Trump Indicted on 13 Counts in Georgia

To the surprise of no one other than perhaps delusional MAGA cultists, Donald Trump has been indicted on 13 counts in Georgia, including under the state's racketeering statute.  Trump, true to form has responded with lies and claims that like anything else that seeks to hold him accountable this is a "witch hunt" - the same kind of lies that got him into trouble in the first place. As a piece in the Washington Post notes, the opening paragraph of the indictments provides a succinct summary:

“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” . . . 

Trump is not the only party indicted.  The others include Mark Meadows, former chief if staff, a group of Trump's ghoulish lawyers, and some Georgia Republican officials.  How the indictments and ultimate trial will play out will only be shown with the passage of time, yet sane, sentient and moral people already know that Trump and his conspirators are guilty as hell.    Trump has until August 25th to turn himself in and one can only hope the judge on the case makes it clear to Trump that if he keeps up the lies and attacks on witnesses and jurors he will be put behind bars.  Here is more from the Post piece:

Who: The co-conspirators include, Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani, Trump legal adviser John Eastman, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, Trump lawyers Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell, and Georgia officials Shawn Still and David Shafer.

Why racketeering: The RICO charges “allows a lot of different things to be pulled together into a single very serious criminal charge,” Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, told our colleague Amber Phillips. 

Willis, who is known to say, “I don’t like a bully,” said in an interview with The Post last year that she likes the anti-racketeering law because “it allows you to tell jurors the full story.”

When: In a brief news conference after the indictment was unsealed, Willis said she wants the trial to start in the next six months. The Iowa caucuses are five months from today. 

Trump faces court dates from January to May 2024 in his other three indictments. 

The (predictable) reaction: 

• Trump’s team in a lengthy news release immediately attacked Willis, her family, and alleged a “suspiciously long” investigation “timed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tweeted: “A radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham.” 

Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, one of the few willing to criticize Trump, said that he believes more than ever that Trump’s actions “disqualifies him from ever serving as president again.”