A grand jury on Monday returned an indictment of former President Donald J. Trump, charging him with trying to overturn his 2020 federal election loss in the state of Georgia.

The case represents the fourth indictment faced by the former president, and stems from a recording of a January 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In the call, the then-president suggested that Raffensperger could “find 11,780 votes” – in order to swing Georgia away from Trump’s general election rival Joe Biden, who received more votes in Georgia than Trump.

Trump faces a total of 13 felony charges in the Georgia case, according to the filings on the Fulton County Clerk’s Office website.

Brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the charges add to the legal pile-up on Trump, frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.”

In addition to the Georgia charges, the former president must contend with three other indictments, including charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol; in addition to charges in a New York hush money case.

In the latest indictment, Willis makes the cases that Trump and other defendants named in charging document, refused to accept that the then-president lost in Georgia, and “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”

From Aljazeera:

“Willis said the defendants would be allowed to voluntarily surrender by noon on August 25.

“She also said she plans to ask for a trial date within six months.

“The 98-page indictment lists 19 defendants and details dozens of acts by Trump and his allies to undo his defeat in the battleground state, including hectoring Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes to keep him in power, pestering officials with bogus claims of voter 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.

“The document describes the former president of the United States, the former White House chief of staff, Trump’s lawyers and the former mayor of New York as members of a ‘criminal organization’ who were part of an ‘enterprise’ that operated in Georgia and other states – language that conjures up the operations of mob bosses and gang leaders.

“Other defendants named in the indictment included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman; and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced his efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia.”

The first charge among the 13 in the Georgia indictment is a violation of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, which is used to charge Trump and his associates for allegedly participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn the state’s 2020 election result. RICO is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison. Willis had been widely expected to use the law to charge Trump.

From the indictment:

“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on
November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants
charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully
joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That
conspiracy contained common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering
activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.

THE ENTERPRISE

“At all times relevant to this Count of the Indictment, the Defendants, as well as others not
named as defendants, unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate
in criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere. Defendants Donald John Trump, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, John Charles Eastman, Mark Randall Meadows, Kenneth John Chesebro, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Jenna Lynn Ellis, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert David Cheeley, Michael A. Roman, David James Shafer, Shawn Micah Tresher Still, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, Harrison William Prescott Floyd, Trevian C. Kutti, Sidney Katherine Powell, Cathleen Alston Latham, Scott Graham Hall, Misty Hampton, unindicted co-conspirators Individual through Individual 30, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, constituted criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.

This criminal organization constituted an enterprise as that term is defined in O.C.G.A.
l6-14-3(3), that is, group of individuals associated in fact. The Defendants and other members
and associates of the enterprise had connections and relationships with one another and with the
enterprise.

‘The enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members and associates functioned as continuing unit for common purpose of achieving the objectives of the enterprise. The enterprise operated in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, in other states, including, but not limited to, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and in the District of Columbia. The enterprise operated for period of time sufficient to permit its members and associates to pursue its objectives.”