Source: The Washington Post / Getty
UPDATED: 8:00 a.m. ET., Aug. 16
The criminal cases of Donald Trump just keep piling up.
The former president was indicted for the fourth time this week, this time in Georgia for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
According to the AP, Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia using the RICO statute. Trump, his lawyers and other allies are accused of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.
The 100-page indictment, which was unsealed late Monday night, details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies, including their efforts to get Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find votes after his election victory in Georgia fell short. Trump and his co-conspirators also allegedly harassed a state election worker who faced false claims of fraud and attempted to get Georgia lawmakers to appoint a new slate of electoral college electors more favorable to Trump. The indictment also alleges that Trump and his team created a plot to tamper with voting machines in the state and steal data from a voting machine company.
Other defendants named in the indictment include Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, and multiple lawyers including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro.
“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,” said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a press conference.
Trump was indicted in D.C. on more felony charges in early August, also for his efforts in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Aug. 1 charges, which are centered around the Jan. 6. Insurrection is a four-count, 45-page indictment and the third criminal case against the former president. It details Trump’s election results lies, which resulted in his supporters violently storming the Capitol, leading to serval deaths and hundreds of injuries.
In the indictment, Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
According to CNN, Trump is also accused of unlawfully seeking to discount legitimate voters and subvert electoral votes and of conspiring to disrupt the process of counting, collecting and certifying the results of the election.
Trump and six co-conspirators illegally pressured Mike Pence to assist in his attempt to overturn the results. Trump also tried to use the Justice Department to delegitimize the election and submitted fraudulent slates of presidential electors to Congress, Jack Smith alleges in the indictment.
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” said Jack Smith.
“It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
It’s been almost impossible to keep up with all the criminal cases involving Trump.
To make it easier to understand, NewsOne has created a simpler way to digest all these indictments.
Let’s take a look at Trump’s other criminal cases.
Source: conversation / DataWrapper
New York
In March, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict ex-President Donald Trump for his alleged role in paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. In the indictment, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump committed business fraud, falsifying records while trying to hide the payment he made to Daniels.
First Federal Indictment
In July, Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped his first indictment on Trump for illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The indictment includes 31 counts of violating a part of the Espionage Act of 1917. According to The Conversation, willful unauthorized possession of information that, if obtained by a foreign government, might harm U.S. interests is generally enough to trigger a possible sentence of 10 years.
Georgia
On Aug. 14, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia using the RICO statute. RICO, which stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, is the U.S. federal law that was primarily used in the ’70s to prosecute mafia and mob bosses. The law prohibits individuals or organizations (known as “racketeers”) from conducting organized criminal acts (known as a “racket”) as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
SEE ALSO:
Read The Full Criminal Indictment Charging Donald Trump With 34 Felonies
