Former US President Donald Trump was indicted Monday, August 14, in Atlanta by a grand jury for trying to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election in the US state of Georgia, in particular by putting pressure on polling officials.
At the end of a day of testimony from witnesses called by the prosecution, on Monday August 14, the Grand Jury of Fulton County, including Atlanta, capital of the State of Georgia, approved the ten indictments presented to it in This folder. This is the fourth indictment for, who is seeking the White House again in 2024.
The grand jury, a panel of citizens vested with investigative powers and responsible for validating a possible indictment, was formed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has been investigating the case since 2021, to determine if there was enough elements to indict Donald Trump, in particular for acts of fraud and electoral interference.
A phone call at the heart of the investigation
Without waiting, the main interested party attacked the former Republican vice-governor of Georgia on Monday on his Truth Social platform, who testified at the end of the day, saying that “he had better not testify before the Fulton Grand Jury”. He again attacked the prosecutor, accusing her of “only wanting to ‘be Trump'” and reiterating her unsubstantiated claims that he was the one who was defrauded in Georgia in 2020 for the benefit of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
The investigation was prompted by a January 2021 phone call from Donald Trump – the recording of which has been made public – in which he asked a senior local official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” the approximately 12,000 ballots. in his name which he lacked to win the sixteen great voters of this state in the south-east of the country
The charges are expected to reveal “a series of illegal acts to reverse the election result in Georgia: hacking, misrepresentation, harassment, etc.” “, listed on social networks Anthony Kreis, a professor of law at the university of this State. Conservative jurist Jonathan Turley believes that the prominence given to this phone call will be “revealing” of the credibility of the case. “If the prosecution relies on this appeal, it will appear as a political stunt,” he wrote in an op-ed published Monday.
TV debates
To prevent possible pressure or violence, security barriers have been installed in front of the court in Atlanta. Unlike federal trials, court proceedings in Georgia are televised, but the real estate mogul, who owes much of his fame to hosting a reality TV show, should be allowed to represent there.
Even if he wins in 2024, if he is convicted, he will not be able to pardon himself or have the prosecution dropped by the prosecutor’s office, since this is a court-level case. state of Georgia, over which the federal state has no authority.
These proceedings relate to part of the facts covered by the indictment on August 1 of Donald Trump in federal court in Washington for his alleged illegal maneuvers during the 2020 election in seven crucial states, including Georgia. A trial date has not yet been set.
The former president, who crushes his opponents in the polls for the Republican primary, must also be tried in March and May 2024. He will have to answer for the purchase of the silence of an actress of X movies, before the justice of the State of New York, then of his alleged negligence in the management of confidential documents, before federal justice in Florida (southeast).