 acts in aid of the alleged conspiracy, and identifies 30 unindicted co-conspirators who worked with the defendants to perpetrate the alleged crimes.
Among the many unindicted co-conspirators are 13 apparent false electors, who allegedly conspired on Dec. 14, 2020, to submit a false and fraudulent voter certification to a federal judge, the indictment said.
“On or in regards to the 14th day of December 2020, DAVID JAMES SHAFER, SHAWN MICAH TRESHER STILL, CATHLEEN ALSTON LATHAM, and unindicted coconspirators Individual 2, Individual 8, Individual 9, Individual 10, Individual 11, Individual 12, Individual 13, Individual 14, Individual 15, Individual 16, Individual 17, Individual 18, and Individual 19, whose identities are known to the Grand Jury, attempted to commit the felony offense of FILING FALSE DOCUMENTS, in violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20.1(b)(1), in Fulton County, Georgia, by placing in the US mail a document titled ‘CERTIFICATE OF THE VOTES OF THE 2020 ELECTORS FROM GEORGIA,'” the indictment said.
— Rohan Goswami
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham says Trump is spending a ton of campaign money on legal fees
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) gestures, while standing next to former U.S. President Donald Trump, during Donald Trump’s campaign stop to unveil his leadership team, on the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., January 28, 2023.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Sen. Lindsey Graham. R-S.C., said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White Home is spending more cash on legal fees than actual campaign-related items.
Graham’s comments got here ahead of the indictment of Trump in Georgia.
“He’s spending more cash on lawyer fees than he’s running for office. January the sixth, I used to be there, I saw it, he was impeached over it,” Graham said. “The American people can determine whether or not they want him to be president or not. This ought to be decided on the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions attempting to put the person in jail.”
Trump’s political motion committee, Save America, has spent over $20 million on legal fees for the reason that start of the 12 months. That committee has over $3 million available going into the second half of the 12 months.
— Brian Schwartz
Journalist George Chidi, who walked in on secret Trump operatives meeting, didn’t testify before grand jury
Independent journalist George Chidi arrives on the Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse after being subpoenaed ahead of an expected indictment of former US President Donald Trump on August 14, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Christian Monterrosa | AFP | Getty Images
Independent journalist George Chidi said on social media that his testimony was not needed ahead of a grand jury vote empaneled in Fulton County in Georgia.
Chidi said last month that he met with a representative from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office and was handed two subpoenas to testify before a grand jury considering charges within the 2020 election interference case.
His testimony was slated to detail how he by accident stumbled right into a secret meeting of Republican “alternate” electors contained in the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020. On the time he was told that it was an education meeting and was asked to depart.
Chidi wrote on the platform X, formerly generally known as Twitter, around 2 p.m. ET that he was notified that the grand jury may hear his testimony a day early.
He arrived on the courthouse at 4 p.m. ET and gave sporadic updates of who he saw and what he ate while he waited.
— Amanda Macias
18 co-defendants indicted with Trump
The indictment names 18 other people besides Trump as co-defendants.
They’re Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton, who is also generally known as Emily Misty Hayes.
— Dan Mangan
Rudy Giuliani says he ‘didn’t do anything improper’ ahead of indictment
Former Recent York City Mayor and former personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani talks to members of the press before he leaves the U.S. District Court on May 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
“I assure you if it covers more defendants… ain’t gonna leave me out,” Rudy Giuliani, the previous Trump lawyer and mayor of Recent York, said ahead of the unsealing of the indictment.
Earlier, he insisted in an NBC News interview that he “didn’t do anything improper.”
“It’s really a desecration of calling it a racketeering case,” Giuliani added.
NBC News asked him earlier if he was concerned a couple of possible indictment. “I should not be. I didn’t do anything improper,” Giuliani said.
— Rohan Goswami
Read the Trump indictment from Georgia grand jury
Read all the 92-page indictment against Trump and his co-defendants here.
Trump couldn’t pardon himself if he wins presidency and is convicted in Georgia
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on as he attends the ALGOP Summer Meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. August 4, 2023.
Cheney Orr | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump would need to wait at the least five years after being released from court-ordered supervision before applying for a pardon, in response to state law.
Following a possible conviction in Georgia, Trump could possibly be issued a pardon from the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles but only after fulfilling the sentence, any probation or parole time and five years have elapsed.
The Structure doesn’t grant the president the flexibility to exonerate themselves from offenses against individual states.
— Amanda Macias
Clinton says judicial system is working as grand jury returns indictments in election probe
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran against former President Donald Trump in 2016, said she felt “profound sadness” because the grand jury in Georgia returned 10 indictments related to the 2020 election interference.
“It is a terrible moment for our country,” Clinton told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an exclusive interview.
Clinton, who on the time didn’t know Trump was named in the newest round of indictments, said that what is understood is that the previous president “got down to defraud the US of America.”
“I feel great profound sadness that we now have a former president who has been indicted for therefore many charges that went right to the guts of whether or not our democracy would survive,” Clinton said, referencing Trump’s three previous indictments.
Clinton said that her only satisfaction within the wake of Trump’s indictments is that the judicial system is working.
— Amanda Macias
Trump hit with 13 criminal counts in indictment
Trump was hit with 13 separate criminal counts in the brand new indictment.
The highest count was a violation of Georgia’s RICO, or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, Act.
Trump also was charged with solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the primary degree, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Other charges he faces are conspiracy to commit forgery in the primary degree, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, filing false documents, and false statements and writings.
— Dan Mangan
Trump campaign rails against DA Willis before indictments made public
Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump leaves after speaking on the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on August 12, 2023.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Ahead of the general public disclosure of the Georgia indictments, the Trump campaign released an announcement assailing Fani Willis, the Atlanta prosecutor who brought the case, as a “rabid partisan.”
The statement, which also attacked the opposite prosecutors who’ve filed cases against Trump, accused Willis of “campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments.”
The campaign also added Willis to Trump’s frequent claim that the criminal charges against him are a part of a conspiracy to derail his 2024 presidential campaign. “Call it election interference or election manipulation — it’s a dangerous effort by the ruling class to suppress the alternative of the people,” the statement read.
Trump himself has already been accused in a separate federal criminal case of attempting to interfere within the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.
Willis has been tight-lipped about her probe of Trump, but in recent interviews she has defended the work of her office.
“I refuse to fail,” she told The Wall Street Journal last month.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump’s court proceedings in Georgia could possibly be televised
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits next to his attorney Todd Blanche as he faces charges before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya that he orchestrated a plot to attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, at federal court in Washington, U.S. August 3, 2023 in a courtroom sketch. At far left is U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
While Federal courts largely prohibit the photographing and broadcasting of judicial proceedings, the court in Fulton County repeatedly broadcasts judicial proceedings, which could mean that former President Donald Trump’s case could also be televised.
The broadcasting of Trump’s proceedings would give the general public unprecedented access to what shall be one of the high-profile trials in American history.
Earlier this month, congressional Democrats, led by California Rep. Adam Schiff called for Trump’s federal criminal trials to be televised.
“If the general public is to completely accept the end result, it’s going to be vitally vital for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses,” wrote Schiff and 37 lawmakers in a letter to Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, who leads the executive office of U.S. Courts.
— Amanda Macias
Trump, other defendants ‘constituted a criminal organization’
The indictment says that Trump and other defendants “constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities.”
Those activities included “false statements and writings, impersonating public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.”
— Dan Mangan
Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Trump ally lawyers indicted
Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were indicted with the previous president.
So was former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, and the Trump-allied lawyers John Eastman and Sidney Powell, and other Trump campaign officials. Jenna Ellis, an attorney who worked with Giuliani, also was charged.
— Dan Mangan
Trump fundraises for 2024 campaign ahead of indictment
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he campaigns on the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. August 12, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump continued fundraising within the leadup to the Georgia indictment.
Trump’s 2024 campaign sent out a fundraising email because the Georgia grand jury was weighing charges.
“But make no mistake, so long as we keep our foot on the gas, we’ll only proceed to SURGE in every critical battleground state across the country. Along with your support, we is not going to only maintain our massive leads in crucial battleground states, we’ll surge even higher,” Trump’s team said in a fundraising email earlier on Monday.
That is the newest effort by the Trump campaign to fundraise off of the previous president’s legal challenges.
— Brian Schwartz
Trump now faces criminal charges in 4 separate cases
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on the Steer N’ Stein bar on the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
With charges returned in Georgia, Trump is now grappling with a staggering — and completely unprecedented — 4 simultaneous criminal cases.
Two federal cases against Trump stem from investigations led by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to oversee ongoing Trump-related investigations.
The primary of Smith’s cases to yield criminal charges centers on Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021. The opposite federal case is expounded to Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden within the 2020 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in each of those cases, claiming he’s the victim of a conspiracy by the Biden administration.
Trump has also previously pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in Manhattan, where he’s accused of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to women who say that they had extramarital affairs with him.
While the fees pertain to separate investigations which have been conducted over the course of a few years, the entire cases were filed within the months since Trump launched his 2024 presidential campaign.
No other U.S. president, current or former, has ever been criminally charged.
— Kevin Breuninger
What’s RICO, the felony Trump is charged with?
A document briefly posted on after which taken down from the official Fulton County, Georgia court website shows an inventory of potential felony charges against former President Donald Trump, after being downloaded by Reuters shortly before the court took the document back down without explanation, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 14, 2023.
Julio Cesar Chavez | Reuters
RICO is brief for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, which stems from an act of the identical name that dates back to the Nineteen Seventies, when gang and arranged crime violence was on the forefront of the general public eye.
Today, at each the federal and state level, prosecutors use RICO acts to reinforce the severity of charges against defendants. It allows prosecutors to charge individuals for crimes committed by or on behalf of a criminal organization.
That does not necessarily mean that a proper criminal organization has to exist, nonetheless. Federal law merely requires that against the law be committed inside an “enterprise,” or a bunch of people working towards a typical goal.
In Georgia, where Trump was indicted, lawmakers passed a statewide RICO Act in 1980 that classifies those enhancements, or predicates, as a serious felony. Fani Willis has deployed RICO Act enhancements in a prosecution against affiliates of the rap group and label generally known as Young Stoner Life, or YSL, which was founded by Young Thug.
Under Georgia law, illegal conduct can include any behavior “through a pattern of racketeering activity” that an accused uses to amass or maintain “interest in or control of any enterprise, real property, or personal property of any nature, including money.”
— Rohan Goswami
Georgia grand jury indicts Trump
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is directed to his vehicle after speaking on the Steer N’ Stein bar on the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump on charges related to his bid to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
The Fulton County Superior Court grand jury heard testimony all day from witnesses within the case.
The indictment is the fourth time since March that Trump has been indicted on criminal charges.
— Dan Mangan