Trump, Others Indicted In Connection With Stolen Election Claims

In what would be his fourth indictment, former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury over a series of allegations tied to his challenge to the 2020 election. According to the charges brought against him, he was involved in “a criminal conspiracy the results of the 2020 presidential election” in the Peach State.

#BREAKING: Former President Donald Trump and 18 allies were charged on Monday with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. https://t.co/vnQClPDOpM

— Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) August 15, 2023

The indictment, which also targets close to 20 others on his team, was made public late on Monday, following a swift grand jury process that took just a single day to deliberate a complex array of accusations.

As written in the 98-page, 41-count indictment, “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia.”

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment 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. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the document read further.

Among those named in the indictment are political figures like Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and David Shafer, as well as his lawyers Jeffrey Bossert, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman. 

The central focus isn’t limited to Georgia alone; instead, it sheds light on statements made and actions taken by the Trump campaign across various states, all with the aim of casting doubt on the contentious 2020 presidential election.

The indictment even charges several defendants with crimes based on statements arguing that the 2020 election was stolen. 

These actions include public hearings in Pennsylvania that are considered to have furthered the alleged conspiracy. Highlighted in the indictment are tweets by Trump that encouraged people to watch these hearings, where claims of voting irregularities were presented by Trump’s legal team and witnesses.

 This development comes as Trump maintains a strong presence within the GOP presidential primary, aiming to secure the party’s nomination for a third consecutive presidential election cycle.

In response to the indictment, the Trump campaign issued a strongly-worded statement, chalking up the prosecution to election interference. 

The statement claims that Fulton County, GA’s District Attorney Fani Willis, much like other left-wing officials, is employing these indictments to undermine the integrity of the election process and damage the Trump campaign’s momentum.

“These activities by Democrat leaders constitute a grave threat to American democracy and are direct attempts to deprive the American people of their rightful choice to cast their vote for President. Call it election interference or election manipulation—it is a dangerous effort by the ruling class to suppress the choice of the people. It is un-American and wrong,” the statement read, in part.

Interestingly, the investigation draws attention to other instances where claims of election interference have gone unaddressed. 

While figures like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have made similar allegations in connection with the 2016 presidential election and Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election respectively, they have not faced prosecution, despite the potentially serious nature of their claims.