A Georgia grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 others in connection to allegations that they attempted to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results.
The 98-page filing was unsealed Monday night after word that jurors had handed up at least 10 indictments connected to the case. In total, there are 41 charges connected to the criminal indictment.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been leading the investigation into Trump and his allies for over 2 1/2 years. According to the court filing, defendants participated in "a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in the favor of Trump" between November 4, 2020, and September 15, 2022.
Read the indictment in its entirety below, or here:
The defendants include well-known Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, the former president's ex-lawyer who said last month that he made false statements regarding 2020 election workers in Georgia. Also named in Monday's indictment is former Trump attorney John Eastman, who is already facing possible disbarment in the state of California over making false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who testified before the federal grand jury that voted to indict Trump on four counts in connection to the Justice Department's investigation into January 6, is also listed as a co-defendant.
Prosecutors allege that Trump and his allies attempted to overturn the state's election results through false statements, harassment and solicitation of several state and federal officials. All 19 defendants in the case are facing one count in violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which makes it a crime to participate in an "pattern of racketeering activity" or conspiring to do so. A RICO charge can be applied even if the alleged scheme was unsuccessful.
Trump is facing 13 counts in total in connection to the indictment.
During a news conference Monday night, Willis gave the defendants "no later than noon" August 25 to voluntarily surrender.
"Georgia, like every state, has laws that allow those who believe that results of an election are wrong, whether because of intentional wrongdoing or unintentional error, to challenge those results in our state courts," Willis told reporters during the briefing. "The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result."
Monday marks the fourth time that Trump has faced criminal charges since launching his campaign for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and the second time charges have been brought against him in connection to his actions in 2020. Similarly to his other legal woes, the former president has declared innocence in Willis' investigation against him, calling it a "strategically stalled" investigation that intends to upset his reelection plans.
"Fulton County, GA's radical Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments," reads a statement from Trump's campaign team Monday. "Ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden's playbook, Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign."
Trump's legal team thus far has attempted to delay his criminal trials until after the 2024 election. Trial dates have already been set for the spring in the former president's Manhattan charges in connection to the Stormy Daniels hush-money scheme, as well as in the Justice Department's investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents that were retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
During the press briefing Monday, Willis told reporters that she will seek a trial date within the next six months.
"I make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law," the district attorney said when asked about Trump's accusations that her indictment was politically motivated. "The law is completely nonpartisan."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email Monday night for additional comment.
Update 08/15/23, 12:04 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
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Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more
