A grand jury in Atlanta, Monday, accused Donald Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the US state of Georgia, especially by putting pressure on polling officials.
This is the fourth indictment against the former Republican president, who is seeking to run for the White House in 2024.
And the grand jury in the state of Georgia agreed, Monday evening, to file a list of ten counts, a day after hearing witnesses about alleged and illegal attempts by Trump to overturn the outcome of the 2020 elections in this key state, according to a number of American media.
Trump respite until August 25
Atlanta District Attorney Fanny Willis has given Trump and 18 other defendants until August 25 to appear in court in Georgia, and has said she wants Trump to be tried within six months.
On Monday evening, US television footage showed packages of documents presented to a judge in an Atlanta courthouse, but the names of the other defendants or the charges against them were not immediately revealed. Footage showed the judge signing off on the grand jury’s findings.
This paves the way for the issuance of an indictment against a large number of defendants.
It is the fourth indictment filed against Trump, 77, this year, which could lead to the first televised trial of a former president in American history that includes charges usually used to bring down mobsters.
“There will likely be multiple defendants, which will show a pattern of illegal behavior (aimed at) overturning elections in Georgia: hacking, false statements, harassment, etc,” Georgia State University political analyst Anthony Kress said in a social media post.
Forensic analysts expect the Atlanta District Attorney to consolidate the allegations against Trump and several of his co-conspirators into a single case under Georgia’s Impact of Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
The southern state, which President Joe Biden won by less than 12,000 votes in 2020, poses the most serious threat to Trump’s freedom as he seeks the Republican nomination for his 2024 re-election bid.
And even if elected, Trump in Georgia would have none of the powers that presidents have in the federal system to issue pardons or have plaintiffs drop cases.
Trump said, in a post on his page on the “Truth Social” website, that the matter was “ridiculous”, calling on a local election official who called him by name and described him as a “failure” not to testify before the grand jury.
“Those who falsified and stole the elections are the ones who manipulate (…) and they are the ones who should be prosecuted,” the former president wrote.
RICO laws are commonly used to target organized crime and anyone who may be associated with a criminal “enterprise” can be convicted if there is a pattern of crime committed through that organisation.
But under broader Georgia law, prosecutors are allowed to combine charges committed by different defendants without proof of a criminal organization.
Among the facts that are likely to emerge among the accusations is a phone call Trump made with officials in Georgia, in which he asked them to “find” the votes that would overturn his defeat against Democrat Biden in the southern state.
Analysts also expect charges to be filed over a scheme to send false testimony about his alleged victory in Georgia to the US Congress, as well as over false testimony by Trump aides about election fraud.
The case also potentially exposes the harassment of two poll workers in Fulton County and access to sensitive data from an election office in a rural county south of Atlanta in the aftermath of the 2021 Capitol riot.
A separate “private” grand jury heard 75 witnesses last year and submitted a confidential report in February recommending several charges.
On the surface, the case in Georgia looks like a miniature version of the Department of Justice v. Trump case over election interference – which focuses on several states – but it differs in other important respects besides the “RICO” element.
In Georgia, Willis sent targeting letters to former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who lobbied local lawmakers at several post-election committee hearings, and 16 bogus voters, half of whom reportedly had immunity deals.
According to CNN, Willis has charged more than a dozen people, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and other aides who were not the focus of Trump’s federal indictment.
The court system in Georgia is more transparent than the federal system, which means that there is nothing to prevent the case from being televised from the first preliminary hearing.
The grand jury meets in Fulton County on Mondays and Tuesdays. Local court monitors expect Willis to finish and file any charges approved by the commission within two days, the usual timeline for racketeering cases.
(AFP)
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2023-08-15 03:38:16