Four! Four! Four Felony Indictments!

[edschweppe]

Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted for the fourth time last night; this time in Fulton County, Georgia, along with eighteen other named co-conspirators:

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a "criminal enterprise" to keep him in power.

The nearly 100-page indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat, including beseeching Georgia's Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors favorable to Trump.

In one particularly brazen episode, it also outlines a plot involving one of his lawyers to access voting machines in a rural Georgia county and steal data from a voting machine company.

[ ... ]

Other defendants include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced the then-president's efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia. Other lawyers who supported legally dubious ideas aimed at overturning the results, including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, were also charged.

Willis said the defendants would be permitted to voluntarily surrender by noon Aug. 25. She also said she plans to seek a trial date within six months and that she intends to try the defendants collectively.

The indictment bookends a remarkable crush of criminal cases — four in five months, each in a different city — that would be daunting for anyone, never mind someone like Trump who is simultaneously balancing the roles of criminal defendant and presidential candidate.

[ ... ]

The Georgia case covers some of the same ground as Trump's recent indictment in Washington, including attempts he and his allies made to disrupt the electoral vote count at the Capitol. But in its sprawling web of defendants — 19 in total — the indictment stands apart from the more tightly targeted case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, which so far only names Trump as a defendant.

In charging close Trump aides who were referenced by Smith only as unindicted co-conspirators, the Georgia indictment alleges a scale of criminal conduct extending far beyond just the ex-president.

The charging document, in language conjuring up the seedy underworld of mob bosses and gang leaders, accuses the former president, his former chief of staff, Trump's attorneys and the ex-New York mayor of being members of a "criminal organization" and "enterprise" that operated in Georgia and other states.

The indictment covers ninety-eight pages, nineteen defendants, and forty-one separate counts starting with violations of the Georgia state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. That first RICO count alleges one hundred sixty one separate and distinct criminal acts in furtherance of the conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

That's four indictments, in four separate courts, in three states and the District of Columbia, in less than five months.

Way to go, Donnie.