Donald Trump charged with racketeering in 2020 election results probe in Georgia
ITV News' US Correspondent Dan Rivers has the latest as the former president is indicted again over efforts to interfere with the election in Georgia
Donald Trump has been charged with interfering with the US presidential election process in Georgia in 2020.
Prosecutors in Fulton County have accused him of conspiracy to commit forgery over his attempts to overturn the result of the election.
18 Trump allies have also been charged as part of the indictment, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
One of the charges alleges Trump and his associates "knowingly and willfully" joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favour of the former president.
Losing the hard-fought vote in Georgia was one of the key moments in Trump's defeat.
In an email soliciting fundraising for his campaign, sent out shortly after the indictment was made public on Monday evening, Trump called the Georgia case: "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."
His legal team said: "The events that have unfolded today have been shocking and absurd, starting with the leak of a presumed and premature indictment before the witnesses had testified or the grand jurors had deliberated and ending with the District Attorney being unable to offer any explanation."
The lawyers said prosecutors presenting their case “relied on witnesses who harbor their own personal and political interests - some of whom ran campaigns touting their efforts against the accused."
A full list of the 13 counts Trump faces in the Georgia indictment
Violation of the Georgia Rico (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act
Three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer
Two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
Two counts of false statements and writings
Two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
Conspiracy to commit filing false documents
Filing false documents
It comes as lawyers investigating whether Trump and his allies illegally meddled in the election appeared to begin presenting their case to a grand jury on Monday.
For two and a-half years, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating actions taken by Trump and others in their efforts to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
She began her investigation after Trump famously called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021 to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. "Because we won the state."
It was the release of a recording of that phone call that prompted Willis to open her investigation about a month later.
Who are the alleged co-conspirators indicted alongside Trump?
From lawyers to former White House aides, a myriad of Trump allies are also facing charges in Georgia.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump attorney, is accused of prompting unsupported allegations of widespread election fraud in Georgia during several legislative hearings at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020.
Prosecutors have also said Giuliani was involved in a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans serve as fake electors, falsely swearing that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Giuliani released a statement on Tuesday that said: "This is an affront to American Democracy and does permanent, irrevocable harm to our justice system.
"It's just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime."
Among others charged are John Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University law school and one of Trump’s lawyers, Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer and staunch Trump ally.
Kenneth Chesebro, another lawyer, US Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and former White House aide Michael Roman have been charged, alongside 12 others, including Trump.
Other senior politicians have weighed in on the indictment.
Appearing on MSNBC on Monday night, Hillary Clinton - who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump - called it "a terrible moment for our country, to have a former president accused of these terribly important crimes."
"The only satisfaction may be that the system is working," she added. "Justice is being pursued."
Trump has already been subject to a number of charges and court appearances this year.
On August 4, he pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy charges accusing him of plotting to subvert the will of voters and overturn his 2020 election loss.
His third criminal indictment this year centres on the tumultuous events of January 6, 2021 when rioters attempted to stage an insurrection at the US Capitol building.
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