Defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, then-president Trump illegally tried to tip the scales in Georgia, conspiring with his team to overturn the result, personally calling officials to demand they "find" the votes he needed to win, and even interfering with voting machines. A grand jury in Fulton County there returned a 41-count indictment late Monday, charging Trump and 18 others with conspiracy, racketeering and other crimes related to this effort. With him on the docket are lawyer and lickspittle Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief Mark Meadows and other officials from his administration.
"Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump," the indictment says.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing, as Giuliani did hours before the indictment was made public. Eastman, Meadows, Chesebro, Ellis and Smith all did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a late-night news conference that arrest warrants have been issued for all of the defendants and that each has until Aug. 25 to surrender voluntarily.
These are the first state charges related to Trump's election interference, and the sitting president could not pardon him on them: the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has that job.
Trump appeared to ignore the indictments at first last night, remaining silent for several hours, but eventually managed to wrestle his phone back from whoever had taken it and began attacking witnesses on his website.
