Donald Trump charged in Georgia with racketeering, violating oath of office and other charges in bid to overturn 2020 election
Donald Trump and several allies have been indicted in Georgia, accused of scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in the US state.
It’s the fourth criminal case to be brought against the former president and the second to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the vote.
The Fulton County grand jury indictment of Trump follows a two-year investigation ignited by a January 2021 phone call in which the then-president suggested that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state could help him “find 11,780 votes” needed to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Other defendants included 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 his efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia.
Trump emailed a statement to his supporters, writing: “Justice and the rule of law are officially DEAD in America.
“A left-wing prosecutor – with such extreme anti-Trump bias that EVEN CNN questioned her legitimacy – has INDICTED me despite having committed NO CRIME,” he said.
“This marks the FOURTH ACT of Election Interference on behalf of the Democrats in an attempt to keep the White House under Crooked Joe’s control and JAIL his single greatest opponent of the 2024 election.
“Our once free Republic where citizens were presumed innocent until proven guilty is gone.”
Trump was previously indicted in early August by a federal grand jury for conspiring to undermine the 2020 vote and prevent the peaceful transfer of power through a series of lies and unlawful actions taken after the general election and leading up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He pleaded not guilty in that case.
As indictments mount, Trump — the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024 — often invokes his distinction as the only former president to face criminal charges.
He is campaigning and fundraising around these themes, portraying himself as the victim of Democratic prosecutors out to get him.
