On Monday, “a grand jury in Fulton County voted to indict former President Donald Trump on more than one dozen counts for his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election.” The grand jury’s decision was sealed and delivered to Judge Robert McBurney J\just before 9:00 p.m. ET. The indictments were “unsealed and made public shortly before 11:00 pm.”
The indictments comprised 98-pages and were against Trump and several people variously described as “allies” in some reporting, “including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis.” The indictments were based on “an array of charges” alleged to be “related to their conduct” exhibited after the 2020 presidential election.
The grand jury indicted Trump on 13 counts, including such allegations as violations of the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer and Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer. Here is the complete list of indictments against Trump. The full indictment listing Trump and 18 of what have been referred to as “his allies” total 41 counts. The complete document can be seen here.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis issued “arrest warrants for the defendants and set a deadline of 12:00 p.m. on August 25 for them to voluntarily surrender.”
Anomalies seemed to occur in the development of the indictments. Townhall reported earlier on Monday that “Reuters caught an apparently prematurely posted document listing Trump’s name along with 39 counts on a variety of charges.” As reported, Fulton County officials denied that the docket, which was briefly posted and then deleted, “represented charges that were filed.” The docket was called “fictitious.” However, “most of the charges listed on the erroneously posted document were, in fact, the counts on which Trump was indicted.”
As summary of legal proceedings to date against Trump include the “Manhattan indictment dealing with 2016 payments to Stormy Daniels, the initial indictment in Florida for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, and most recently the D.C. indictment related to events surrounding January 6, 2021.”
Despite his legal problems, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, Trump leads the GOP primary field with a 39.7 point advantage.” Trump’s campaign had acerbic words for the Georgia proceedings. “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.” The campaign statement added: “Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign.” A Trump campaign spokesperson noted that Georgia “could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign.”
