In the trump administration. Some of the accusations against mr trump include violating georgias racketeering act. Racketeering is a type of organised crime where someone profits through dishonest or illegal activities. And the ex president s also accused of soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer. Also, Making False Statements and filing false documents. A reminder that these charges are all in connection to accusations of Election Meddling by trump. The bbc s Kayla Epstein has been following the events in georgia and has more on the legal view of the charges. Ive been speaking to legal experts about this all day and theyve told me they are not surprised that a Racketeering Charge was brought by fani wills. Its a Signature Charge brought in the past and we expected to see this, but weve still got indictment, which is nearly 100 pages, it names 19 defendants, including donald trump, i think a lot of people were struck by the breadth of the evidence she lays out. Almost 70
Official, jeffrey clark. The charge sheet refers to the defendants as a quote criminal organization. The Indictment Document says mr trump Knowingly And Willingly joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in georgia, and elsewhere. Its the fourth case brought against mr trump this year. Lets take a listen to what Fulton County District Attorney fani willis said. The indictment alleges that rather than abide by georgias Legal Process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal, Racketeering Enterprise to overturn georgias president ial election result. Subsequent to the indictment, as is the normal process in georgia law, The Grand Jury issued Arrest Warrants for those who were charged. I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on friday, the 25th day of august 2023. The investigation into mr trump was sparked by a phone call between the former president and georgias Secretary Of State, brad raffe
Pleas to the charges. Our correspondent Daniel De Simone has been tracking the Court Proceedings and sent this update from the old bailey. Theyve been in the uk for between ten and 15 years. The three defendants are orlin roussev, Bizer Dzhambazov and katrin ivanova. The latter two have been living as a couple in a series of suburban properties in london for about ten years. Mr roussev arrived earlier in the uk, about 15 years ago, and he worked in financial services, in a technical role in communications, and later moved on to, he claims, own a company that was involved in signals intelligence, which involves the interception of communications. The other two worked, were told, in health care jobs. Thats what they told neighbours. They did own a local Community Group that supported bulgarian people who moved to the uk with english language classes and other things. This investigation is by the met Police Counterterrorism team, which has responsibility over espionage investigations. It
Of election fraud. Lets run through extracts of that call starting with the debunked claims from the former president about suitcases of ballots the president also made claims about so called dead voters. Brad raffensperger did push back in his call with President Trump heres a series of further extracts. And in the most explicit part of the call trump spelled out how many voters he needed. Stephen loosley an analyst in us politics at the United States studies centre in sydney laid out the legal dilemmas mr trump now faces. Its a very serious indictment for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is Racketeering Charge under Georgia State law and racketeering legislation is modelled on the Originalfederal Legislation is modelled on the original federal legislation that was designed to bring down the mafia. The problem that donald trump faces is generally a conviction under legislation in georgia leads to a prison sentence, it is not certain that is the probability. Secondly, mark meadows, th