The Donald Trump Georgia indictment: Everything you need to know in one place
A Georgia grand jury indicted 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump and several allies Monday evening on charges of conspiracy to try to steal Georgia's electoral votes from President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
The indictment, bringing 41 charges against 19 defendants, accuses Trump and other co-conspirators of a coordinated plan to have state officials discard Biden's victory and award the state to Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis first launched her investigation in February 2021. The indictment had been expected since a special grand jury recommended unspecified charges in February 2023.
Georgia indictment of Donald Trump: Here are the basics
Trump and the others named in the 98-page indictment have until noon on Friday, Aug. 25, to voluntarily surrender.
The case revolves mostly around the state's RICO statute, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which penalizes activities of individuals engaging in organized crime.
Others indicted include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Willis said she would seek a trial date "within the next six months," but scheduling is up to the appointed judge.
Much of the indictment focused on a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign directed at state election workers. Included in the indictment is the overt harassment that resulted from Trump falsely accusing Ruby Freeman, a Georgia poll worker of fraud.
Willis said Trump had opportunities to legally challenge the election's results, but chose instead to pursue a criminal scheme that was counter to Georgia's process which she called, "essential to the functioning of our Democracy."
Here's what else you should know.
What does indictment mean?
An indictment is a formal document that contains allegations that someone committed a crime. It includes the charges laid out against a person and is filed before a case can move forward in court, David Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, previously told USA TODAY.
Weinstein said that an indictment means a grand jury decided that there’s “more likely than not” enough evidence – based on testimony – to move forward with charging a person. At least twelve jurors must be in agreement that a defendant allegedly committed a crime to issue an indictment.
After a person is indicted, they must go to trial where a jury will reach a unanimous decision on whether to pursue conviction.
? USA TODAY staff
The latest: Donald Trump charged in Georgia 2020 case alongside Republican allies
What was Trump's reaction to the indictment?
The Trump campaign condemned the charges as politically motivated. "Call it election interference or election manipulation," said a campaign statement.
Besides the Georgia case, Trump faces New York charges of falsifying business records to make hush payments to women who claimed to have had sex with him before the 2016 election. And Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charged him with conspiracy to obstruct justice and retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.
What is a RICO charge?
The most notable charge against Trump is racketeering. Georgia prosecutors allege Trump orchestrated a series of crimes with a common objective in mind – remaining in power despite his loss in the 2020 election.
The Georgia case is centered on the state’s RICO statute, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The law was originally intended to combat organized crime, specifically aimed at prosecuting mafia bosses. Though the mafia is largely non-existent today, RICO laws are still used to battle other forms of criminal enterprise.
RICO laws allow prosecutors to connect multiple crimes among multiple defendants for them to tell a clear story. The charges detail what prosecutors allege is a clear conspiracy to overturn Trump’s loss in the state, with the former president as the mastermind behind the crime.
? Ken Tran
Fani Willis wants a Trump trial date 'within six months'
Willis told reporters she would like a trial date for the Trump case "within the next six months," emphasizing RICO defendants get prison – not probation.
"It is not a probated sentence," she said during a brief news conference in which she outlined the charges in the indictment.
The Atlanta DA also said she would like to try all 19 defendants together.
Willis said Trump and the other defendants have until Friday, Aug. 25, to surrender or face arrest; she did not comment on the details of a Trump arraignment.
? David Jackson
Harassment of election worker Ruby Freeman focus in indictment
The indictment alleges that Trump and his allies falsely accused Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman of committing election fraud and repeated these allegations to Georgia legislators and officials.
“In furtherance of this scheme, members of the enterprise traveled from out of state to harass Freeman, intimidate her, and solicit her to falsely confess to election crimes that she did not commit,” the indictment says.
- Sudiksha Kochi
House GOP leadership responds to the indictment
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., posted on X following the unsealed indictment Monday pointing fingers at President Joe Biden writing that the current president has weaponized government against Trump to interfere in the 2024 election.
“Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career,” he posted.
Among GOP leadership, Republican Conference Chair New York Rep. Elise Stefanik also took to X to defend Trump writing that he had “every legal right” to challenge the results of the election and that Willis displayed “political bias” toward Trump.
“This is another rogue Far Left radical District Attorney weaponizing their office to target Joe Biden’s top political opponent President Trump,” she wrote.
- Rachel Looker
Read the Georgia indictment PDF
It's a big document, with large bottom lines: 98 pages with at least 41 charges and 19 defendants, including attorneys and so-called "fake electors" as well as Trump himself.
The legal case revolves mostly around the state's RICO statute, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which penalizes activities of individuals engaging in organized crime. Trump himself faces 13 felony charges in this indictment, bringing to 91 the total charges against him across four separate indictments.
The Atlanta indictment accuses Trump and more than a dozen confederates of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to wipe out Biden's victory in Georgia and award the state to the then-president; the scheme allegedly involved improper pressure of state election officials and the use of so-called "fake electors."
? David Jackson
Rudy Giuliani, who pioneered the use of RICO, indicted on RICO charges
Before he became a personal attorney to Trump and was caught up in the investigations swirling around the former president, it was Giuliani who put a national spotlight on RICO statutes. The former U.S. attorney wielded that law to prosecute the leaders of several mob families in New York in the late 1980s.
Last year, Giuliani's attorneys acknowledged that he was a target of the Georgia probe. According to the indictment, Giuliani repeatedly made false statements about the outcome of the election as he attempted to convince state lawmakers in several states to appoint electors who would support Trump.
A former federal prosecutor as well as mayor New York City, Giuliani said of the charges: “it’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime.”
? John Fritze and David Jackson
What are fake electors?
Within days of the election, Trump’s legal advisers ginned up the strategy that one of the architects called "somewhat dicey" in Georgia. The plan called for then-Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as Senate president, to reject Electoral College votes from states that supported Biden and to flip them to Trump when Congress tallied the votes Jan. 6, 2021.
Electors met nationwide on Dec. 14, 2020, including Georgia's Republican alternates, who allegedly signed documents falsely claiming they were duly elected, according to the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol attack.
Witnesses told investigators an organizer of the Georgia alternates had trouble setting up a new printer to create the certificates. Participants described the meetings as keeping Trump's legal options open in case he won his legal challenges.
“It’s like when you have the Super Bowl, you print T-shirts, both teams as being the winner, and you keep the T-shirts for the ones that were the winner and you throw away the ones that weren’t,” Shawn Still, who was the party's finance chairman at the time who is now a state senator, told House investigators. “As far as we knew, this was an exercise in futility and that the only ballots that were counted were the ones for Biden.”
Why did Trump call Raffensperger?
Trump tried to call Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 18 times and finally reached him on Jan. 2, 2021.
"All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said.
Trump also insisted that “the ballots are corrupt” and someone was “shredding” them. He told Raffensperger “it is more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you’re not reporting it.”
Raffensperger told House investigators he considered Trump's comment a threat. But he said officials found no widespread election fraud. He had recertified the results Dec. 7, 2020, and the state Supreme Court rejected one election challenge Dec. 12, although others loomed.
? Bart Jansen
What are Trump's other cases?
Trump faces several civil and criminal cases as he campaigns for president in 2024:
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith notified Trump he’s a target in the investigation of election fraud in the 2020 election. Trump’s lawyers met with Smith’s team July 24 and an indictment could come any day.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has a $250 million civil trial scheduled to start Oct. 2 against Trump’s namesake company on allegations of fraud for lying for a decade about the value of properties.
E. Jean Carroll won a $5 million defamation case against Trump, which he is appealing. She has another trial scheduled to begin in New York on Jan. 15 – the day of Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has a criminal trial scheduled to start March 25 on 34 charges of falsifying business records to pay hush money before the 2016 election to a woman who claimed to have had sex with him.
Smith has a federal trial tentatively scheduled to start May 20 in Florida on charges related to classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate a year and a half after leaving the White House. Trump faces 40 charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice, retaining national defense records and concealing the records from authorities.
? Bart Jansen and David Jackson
President Trump probably couldn't do much about a Georgia prosecution
Even if Donald Trump is elected president again, there wouldn't be much he could do about a case against him in Georgia.
It would be a state case and the federal government has no authority over state prosecutions. That is also the situation with the hush money case out of New York.
The two other cases against the former president are federal: one involving classified information and the other an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. If elected, Trump could theoretically pardon himself, or otherwise make those cases go away.
? David Jackson
Trump can still run in 2024 despite his previous charges
Though Trump has been indicted in other federal and state investigations, he can still run for president in the 2024 election.
Barbara McQuade, a criminal law expert at the University of Michigan, previously told USA TODAY that even if Trump were charged, convicted and sentenced to prison, he would still be able to run for president.
The three exclusive requirements to run for president are to be a natural-born citizen, to be at least 35 years old and to have been a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years, according to the U.S. Constitution.
Trump told reporters in March that he “won’t even think about leaving” the 2024 race, despite his legal troubles.? Sudiksha Kochi
Trump campaign response to Georgia indictment
Trump’s presidential campaign issued a statement Monday evening blasting Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as a “rabid partisan” and accusing her of interfering with the 2024 presidential campaign.
The campaign predicted Willis’ investigation would fail along with the charges filed against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, federal charges filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and a civil lawsuit against his company by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“These activities by Democrat leaders constitute a grave threat to American democracy and are direct attempts to deprive the American people of their rightful choice to cast their vote for President,” the statement said. “It is un-American and wrong.”
– Bart Jansen
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump indictment explained: RICO charge, arrest warrant, 41-counts
