Former US President Donald Trump was charged along with 18 alleged accomplices in connection with attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election count in the state of Georgia.
Late Monday night, Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating Georgia state's racketeering act.
The other charges were about soliciting a public officer, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.
Besides Trump, the others who were indicted included the former President personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and many members of his legal team who led efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcome not only in Georgia but also other states, which are not included in the Monday indictment, such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Those indicted, including the former president, have until Friday to surrender. These charges emerged from an investigation launched by Georgia's Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis into a phone call from Trump to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2020.
"What I want to do is this," Trump said in the call with Raffensperger, according to the recording. "I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than (the 11,779 vote margin of defeat) we have, because we won the state."
The Fulsome County indictment is the fourth for the former president, following, in the order listed, charges of paying off an adult film star to keep quiet about an affair (filed by New York City), mishandling official papers from his presidency (filed by Justice Department), conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election (filed by the Justice Department).
The former president has countered these indictments by calling them politically motivated, to prevent him, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 president election.
Trump has already been charged by federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to incumbent President Joe Biden. The former President has pleaded not guilty in all the cases.
(With inputs from IANS)
