Trump, Giuliani, Meadows among 19 indicted in Georgia 2020 election probe

( NYPost )

Former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies and supporters were indicted Monday by a Georgia grand jury in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.

Also charged in the indictment — which was signed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney shortly before 9 p.m. and unsealed approximately two hours later — were former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro.

Also accused were former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, ex-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and Trump 2020 Election Day director of operations Michael Roman.

Trump, 77, faces 13 counts in the case, matching a docket prematurely posted to the Fulton County Superior Court’s website around noon.

Hours after the indictment was handed down, the former commander-in-chief took to Truth Social to rail against Georgia prosecutors, saying, “So, the Witch Hunt continues! 19 people indicated [sic] tonight, including the former President of the United States, me, by an out of control and very corrupt District Attorney who campaigned and raised money on, ‘I will get Trump.’

“And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me! Why didn’t they Indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Witch Hunt!”

The charges against the former president include violation of the Peach State’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements, and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.

All 19 defendants are charged with Georgia’s equivalent of the federal RICO statute, which can be used against any group of individuals deemed to use criminal means to attain an objective. The acronym refers to the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Crucially, the defendants’ alleged scheme does not have to succeed to be found liable under state law.

“[The] Defendants … [30] unindicted co-conspirators … and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in … false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury,” the 98-page indictment read.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who launched the investigation into Trump and his associates nearly two years ago, told reporters at a late-night press conference that she intended to try all 19 defendants together and that they would be given less than two weeks to turn themselves in.

“I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday the 25th day of August 2023,” Willis said.

Hoping to move quickly, Willis added that her office will be seeking to take the case to trial “within the next six months.” If approved by a judge, that would make Georgia the first jurisdiction and Willis the first prosecutor to put a former American president on trial.

“I don’t have any desire to be first or last,” Willis said. “I want to try him and be respectful for our sovereign states.”

The DA refused to say whether she discussed her case with special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing two federal cases against the former president in South Florida and Washington, DC.

The grand jury had been expected to sit Monday and Tuesday but pushed through its agenda more quickly than anticipated.

At least one witness, independent journalist George Chidi, tweeted that he was initially told to come to the courthouse Tuesday, was called on Monday afternoon, and was dismissed without having to testify.

“The events that have unfolded today have been shocking and absurd, starting with the leak of a presumed and premature indictment before the witnesses had testified or the grand jurors had deliberated and ending with the District Attorney being unable to offer any explanation,” read a statement from Trump lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg after the indictment was unsealed.

“In light of this major fumble, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office clearly decided to force through and rush this 98-page indictment. This one-sided grand jury presentation relied on witnesses who harbor their own personal and political interests — some of whom ran campaigns touting their efforts against the accused and/or profited from book deals and employment opportunities as a result.”

The statement continued: “We look forward to a detailed review of this indictment which is undoubtedly just as flawed and unconstitutional as this entire process has been.”

Giuliani blasted the indictment as “an affront to American Democracy.”

“It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime,” the former New York City mayor said in a statement.

“They lied about Russian collusion, they lied about Joe Biden’s foreign bribery scheme, and they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive proving 30 years of criminal activity.

“The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly.”

The Georgia indictment is the fourth brought against Trump in approximately four and a half months. In late March, he was charged by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg with 34 counts of business fraud for allegedly falsifying records to hide the reimbursement of hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

In June, Smith hit Trump with more than three dozen counts of keeping classified national security information at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Weeks later, Smith indicted Trump again on four federal counts in connection with his bid to remain in power following his defeat by former Vice President Joe Biden.

Giuliani, Eastman, Powell, Clark and Chesbro have also been identified as co-conspirators in the federal case concerning the former president’s 2020 election shenanigans.

The remaining co-defendants in Monday’s indictment include Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer; state Sen. Sean Still; former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham, and Coffee County elections supervisor Misty Hampton.

Shafer, Still and Latham are accused of presenting themselves as the true electors from the state of Georgia and claiming that Trump was the actual winner of the state, which prosecutors say amounted to forgery and false statements under oath.

Latham, Hampton and a Republican poll watcher, Scott Hall, are also charged in connection with a Jan. 7, 2021, breach of voting equipment in the rural, ruby-red county.

The remaining five defendants include Robert Cheeley and Ray Smith, local lawyers who helped push the former president’s fraud claims, as well as Stephen Lee, a pastor; Harrison Floyd, a leader of the group Black Voices for Trump; and Trevian Kutti, a publicist accused of attempting to intimidate Atlanta poll worker Ruby Freeman.

Willis’ probe was triggered by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the 45th president implored the state official to “find 11,780 votes,” enough to reverse his loss to Joe Biden.

Trump and Meadows were both charged with solicitation of a public official to violate his oath in connection with the call, while the former president was also hit with a false statements charge for making wild claims to Raffensperger — including that between 250,000 and 300,000 ballots “were dropped mysteriously into the rolls,” that almost 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia, and that Freeman was a “professional vote scammer.”

The Trump campaign blasted Willis as a “rabid partisan” on Monday, likening her to other prosecutors who have brought charges against Trump since leaving office.

“Like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Deranged Jack Smith, and New York AG Letitia James, Fulton County, GA’s radical Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments,” the Trump campaign said in a statement released Monday night.

“Ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden’s playbook, Willis has strategically stalled her investigation to try and maximally interfere with the 2024 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign. All of these corrupt Democrat attempts will fail,” the statement continues.

The Trump campaign also derided Willis’ investigation as the “latest coordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction.”