Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference on June 24, 2023.Photo:Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
When a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, stayed at the courthouse late on Monday after hearing evidence in the election interference case againstDonald Trumpand his political allies, it seemed likely that an indictment decision was on the horizon.
Later that night — while Trump was reportedly at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club anticipating the news — a 98-page indictment dropped, revealing to the former president that he had beencharged with 13 felony countstied to his attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.Eighteen of his allieswere charged in tandem.
“Donald is livid,” a political source claims of the latest update in a string of criminal investigations involving Trump. “He will always say that he won, that the election was rigged, and this fourth indictment was a political ambush. That is the only way he can face the day."
In line with what PEOPLE has heard from those in Trump’s orbit following his previous indictments, the political source says that the former president keeps company with those who play into his version of events.
A Donald Trump supporter holds signs outside the Miami federal courthouse on June 13, 2023, where the former president was arraigned on federal charges tied to his handling of classified documents.GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty
The Fulton County indictment tells a story of Trump and his strongest supporters going to great lengths after the 2020 presidential election to keep Georgia from certifying its election results in favor of DemocratJoe Biden, who received more votes than Trump in the historically Republican state.
In addition to charging 18 co-defendants, the indictment included mention of 30 unindicted and unidentified co-conspirators, each of whom allegedly played some role in the various plots to secure Trump another term as president.
The Fulton County charges bring him toa total of 91 criminal countshe’s been indicted on this year between the four investigations, several of which come with recommended prison time.
Rudy Giuliani, a co-defendant in the Fulton County indictment, details plans to help Donald Trump win the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 19, 2020.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Trump’s indictment in Georgia poses perhaps the greatest threat to the former president. The alleged criminal offenses are severe in nature, and because they are at the state — not federal — level, any future Republican president would not have authority to pardon them.
Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, where Mar-a-Lago sits, tells PEOPLE that Georgia’s RICO Act — which Trump is charged with violating — is “broader and tougher” than its federal counterpart.
“It even has a mandatory minimum five year sentence," Aronberg says, “though there are questions on whether a judge can impose a fine and probation.”
The earlier political source who spoke with PEOPLE believes Trump “knows that the Georgia case is different from the others in scope and seriousness,” adding that the former president “has set his mind to defending himself in any way possible.”
source: people.com
