Trump Fires Back After Georgia Indictment, Raises Questions About Charging Documents
Former President Donald Trump shattered any illusions that he would go gently after being indicted for the second time over his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“So, the Witch Hunt continues!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform hours after an indictment was handed up in Georgia late Monday night.
The leading GOP presidential candidate in the 2024 race said he and 18 others had been indicted “by an out of control and very corrupt District Attorney who campaigned and raised money on, ‘I will get Trump.'”
The former president was referring to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me!” he continued, referring to documents posted on a court website Monday and later withdrawn.
“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!” Trump concluded.
In the Georgia indictment, his fourth this year, Trump faces 11 counts including “violating the Georgia RICO Act—the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer,” Fox News reported.
The former president is among 19 people indicted. Others charged include attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and lawyers Sidney Powell and John Eastman.
NEW: PDF of the indictment of Donald Trump and others in Fulton County, Georgia https://t.co/EqeJLuFxm4
— Steve Reilly (@BySteveReilly) August 15, 2023
Trump also faces a federal indictment over his challenge of the 2020 election results and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion that followed, as well as another federal indictment claiming he mishandled classified documents and an indictment in New York alleging Trump falsified business records.
In his initial assessment of the Georgia indictment, legal scholar Jonathan Turley said it goes far beyond a controversial phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021.
“Indeed, every call, speech, and tweet appears a criminal step in the conspiracy,” Turley wrote.
“District Attorney Fani Willis appears to have elected to charge everything and everyone and let God sort them out,” he wrote Tuesday.
The Trump campaign also posted a statement on Truth Social on Monday.
“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 campaign said.
“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,” it said.
The statement said the indictments are a political tool.
“Combined with the intentionally slow-walked investigations by the Biden-Smith goon squads and the false charges in New York, the timing of this latest coordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes true motivation driving their fabricated accusations,” the campaign said.
“They could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign,” it added, calling the former president “the greatest threat to these Democrats’ political futures.”
The campaign said Democrats are trying to rig the 2024 election.
“These activities by Democrat leaders constitute a grave threat to American democracy and are direct attempts to deprive the American people of their rightful choice to cast their vote for President,” it said.
“Call it election interference or election manipulation — it is a dangerous effort by the ruling class to suppress the choice of the people. It is un-American and wrong.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
