Donald Trump‘s fourth indictment. That’s the silk gift one, right?
In a shocking turn of events for anyone who wasn’t paying attention to what the 45th President was up to before and during his time in office — and for those who were paying such close attention that their faith in the legal system has already been eroded — Trump is now facing criminal prosecution.
The latest indictment is from the state of Georgia, where the ex-president allegedly tried to overturn the election results — along with a slew of… henchmen? Goons? What’s the legal term here?
Related: Trump’s Most Recent Federal Indictment Explained
According to the indictment, Trump and his allies “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the the election in favor of Trump.” They are ALL charged under RICO — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act, which has been used to for years to charge criminal organizations like the mob. It’s used when each member did different things, but they all worked together to commit a larger crime — in some cases it’s drug distribution, in this case it’s trying to steal the election.
Trump and his cronies are accused of committing various acts in furtherance of this conspiracy, including stealing election data, breaking into voting machines, making false statements, pressuring public officials to go along with their plot, and enlisting Trump supporters to fraudulently pose as the state’s electors — known as the “fake electors” scheme. They tried this in other states, too.
Related: Trump Accused Of Trying To Destroy Security Camera Footage
Notable fellow indictees include Kanye West‘s former publicist Trevian V. Kutti, “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani, Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. Here’s the full list:
It’s a LOT, right? But making it simpler in her statement after the filing, Georgia DA Fani Willis explained:
“Georgia, like every state, has laws that allow those who believe that results of the election are wrong, whether because of intentional wrongdoing, or unintentional error to challenge those results in state courts.”
If they’d really believed the election was “stolen” as Trump has so often claimed, they could have used those legal avenues to challenge it. (Spoiler alert: they also did that and it was proven in court time and time again that they were wrong!) But Willis says in Georgia these people took a different route and “engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.” And the indictment, which you can read in full HERE, lays out how they did it.
Willis has given all defendants until August 25 to turn themselves in to be arrested. And unlike other cases, in Fulton County, GA, we do expect a mugshot of Donald Trump.
[Image via MEGA/WENN/Reuters/YouTube.]