Tue. Nov 5th, 2024
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THE grand jury investigating Donald Trump has indicted the former president over his efforts to undo the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia.

The historic indictment marks the fourth criminal case Trump now faces.

A grand jury in Georgia that has been investigating former President Donald Trump has returned 10 indictments but it's not clear who the defendants are8

A grand jury in Georgia that has been investigating former President Donald Trump has returned 10 indictments but it’s not clear who the defendants areCredit: AFP
The grand jury began voting on Monday at 8pm8

The grand jury began voting on Monday at 8pmCredit: AP
Despite the wave of indictments, Trump is still the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination

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Despite the wave of indictments, Trump is still the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nominationCredit: AFP
Prosecutors are investigating Trump and his allies to determine if they broke state laws in efforts to keep him in office

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Prosecutors are investigating Trump and his allies to determine if they broke state laws in efforts to keep him in officeCredit: Reuters

A Fulton County judge was handed 10 indictments on Monday night, though it was not immediately clear who they were against.

Just before 11pm, the 98-page indictment against the former president and several allies was unsealed.

Nineteen defendants are named in the indictment, according to CNN.

The grand jury was said to have started voting on the charges just after 8pm on Monday.

Documents were presented around 9pm by the county court clerk to the Fulton County judge, however, the names of the defendants were not given.

After signing off the indictments with the jury, Judge Robert McBurney joked, “That’s it,” reported NBC.

Prosecutors have been investigating Trump, 77, and his allies since December 2020 to determine if they broke state laws in their bid to keep him in power during the 2020 presidential election.

Before the indictment was officially filed, the website for Fulton County, Georgia briefly displayed a list of the possible criminal charges against Trump before it was taken down from the site.

Trump’s attorneys, Drew Findling and Jennifer Little, ripped the district attorney’s office for the blatant move, saying they showed no respect for the grand jury process.

“The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process,” the statement read.

“This was not a simple administrative mistake. A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk’s office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated.

“This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception.”

Trump branded Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis a “phony” hours before the indictment was filed: “Would someone please tell the Fulton County grand jury that I did not tamper with the election,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social feed.

“The people that tampered with it were the ones that rigged it, and sadly, phoney Fani Willis, who has shockingly allowed Atlanta to become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,

“Has no interest in seeing the massive amount of evidence available, or finding out who these people that committed this crime are.

“She only wants to ‘Get Trump.’ I would be happy to show this info to the G.J.”

Since leaving office in January 2021, Trump has been charged with three indictments in New York City, Miami, and Washington, DC.

A statement from the Trump campaign called the indictments “bogus” and accused District Attorney Willis of trying to “maximally interfere with the 2023 presidential race and damage the dominant Trump campaign.”

“They are taking away President Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech, and the right to challenge a rigged and stolen election that the Democrats do all the time.

“The ones who should be prosecuted are the ones who created the corruption.”

WAVE OF INDICTMENTS

The wave of indictments against the former president began in March when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed 34 felony charges against Trump for what prosecutors described as a hush-money scheme.

Prosecutors said Trump and his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an affair.

The case also reportedly includes claims of separate payments to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump allegedly played a role in paying $150,000 to McDougal, who claims that she began a 10-month relationship with the former president in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The former U.S. president also allegedly paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 to silence his claims that Trump had a “child out of wedlock.”

Trump is also facing charges in a separate case in Miami brought by special counsel Jack Smith, where he’s accused of mishandling national secret documents after leaving the White House in 2021.

The FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on August 8, 2022, searching the residence for classified material the president is accused of taking after leaving office.

Federal officials found more than 80 boxes filled with classified documents in Trump’s estate, including six with the highest level of classification in his office, according to court records.

FBI officials said boxes were found in several rooms in the Mar-a-Lago estate, including the Lake Room, various storage rooms, on the stage of the White and Gold Ballroom, Pine Hall, and the Trump family suite.

Trump also took boxes of documents to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to the indictment.

Meanwhile, Trump appeared in a Washington, DC, courtroom on August 4 after being arraigned on four charges connected to his alleged involvement in the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to prevent a Congress from counting the electoral votes to confirm President-elect Biden as the new president.

The rally turned violent when the MAGA mob breached Capitol Hill, smashing through windows, doors and clashing with Capitol police officers.

Four rioters died during the siege, including Ashli Babbitt, 34, a former Air Force veteran who was shot by a Capitol police officer, Kevin Greeson, 55, who suffered a heart attack during the breach, Rosanne Boyland, 34, and Benjamin Philips, 50.

Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick was also killed during the incident.

In the years since the siege, over 1,000 rioters were arrested and hit with a slew of federal charges, including assault on law enforcement officials, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, trespassing, and disrupting Congress.

As of May, approximately 485 defendants have been sentenced – 277 have been sentenced to time behind bars, while 113 were sentenced to home detention.

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Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases.

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Credit: EPA
Trump branded Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis a "phony" hours before the indictment was filed

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Trump branded Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis a “phony” hours before the indictment was filedCredit: Reuters
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges

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Trump has pleaded not guilty to all chargesCredit: Getty
Before the indictment was officially filed, the website for Fulton County Georgia briefly displayed a list of the possible criminal charges against Trump

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Before the indictment was officially filed, the website for Fulton County Georgia briefly displayed a list of the possible criminal charges against TrumpCredit: AP

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