Georgia grand jury indictment: What we know so far
Here is the latest, via AP:
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The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss handed up criminal indictments on Monday, though it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
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Officials with the Fulton county court handed the indictment to Judge Robert McBurney, but did not make them public.
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Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
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Fulton county court clerk Che Alexander told reporters it could take her office up to three hours to process the indictments after they were accepted by the judge.
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Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
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Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt.”
Key events
Snap analysis
Hugo Lowell
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, noted that Georgia’s Rico statute was a favourite tool for the Fulton county district attorney, referencing the 2014 Atlanta public schools trial where teachers and officials conspired to cheat on standardised tests.
“I think the 2020 election aftermath and attempts to overthrow the election are very similar to that, where there’s just a lot of moving parts and a lot of different actors,” he said.
“They all don’t necessarily have the same degree of information as all the others do. They all don’t get together and say, ‘Let’s do this unlawful thing’ but they know they’re part of a machine that’s doing something they shouldn’t,” Kreis explained.
The Trump campaign has released a statement calling Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, a “rabid partisan” – and the indictments “bogus”. The statement is long and continues in that vein.
Instead, you can read our profile of Willis, by Jewel Wicker. Here is a short exerpt:
In early 2021 Willis had just been elected district attorney when she announced plans to investigate Trump. She took office by unseating her former boss, who had served as the DA in Georgia’s most populous county (which includes the state’s capital, Atlanta) for six terms, or 23 years.
Her investigation has focused on Trump’s efforts to subvert the will of Georgia’s voters, including his campaign’s plot to assemble a slate of fake electors and Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”, which would make him the winner over Joe Biden in the state.”
You can read the full profile here:
Snap analysis
Hugo Lowell
Charges against Trump would mark significant legal peril for him, since the charges come at the state level and he would not be able to undo any potential convictions through measures such as a self-pardon or appointing a partisan attorney general even if he was re-elected president in 2024.
In recent months, the district attorney’s office identified multiple general and state election law violations by Trump and Republican operatives as they sought to subvert the 2020 election, from pressuring state officials to organizing fake slates of electors to breaching voting machines.
The prosecutors examined whether there was scope to construct racketeering charges from the outset, hiring experts on the Rico law (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) in Georgia, which is more expansive than its federal counterpart and requires only the showing of an “interrelated pattern of activity” of a criminal enterprise.
Hugo Lowell
An Atlanta-area grand jury returned 10 indictments on Monday night, according to the cover page for the charging papers, in the investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia.
The specific charges and the names of the defendants were not immediately clear. The indictments were walked over to Georgia superior court judge Robert McBurney, who did not make public any of the contents of the indictments.
But the high-profile investigation led by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis is widely expected to result in charges against Trump and multiple allies, especially given the nature of the witnesses summoned to testify to the grand jury on Monday.
The witnesses included former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and the reporter George Chidi, who had initially been scheduled to testify on Tuesday but were summoned to appear a day early, a move that signalled the prosecutors wanted to wrap proceedings the same day.
If you’re just joining us: the “worst case scenario” for when we will know who has been indicted (including whether former US President Donald Trump has been indicted for the fourth time) is at midnight, Fulton county court clerk Che Alexander told reporters earlier.
It is currently almost 10pm in Fulton county, Georgia, where the indictment documents are being processed in the clerk’s office.
We could know any time from now until then who the grand jury has voted to indict.
Neal Katyal, a professor of law at Georgetown University, has posted more about the indictments on Twitter.
Just to be clear, however: the Guardian has not verified the below. We do not know for certain whether Trump has been indicted (or, in other words, that the 10 indictments are “very very bad news for Trump”):
Katyal says:
The Georgia Indictments say there were zero ‘no bills.’ That means that the Grand Jury decided to indict in all cases that the DA (the prosecutor) sought. This is very very bad news for Trump, and likely others in his circle.”
A reminder: the case stems from a 2 January 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.
Experts agree that in Trump’s conclusive 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, there was no widespread electoral fraud in Georgia or any other state.
Trump is also facing 78 criminal charges in three other indictments, over:
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Hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels
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Retention of classified documents
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Election subversion at the federal level
Despite his unprecedented legal jeopardy, Trump dominates Republican primary polling as the first televised debate nears at the end of this month, my colleague Martin Pengelly reported earlier.
Georgia grand jury indictment: What we know so far
Here is the latest, via AP:
-
The grand jury in Georgia investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss handed up criminal indictments on Monday, though it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
-
Officials with the Fulton county court handed the indictment to Judge Robert McBurney, but did not make them public.
-
Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
-
Fulton county court clerk Che Alexander told reporters it could take her office up to three hours to process the indictments after they were accepted by the judge.
-
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
-
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once by US special counsel Jack Smith on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat. He has long dismissed the many investigations, including two impeachments, he has faced in his years in politics as a politically motivated “witch-hunt.”
As we await news of who precisely has been indicted, Republican senator Lindsey Graham has said on Fox news: “The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not. This should be decided at the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail.”
“They’re weaponizing the law in this country, they’re trying to take Donald Trump down and this is setting a bad precedent,” he continued.
NBC’s Gary Grumbach has outlined exactly what happened at the court over the last half hour:
At 8:58pm, a rep from Fulton County Superior Court Clerk’s office, a representative from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office and several representatives from the Fulton County Sheriff’s office walked into courtroom 8D – Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s courtroom.
The District Attorney’s office representative was holding a stack of papers. They were greeted by the Judge, who said ‘is it evening or night?’ when the representative from the DA’s office said ‘Good evening.’
McBurney went through every indictment – it appeared there were multiple – making sure they were all signed and the various forms were properly filled out. He asked the DA’s rep ‘Everything went as it should have in front of the grand jury?’ The DA’s rep said, “Yes your honor.”
The Judge did not read anything aloud from the indictment. McBurney then handed the indictments to the Clerk’s office representative, as he instructed her to maintain custody of the indictments. She departed the courtroom, en route to the Clerk’s office to file the indictment
MSNBC correspondent Blayne Alexander has posted a picture of the certification that the grand jury indictments were returned in open court, and that there were 10 indictments.
It is 9.20 pm in Fulton county, Georgia.
If you’re just joining us, the grand jury at Fulton County, Georgia has returned 10 indictments. Court remained open past 5pm – and is still open, with reporters and court staff prepared to work through the night.
The clark confirmed that the grand jury has voted to indict 10 people. But, the clark said that processing, stamping and making the indictment documents public could take three hours, CNN reports. But it may be only an hour.
We do not know who has been indicted.
So it is now a question of who has been indicted. It is not clear.
What does 10 indictments mean?
There could be one or multiple people in each indictment, but it is likely this means that a minimum of ten people have been charged in these indictments, CNN reports.
The grand jury votes yes or no on each indictment, by majority vote (12 of 23 jurors).
Grand jury returns 10 indictments
The grand jury has returned 10 indictments, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports from the courtroom.
NEW: Fulton County grand jury returned 10 indictments today in the Trump case, per cover page filed with clerk’s office
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 15, 2023
The paperwork – a large stack of papers – have now been walked back to the clerk’s office for the next stage of processing.
This document may be the indictment – but it may not be. We should know shortly.
We are expecting a dozen or so defendants to be indicted, if the grand jury has voted to indict. The defendants include former US president Donald Trump.
If Trump is indicted this will be his fourth indictment.
Judge Robert McBurney checks document
“Everything went as it should have?” Judge Robert McBurney asks. He hands the documents back to the clerk, who agrees to take custody of them.
The document will now be docketed and will become available to the public any moment.
