A Georgia court indicted former US President Donald Trump late Monday for who is campaigning to return to the White House, and 18 other people for allegedly trying to rig the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in this southern state.
Georgia, according to the indictment, became a key player in the then-president’s efforts to cling to power, as It was the state where Democrat Joe Biden’s closest victory over Trump was recorded. Biden won in that state by just 11,779 votes, with 49.5 percent of the vote in his favor.
So, The origin of the case is the call that the Republican leader made in January 2021 to the State Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, in order to pressure him to “find” enough votes to reverse the result of the elections in that state, something to which the official refused.
After months of investigation, a grand jury meeting in Atlanta on Monday night approved the indictment after witnesses called by the prosecution testified throughout the day. Along with Trump, 18 other people were charged, including his former personal lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
According to the nearly 100-page charging document, the former president faces 13 charges, including asking a public official to violate his oath, falsification of documents and use of false documents.
(Also read: Trump says he is sure he will be exonerated in the Georgia case, his fourth indictment)
But the main charge on which the imputation rests is that of breaking the law against corrupt Georgia organizations, Well, prosecutor Fani Willis points to the former president emerging as the leader of a criminal organization that had the purpose of reversing the electoral results in Georgia.
“The indictment alleges that, instead of abiding by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in an organized crime enterprise to annul the election result Georgia presidential election,” said the prosecutor, who assured that her intention is for the 19 defendants to be tried in the next six months.
In this regard, lawyers Norman Eisen and Amy Lee Copland explained in an article in the New York Times that “Willis unites them all by imposing a charge against Trump and each of the other 18 defendants” under the RICO Law, normally used against the organized crime, and accuses the former president and his accomplices “of operating like a criminal gang.”
(You may be interested in: Why was Georgia key in Donald Trump’s efforts to cling to power?)
Trump faces 91 court charges
The former Republican president faces a total of 91 charges distributed in four different criminal cases and, simultaneously, he must maintain his campaign to get the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential elections.
The case that earned him the controversial honor of becoming the first former president of the country to face judicial charges was related to the porn actress Stormy Daniels. Then, the former president faces 34 charges under the accusation of having allegedly paid $ 130,000 to Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged sexual relationship between them.
This year, a Miami grand jury also charged him with 40 federal crimes for mishandling classified materials, while another Columbia grand jury filed four federal charges against him for allegedly trying to reverse the results of the 2020 election and for having instigated the assault on the Capitol. In this last process, the trial date will be set at a hearing on August 28.
(Also: Abecé: Georgia and the other charges that Donald Trump faces in the United States today)
And although there are multiple cases against him, the indictment in the state of Georgia really complicates the ex-president’s chances of getting out of jail, Well, this last accusation is not only the easiest to demonstrate due to the audio that was made public, but alsoor it would allow him to pardon himself from coming back to power. This is because the US Constitution indicates that a president cannot be pardoned in a state accusation.
If Trump were to be convicted in Florida and Washington before the 2024 elections and he won those elections, he could try to pardon himself, and if those federal processes were not yet closed, he could maneuver so that his Department of Justice dismissed them, but that power does not extend to the case of Georgia.
“He would have no way to close this investigation or a trial. And he could not be forgiven,” Mark C. Smith, professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law at Cedarville University (Ohio), stresses to Efe.
(Keep reading: Trump impeachment points to problems, but remains popular with many)
Besides, the new charges “are more troubling” as they “cut right into what the people working for him did to undermine and reverse the results from Georgia, which were very important for the outcome” of the presidential elections, Grant Reeher, professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, told Efe.
For her part, Susan Low Bloch, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and an expert in Constitutional Law, assures that the accusation of conspiracy “is generally used for the mafia,” and “Accusing a former president of acting like a mob boss is quite surprising and shocking.”
Trump, in fact, could receive up to 20 years in prison in the latter case. “It’s possible that he could end up in jail and be president of the United States. It would certainly be shocking and embarrassing, but it’s possible,” Smith said.
Georgia would also be the only potentially televised trial, which could affect its image. “If it becomes a daily soap opera on some channels and major media, it could be a turning point” in its popularity, adds Reeher.
(In other news: Can Trump be the first to win the US presidency from jail?)
If it becomes a daily soap opera on some channels and large media, it could be a turning point
At the moment this last accusation has not abated the former president, who sees himself as the victim of a witch hunt. Trump said Tuesday he was sure he would be exonerated, and affirmed that next Monday he will present at a press conference a “detailed but irrefutable report on electoral fraud” that, he maintains, took place in Georgia.
The former president also called his indictment “rigged” and a “witch hunt” and said: “Why didn’t they indict me two and a half years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Witch hunt!”, he exclaimed.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
#impeachment #Donald #Trump #Georgia #dangerous