2 years ago / 11:52 PM EDT

Willis says defendants 'engaged in criminal racketeering enterprise' to overturn state's election results

Willis read the names of each of the 19 defendants in the sprawling 98-page filing in remarks less than an hour after the indictment became public tonight.

During a news conference, Willis noted that each of the defendants was charged under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere "to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office" that began in January 2021.

"The indictment alleges that rather than by abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results," she said.

2 years ago / 11:50 PM EDT

Willis plans to try all 19 defendants together

Ginger GibsonSenior Washington Editor

Willis said at tonight's news conference that she plans to try all 19 defendants together — a process that could present logistical challenges to juggle that many defendants and lawyers.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during a news conference at the Fulton County Government building in Atlanta, on Monday.Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Defendants will have a chance to petition the court, if they choose, to ask that their cases be separated from some or all of those of the other defendants. Courts tend to frown on that, because it requires more resources to hold separate trials. But defendants could make the case that they would not get fair trials facing a jury at the same time as the others accused.

2 years ago / 11:49 PM EDT

Defendants have until noon Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender

Willis announced at a news conference tonight that defendants named in the indictment have until noon Aug. 25 to turn themselves in.

The trial date will be within the next six months, she said.

2 years ago / 11:40 PM EDT

30 other unnamed co-conspirators are mentioned

Sarah Mimms

The indictment refers to more than two dozen unindicted, unnamed co-conspirators, referring to the group as "Individual l through Individual 30."

Special counsel Jack Smith's indictment against Trump this month in the 2020 election case mentioned six unindicted, unnamed co-conspirators, including enough breadcrumbs to identify most of them. At an initial glance, there appear to be fewer clues in this indictment to who the alleged co-conspirators are.

2 years ago / 11:40 PM EDT

What is the 'enterprise' referred to in the RICO charge?

The indictment lists people who the prosecutor alleges "constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities."

Here's the list: "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 1 through Individual 30, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury."

The indictment alleges that the enterprise operated in Fulton County, Georgia, as well as other parts of the country.

RICO — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act — was passed in 1970 to fight organized crime.

2 years ago / 11:35 PM EDT

One defendant charged with perjury

Robert Cheeley is the only defendant in the indictment charged with perjury.

The final count in the indictment stems from Cheeley's grand jury testimony on Sept. 15 about the so-called fake electors.

2 years ago / 11:33 PM EDT

Some charges center on alleged harassment of election worker Ruby Freeman

Sarah Mimms

Several of the charges in the indictment relate to Ruby Freeman, the Fulton County elections worker who became the subject of pro-Trump conspiracy theories after the 2020 election.

Ruby Freeman testifies at a House Jan. 6 committee hearing in Washington in June 2022.Cheriss May / Sipa USA via AP file

Freeman testified before the House Jan. 6 committee last year along with her daughter Shaye Moss that they lost all sense of safety after Trump, Giuliani and others publicly accused them of messing with votes in Georgia. In fact, they said, they were passing a ginger mint in video. Both women were officially cleared of wrongdoing this summer.

Tonight's indictment accuses some in Trump's orbit of criminal attempts to influence a witness and conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings in repeatedly calling and texting and visiting her home after the election.

"In furtherance of this scheme" — that is, trying to overturn the election in Georgia — "members of the enterprise traveled from out of state to harass Freeman, intimidate her, and solicit her to falsely confess to election crimes that she did not commit," the indictment says.

2 years ago / 11:20 PM EDT

Here are the new charges facing Trump

Trump was charged with 13 counts in the 41-count indictment leveled against 19 defendants.

Here's a list of the charges against Trump:

Count 1: Violation of the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act

Count 5: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer

Count 9: Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer

Count 11: Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree

Count 13: Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings

Count 15: Conspiracy to commit filing false documents

Count 17: Conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree

Count 19: Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings

Count 27: Filing false documents

Count 28: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer

Count 29: False statements and writings

Count 38: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer

Count 39: False statements and writings

2 years ago / 11:14 PM EDT

Trump-aligned super PAC slams latest indictment

Sarah Mimms
Sarah Mimms and Jake Traylor

Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc., called the Georgia indictment "election interference" and an "unprecedented abuse of power" in a statement.

“Today, Fani Willis joins Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, and Alvin Bragg in the Deranged Democrat Prosecutor Club — their only goal being to arrest Donald Trump and prevent him from being on the ballot against Joe Biden," Leavitt said, adding that "the American public continues to rally around" Trump "harder, stronger, and more enthusiastically than ever before."

2 years ago / 11:10 PM EDT

Here are the 19 people charged in the indictment

Diana Paulsen

Former President Donald Trump

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani

Lawyer John Eastman

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows

Former Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark

Former member of Trump legal team Jenna Ellis

Ray Smith III, the lawyer who represented Trump in 2020 election challenges in Georgia

Atlanta lawyer Robert Cheeley

Former Trump staffer Michael Roman

David Shafer, a fraudulent 2020 Republican elector and former chairman of the Georgia GOP

Shawn Still, one of the fraudulent 2020 electors and a current member of the Georgia Senate

Stephen Lee, an Illinois police chaplain

Harrison Floyd, executive director of Black Voices for Trump

Trevian Kutti, a Chicago-based publicist who represented Kanye West

Former Trump legal team member Sidney Powell

Cathy Latham, one of the fraudulent 2020 electors and former chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party in Georgia

Scott Hall, a 2020 Fulton County Republican poll watcher

Former Coffee County Elections Director Misty Hampton