18 co-defendants! – Ex-President Donald Trump indicted in Georgia

Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, is also indicted. Trump must also answer to court for his role at the federal level after the election.

The 98-page indictment in Georgia now lists several charges, including a misdemeanor commonly used in organized crime cases. This is Trump’s fourth indictment. Never before in American history has a former president been tried for a crime. The Republican, who wants to run again in the 2024 presidential election, has dismissed all allegations and sees the prosecution against him as an attempt by his opponents to prevent him from re-entering the White House.

Conspiracy against the United States
In recent months, charges have been filed against the Republican in three other cases in New York, Miami and Washington. The New York case is related to hush money payments to a porn star. The Miami case revolves around the custody of top-secret government documents in Trump’s private residence. In Washington, on the other hand, it is also about the 2020 election – about attempted election fraud and the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Washington case accuses Trump of conspiracy against the United States, among other things.

Storm the Capitol
Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. To this day, however, he refuses to admit defeat. Instead, the 77-year-old fearlessly claims that he has been robbed of a victory by massive electoral fraud. Neither Trump nor his lawyers have provided any evidence to support these claims. Dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump camp were dismissed by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, after the election. Trump’s campaign against the election result reached its peak on January 6, 2021 when his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. With the outbreak of violence, the crowd tried to prevent the formal confirmation of Biden’s election victory in parliament. Several people died then.

Georgia played a key role
Georgia was one of the states that played a key role in the 2020 election results. At the time, Biden won in the state by a slim margin of about 12,000 votes. Trump then tried – as in other states – to have his election defeat changed. Among other things, Trump bluntly called Georgia’s top election supervisor, his Republican party colleague Brad Raffensperger, in an hour-long phone call to “find” enough votes so he could “recalculate” and rotate the result. “I just want to find 11,780 votes (…) because we won the state,” Trump said in the infamous phone call, a recording of which later became public.

investigation started
In 2021, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis opened an investigation into this and other attempts to influence him that became public. In May 2022, a special panel with a jury was assembled, which heard dozens of witnesses over several months. The panel completed its work in January and presented a report, which was largely kept secret. This special jury was not authorized to decide on any charges, but was only allowed to make recommendations for the possible prosecution of persons involved in the influence attempts.

High jury
A regular grand jury later heard the case — they now decided on the charges against Trump. A grand jury is a panel of jurors in the United States that, after prosecutors present evidence, investigate crimes and decide whether to press charges.

Even with a win in Georgia, Trump would not have won the 2020 presidential election. At the same time, however, he tried to overturn the results in several states at the same time – thus collecting enough votes to get into the White House.