Former US President Donald Trump has been indicted in a fourth case with Gerogia charging him over attempts to overturn his 2020 election debacle in the state.
Trump, along with 18 others, have been indicted in a 41-charge document issued by a Fulton County grand jury. Other defendants indicted on Monday include Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former White House lawyer John Eastman and former justice department official Jeffrey Clark.
Trump is charged with 13 counts in the indictment, including a racketeering charge for allegedly attempting to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in Georgia in 2020 and allegedly making false statements to and soliciting the Georgia house speaker and the Georgia secretary of state to violate their oaths of office in December 2020 and January 2021, reported CNN.
Trump is also facing six counts for conspiring with several others around his campaign for the use of fake electors in Georgia.
The probe into election meddling allegations was initiated by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in February 2021 after the recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was released.
In the call, the ex-president suggested that Raffensperger could find 11,780 votes just enough to overtake current US President Joe Biden.
According to the indictment, the alleged co-conspirators "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump".
However, Trump, who is campaigning for the 2024 Republican nomination, has denied all the accusations and said the “politically motivated” prosecution by the "rabid partisan" Democratic district attorney is aimed at "damaging the dominant Trump campaign".
"This latest co-ordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes the true motivation driving their fabricated accusations," said a statement by the Trump campaign.
– with inputs from AP