Donald Trump has been hit with a fourth set of criminal charges, with a Georgia grand jury issuing an indictment accusing the former United States president of seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
The stunning, 98 page indictment lists 41 criminal counts and 19 defendants.
Donald Trump is at the top of the list, along with lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman and former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.
All 19 individuals are charged with Racketeering - a crime which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis announces the charges.
"Today ... a Fulton County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment, charging 19 individuals with violations of Georgia law arising from a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in this state. The indictment includes 41 felony counts and is 97 pages long."
Ms Willis opened her investigation into Donald Trump after the release of a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Mr Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.
[[“So look, all I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."]]
The indictment brought Monday by a grand jury went far beyond that phone call, alleging a web of crimes committed by Mr Trump and others.
Ms Willis used Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO [[Reek-O]], law to charge Mr Trump and 18 associates.
She told reporters late Monday that she intended to try all 19 defendants together and noted her prosecutors’ experience with racketeering cases, saying this was the 11th RICO case brought by her office since she became district attorney in 2021.
"I make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law. The law is completely nonpartisan. That's how decisions are made in every case. To date, this office has indicted since I've been sitting as a district attorney over 12,000 cases. This is the 11th RICO indictment. We followed the same process. We look at the facts. We look at the law and we bring charges."
Ms Willis is using the same act to charge Mr Trump that has previously been used in cases brought against prominent mobsters, like John Gotti - an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City.
"Every individual charged in the indictment is charged with one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) 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 beginning on January 20th, ’21."
So how does a law used against mobsters apply to Donald Trump and his allies?
Associate Professor David Smith is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
"Racketeering is an offence that is directed against a conspiracy of people. So Trump has been indicted, along with 18 others. And the idea of racketeering is not just one crime, but a lot of crimes or a lot of acts that are directed towards one criminal purpose. So it allows prosecutors to create one charge out of what is often a very complex set of actions involving a lot of actors. One of the reasons why it's being used here is because there were so many different people involved. And Trump is really accused of being the leader of a criminal enterprise here."
So why is Attorney General Willis using the RICO statute?
"One of the reasons why racketeering act is often used against mafia leaders or gang leaders, is that these leaders often don't get their hands dirty. They don't commit crimes directly. They direct others to commit crimes. So when you have a look through this very long indictment, you see Trump constantly directing others to do things or intimidating others, threatening others telling others to do things. And this a lot of these things are not criminal. acts on their own. ... But when put all together with all of these other efforts and activities by people that he was directing it amounts to one big criminal conspiracy."
It’s the fourth time Mr Trump has been criminally charged this year – denying accusations in all cases.
Compared to Mr Trump's previous indictments, how serious is the Georgia one?
I would say that it's the most serious Yes, because in addition to this racketeering charge, which is very serious, he's facing 12 other charges which could all carry jail time. This carries potentially a lot more punishment than any of the other charges, even the federal charges that were laid two weeks ago. And furthermore, it's taking place under Georgia law, it's not under federal law, which means that Trump would not be able to pardon himself if he became president. He couldn't get another president to pardon him. Also, a Republican governor of Georgia couldn't pardon him."
Mr Trump is the first former president in U-S history to be indicted on criminal charges.
If found guilty, Mr Trump and the others charged under the RICO act, face between five and 20 years in prison.
But Professor Smith believes the trial will take several years to reach an end.
It's quite likely that this trial won't happen until after the 2024 election. Because it's so big and so complicated. And there are so many defendants, all of whom will have their own legal teams, all of whom will be filing pretrial motions. This is the one that is most likely to not happen for years, which could make it even more complicated because it could potentially happen after Trump becomes president. If he if he wins in 2024. He might still have to face this this trial so it could get very, very complicated."
The former president does remain the front-runner for the Republican Party’s next election candidate.
With arrest warrants issued, Mr Trump and the others accused have until this Friday to turn themselves in where it's expected mugshots will be taken.
