Trump is indicted in Georgia on charges of racketeering. What it means, what happens next
Trump is charged with a crime — racketeering — that carries up to 20 years in prison
What is an indictment? Georgia’s indictment of Trump lays out threats, intimidation
Trump’s defense: He didn’t do anything wrong, and this is all protected political speech
Catching up on the details of the Georgia election investigation
Prosecutor Fani Willis has said people are likely to go to jail if convicted.
Trump will likely appear in court in Georgia to enter a plea
Trump could be fingerprinted and pose for a mugshot
This is Trump’s fourth criminal indictment
Former president Donald Trump has been indicted in Georgia for crimes related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state, just weeks after he was indicted by the federal government for similar crimes. Here’s what that means and what happens next for him.
Trump is charged with a crime — racketeering — that carries up to 20 years in prison
Return to menu
Trump has been charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO in legal circles. A federal version of the law was originally designed to prosecute mob bosses who were leading complex criminal enterprises. Georgia’s version, which is one of the most expansive in the country, allows prosecutors to weave together several alleged crimes into one charge that carries up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors allege the Trump campaign is the criminal enterprise and the scheme was to overturn the popular vote in Georgia. After a two-and-a-half-year investigation, prosecutors put together a sprawling indictment.
“The goal of this criminal enterprise is to keep Trump in power, so it would be essential to have Trump indicted,” said Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University.
There’s a similar federal law on the books. Georgia has one of the more expansive state versions, because it allows for a wide variety of crimes to be folded into the racketeering charge. Politicians, a prominent rapper and public school teachers have been prosecuted under Georgia’s racketeering law. Caren Morrison, a former federal prosecutor and now an associate law professor at Georgia State University, said that under Georgia law, if someone is part of the alleged conspiracy, they don’t have to set foot in Georgia to be charged.
What is an indictment? Georgia’s indictment of Trump lays out threats, intimidation....
An indictment is a written statement of criminal charges that has been approved by a grand jury; in this case a group of randomly selected people from Georgia who heard prosecutors’ evidence against Trump. Trump called, cajoled and even threatened top Georgia election officials, the indictment alleges.
Trump called state officials and urged them to find and throw out enough suspect votes to offset his loss in the state: After the results in Georgia were final, Trump talked to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and in an intimidating, hour-long phone call said he wanted to find enough votes to flip the state’s results. There’s a recording of the call, and Trump has never denied its authenticity. In fact, he recently stood by what he said: “You owe me votes because the election was rigged,” is how he summarized his conversation. Trump also called the state’s top Republican leaders: Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, Attorney General Chris Carr and House Speaker David Ralston. His top advisers called many others.
Trump publicly attacked election officials in Georgia: As election results were being counted, Georgia’s governor, secretary of state and top aides talked about the intimidation and even death treats they and their workers received from Trump supporters. One top official in Georgia directly tied the violent rhetoric to Trump’s actions: “Mr. President,” he said, “you have not condemned these actions or this language.” While this was going on, Trump attacked some of these officials, calling then “corrupt” at a speech the day of the attack on the Capitol.
Potential tampering of election equipment: Well after the votes were counted, Trump allies copied sensitive election equipment in a rural Georgia county then shared it with election deniers across the country. They didn’t have the ability to change votes, but security experts worry they gave hackers valuable insight into election infrastructure.
Trump’s defense: He didn’t do anything wrong, and this is all protected political speech
Return to menu
“This was a perfect phone call,” he has said of his call to Raffensperger. But his pressure to overturn results came after election results were certified; after two statewide recounts led by Republicans; and after multiple court challenges alleging widespread fraud were thrown out.
Trump’s lawyers in the Jan. 6 indictment have also argued his questions about the election are protected by the First Amendment. But the judge overseeing that case recently warned that free speech is “not absolute.”
Trump was the first Republican president since George H. W. Bush in 1992 to lose Georgia, and he obsessed about his loss there. So he subsequently put enormous focus from his perch in Washington on trying to overturn Joe Biden’s win. In the final weeks of Trump’s time in office, Trump lawyers, political operatives, local GOP officials and senior White House officials helped Trump apply leverage to state Republican lawmakers and leaders to get them to overturn the election results.
Prosecutor Fani Willis has said people are likely to go to jail if convicted.
Return to menu
Fani Willis is the top prosecutor for Fulton County in Georgia, which encompasses Atlanta. She’s a Democrat who was elected to the job in 2020, and soon after she got the job, she launched an investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in her state. She said she felt a responsibility to dig into this after she heard the recording of the phone call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state.
A local prosecutor has the authority to investigate a former president because under the constitution, states are sovereign entities and have the ability to pass — and enforce — their own laws, said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who has worked under multiple administrations.
The only exception is if the president were carrying out his or her official duties. “But there is no reason to think that is going to apply here,” Parker said, “because what Trump is doing, based on what we know — the phone call and publicly available facts — is he was trying to get a state official and state bodies to set aside a free and fair election in Georgia. That is not part of any president’s official duties.”
Throughout the investigation, Willis has been vocal about the likelihood that people in this election fraud investigation will go to jail.
“I refuse to fail,” she told the Wall Street Journal recently.
Trump will likely appear in court in Georgia to enter a plea
Return to menu
It’s called an arraignment, and this could happen just weeks after Trump was arraigned in Washington, D.C., for felony charges related to his efforts to overturn his election loss in several states; not just Georgia. He pleaded not guilty.
tic tic tic
Trump is charged with a crime — racketeering — that carries up to 20 years in prison
What is an indictment? Georgia’s indictment of Trump lays out threats, intimidation
Trump’s defense: He didn’t do anything wrong, and this is all protected political speech
Catching up on the details of the Georgia election investigation
Prosecutor Fani Willis has said people are likely to go to jail if convicted.
Trump will likely appear in court in Georgia to enter a plea
Trump could be fingerprinted and pose for a mugshot
This is Trump’s fourth criminal indictment
Former president Donald Trump has been indicted in Georgia for crimes related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state, just weeks after he was indicted by the federal government for similar crimes. Here’s what that means and what happens next for him.
Trump is charged with a crime — racketeering — that carries up to 20 years in prison
Return to menu
Trump has been charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO in legal circles. A federal version of the law was originally designed to prosecute mob bosses who were leading complex criminal enterprises. Georgia’s version, which is one of the most expansive in the country, allows prosecutors to weave together several alleged crimes into one charge that carries up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors allege the Trump campaign is the criminal enterprise and the scheme was to overturn the popular vote in Georgia. After a two-and-a-half-year investigation, prosecutors put together a sprawling indictment.
“The goal of this criminal enterprise is to keep Trump in power, so it would be essential to have Trump indicted,” said Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University.
There’s a similar federal law on the books. Georgia has one of the more expansive state versions, because it allows for a wide variety of crimes to be folded into the racketeering charge. Politicians, a prominent rapper and public school teachers have been prosecuted under Georgia’s racketeering law. Caren Morrison, a former federal prosecutor and now an associate law professor at Georgia State University, said that under Georgia law, if someone is part of the alleged conspiracy, they don’t have to set foot in Georgia to be charged.
What is an indictment? Georgia’s indictment of Trump lays out threats, intimidation....
An indictment is a written statement of criminal charges that has been approved by a grand jury; in this case a group of randomly selected people from Georgia who heard prosecutors’ evidence against Trump. Trump called, cajoled and even threatened top Georgia election officials, the indictment alleges.
Trump called state officials and urged them to find and throw out enough suspect votes to offset his loss in the state: After the results in Georgia were final, Trump talked to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and in an intimidating, hour-long phone call said he wanted to find enough votes to flip the state’s results. There’s a recording of the call, and Trump has never denied its authenticity. In fact, he recently stood by what he said: “You owe me votes because the election was rigged,” is how he summarized his conversation. Trump also called the state’s top Republican leaders: Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, Attorney General Chris Carr and House Speaker David Ralston. His top advisers called many others.
Trump publicly attacked election officials in Georgia: As election results were being counted, Georgia’s governor, secretary of state and top aides talked about the intimidation and even death treats they and their workers received from Trump supporters. One top official in Georgia directly tied the violent rhetoric to Trump’s actions: “Mr. President,” he said, “you have not condemned these actions or this language.” While this was going on, Trump attacked some of these officials, calling then “corrupt” at a speech the day of the attack on the Capitol.
Potential tampering of election equipment: Well after the votes were counted, Trump allies copied sensitive election equipment in a rural Georgia county then shared it with election deniers across the country. They didn’t have the ability to change votes, but security experts worry they gave hackers valuable insight into election infrastructure.
Trump’s defense: He didn’t do anything wrong, and this is all protected political speech
Return to menu
“This was a perfect phone call,” he has said of his call to Raffensperger. But his pressure to overturn results came after election results were certified; after two statewide recounts led by Republicans; and after multiple court challenges alleging widespread fraud were thrown out.
Trump’s lawyers in the Jan. 6 indictment have also argued his questions about the election are protected by the First Amendment. But the judge overseeing that case recently warned that free speech is “not absolute.”
Trump was the first Republican president since George H. W. Bush in 1992 to lose Georgia, and he obsessed about his loss there. So he subsequently put enormous focus from his perch in Washington on trying to overturn Joe Biden’s win. In the final weeks of Trump’s time in office, Trump lawyers, political operatives, local GOP officials and senior White House officials helped Trump apply leverage to state Republican lawmakers and leaders to get them to overturn the election results.
Prosecutor Fani Willis has said people are likely to go to jail if convicted.
Return to menu
Fani Willis is the top prosecutor for Fulton County in Georgia, which encompasses Atlanta. She’s a Democrat who was elected to the job in 2020, and soon after she got the job, she launched an investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in her state. She said she felt a responsibility to dig into this after she heard the recording of the phone call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state.
A local prosecutor has the authority to investigate a former president because under the constitution, states are sovereign entities and have the ability to pass — and enforce — their own laws, said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor who has worked under multiple administrations.
The only exception is if the president were carrying out his or her official duties. “But there is no reason to think that is going to apply here,” Parker said, “because what Trump is doing, based on what we know — the phone call and publicly available facts — is he was trying to get a state official and state bodies to set aside a free and fair election in Georgia. That is not part of any president’s official duties.”
Throughout the investigation, Willis has been vocal about the likelihood that people in this election fraud investigation will go to jail.
“I refuse to fail,” she told the Wall Street Journal recently.
Trump will likely appear in court in Georgia to enter a plea
Return to menu
It’s called an arraignment, and this could happen just weeks after Trump was arraigned in Washington, D.C., for felony charges related to his efforts to overturn his election loss in several states; not just Georgia. He pleaded not guilty.
tic tic tic
