Trump Indicted in Georgia Over Election Interference in 2020: “Criminal Racketeering Enterprise”

Recently, former President of the US, Donald Trump got indicted by a grand jury in Georgia. The charges brought against him were election fraud, racketeering, and other charges relating to attempts to rig the 2020 election, and more than a dozen of his allies have also been indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, reports CBS News.

Trump has now been indicted in four different cases involving claims that bookend his presidency, making him the first former president in American history to face such serious criminal charges. At a news conference held on August 14 evening, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said that all of the defendants in the case have arrest warrants, and they have until noon on August 25 to surrender.

"The state's role in this process is essential to the functioning of our democracy," Willis said. "Georgia, like every state, has laws that allow those who believe that results of the election are wrong, whether because of intentional wrongdoing or unintentional error to challenge those results in state courts," she said. 

However, she said that the defendants "engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result after the indictment" rather than following Georgia's lawful procedures for election disputes.

Anyone found guilty of a RICO infraction in Georgia may face prison time, a financial penalty, or both. According to the legislation, anybody found guilty of a RICO violation "shall be punished by not less than five years' imprisonment or more than twenty years' imprisonment, or the fine specified in subsection (b) of this Code section, or both."

Willis revealed that the punishment for racketeering offenses is "time that you have to serve, so it's not a probated sentence." Willis further stated that, unless proven guilty, all defendants are assumed innocent.

Along with 18 other people, including former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, conservative attorney John Eastman, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump is named as the main defendant in the indictment. Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department employee, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, two conservative attorneys who promoted unfounded allegations of election fraud, are also co-defendants.

The complaint claims 30 unindicted co-conspirators under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, more commonly known as RICO, and contains 41 total counts, including 13 against Trump. The 98-page indictment describes a plan that started after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, including in Georgia, and claims that those accused "refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."

The indictment describes the group as "a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a 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."

References:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-charges-fulton-county-georgia-election-investigation/