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.
Willis plans to try all 19 defendants together
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.
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.
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.
30 other unnamed co-conspirators are mentioned
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.
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.
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.
Some charges center on alleged harassment of election worker Ruby Freeman
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.
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.
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
Trump-aligned super PAC slams latest indictment
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."
Here are the 19 people charged in the indictment
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