Trump Indicted for Racketeering over Election Crimes

After a thorough, two-year investigation into his attempts to reverse his loss to Joe Biden in the US state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump was accused on Tuesday on accusations of racketeering and a number other election offenses.

This year's fourth case against the 77-year-old Republican has relied on statutes generally used to prosecute organized crime figures. If successful, it might mark a turning point in American history by producing the first broadcast trial of a former president.

A maelstrom of investigations is jeopardizing the Republican leader's ambition for a second term in office, and Atlanta prosecutors have charged him with 13 felonies, adding to the legal risks he already faces in numerous jurisdictions.

In the investigation, 18 co-defendants were indicted, including Trump's former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, who put pressure on local lawmakers over the election's outcome.

The indictment stated that Trump and the other defendants accused "refused to accept that Trump lost" and "joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."

In Fulton County, Georgia, other parts of the state of Georgia, and in other states, "that conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity," according to the prosecution.

The most recent accusations, coupled with the fact that Trump is already scheduled to stand trial in New York, South Florida, and Washington, signal an unprecedented situation in which the 2024 presidential race will be decided as much in the courts as it will be in the polls.

As the accusations were being processed, the Trump campaign issued a statement in which they attacked Democrat Fani Willis, the head prosecutor for Fulton County, as a 'rabid partisan' who was 'persecuting' the former president with 'bogus indictments.'

The twice-impeached Trump was accused of forgery, impersonating a public office, and submitting false statements and documents, as well as six conspiracy counts. He was also accused of breaking Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

He is also accused of lying in statements and filing fake documents, as well as solicitating public officials to break their oaths.

Georgia, which Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes, presents perhaps the most serious threat to Trump’s liberty as he leads the field comfortably for his party’s nomination to bid for reelection.

Even if he is returned to the Oval Office, he would have none of the powers that presidents arguably enjoy in the federal system to pardon themselves or have prosecutors drop cases.

The harsh penalties associated with RICO cases can be an incentive for co-defendants to seek cooperation deals, and the statutes are usually used to target organised crime.

Under federal law, anyone who can be connected to a criminal ‘enterprise’ through which offenses were committed can be convicted under RICO. The broader Georgia law doesn’t even require the existence of the enterprise.

Atlanta-area authorities launched the probe after Trump called Georgia officials weeks before he was due to leave the White House, pressuring them to ‘find’ the 11,780 votes that would reverse Biden’s victory in the Peach State.

Meadows, who is accused of trying to get a public official to violate his oath, was on the call.

Willis empaneled a special grand jury that heard from around 75 witnesses before recommending a raft of felony counts in a secret report in February.

She alleges that Trump’s team worked with local Republicans on a scheme to replace legitimate slates of ‘electors’ — the officials who certify a state’s results and send them to the US Congress — with fake pro-Trump stand-ins.

Giuliani, who faces 13 felony counts, was being investigated over accusations of harassment of two Fulton County poll workers while other Trump allies were charged over the accessing of sensitive data from an election office in a rural county south of Atlanta, one day after the 2021 Capitol riot.

Trump is already facing dozens of felony charges after being federally indicted over the alleged plot to subvert the election, and further prosecutions over his alleged mishandling of classified documents and keeping allegedly fraudulent business records.

Authorities in Atlanta installed security barricades outside the downtown courthouse in anticipation of a potential influx of Trump supporters and counter-protesters in the latest case.

Lawmakers investigating Trump’s efforts to cling to power heard evidence in a series of congressional hearings last summer that would challenge his potential defense that he genuinely believed he had been cheated of the election.