Former President Trump is preparing for a pitched battle to defend himself following his latest indictment, which lays out wide-ranging allegations surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Shortly after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) handed up the sprawling indictment of Trump and 18 co-defendants late Monday night, the former president reiterated on Truth Social his claim that the case is part of a “witch hunt” timed to interfere with his presidential campaign.
Trump followed up on Tuesday that he’ll present a “Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia” next Monday at a press conference in New Jersey, asserting charges against him and others should be dropped.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who formalized the certification of the state’s 2020 election results after two recounts, sought to prebut Trump’s continued electoral claims, writing that “the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
“For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward — under oath — and prove anything in a court of law,” Kemp said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
See responses from others involved in the case here.
The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Ella Lee noted that the 98-page indictment is “the most comprehensive to date,” outlining “Trump’s pressure campaign against numerous Georgia officials, a plot to submit false slates of electors and a lawsuit with faulty claims affirmed by Trump that sought to overturn the results in the state.”
The Georgia indictment is Trump’s fourth in five months, joining two federal indictments and one in New York.
Some of Trump’s primary challengers have defended the former president against the various investigations into him, suggesting they’d pardon Trump if they became president and he was convicted in either federal probe.
The Hill’s Jared Gans reported that “the charges Trump is now facing in Georgia could potentially be his most legally perilous, as the state has a much more difficult process for a pardon to be issued than in the other jurisdictions where he is facing charges.”
What’s next: Willis gave Trump and the others charged have until Aug. 25 at noon to voluntarily surrender. Willis said she’d like a trial to start within six months.
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