18 others, including his then chief of staff, mark meadows, and his lawyer, rudy giuliani, have also been indicted. Mr trump has denied wrongdoing and has described the investigation as politically motivated. Its the fourth criminal case to be brought against him since he left office. Lets take a listen to what Fulton County District Attorney fani willis said a short time ago. The indictment alleges that rather than abide by georgia was Mike Whittall process for election challenges, 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 are charged. I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on friday the 25th day of august, 2023. Earlier, Donald Trumps campaign issued a statement. Lets speak now to sean dilley, our North America correspondent, live from washington, dc
Digging into local georgia laws, ordinarily you d expect what s known as the arraignment, the first appearance, the start if you like of the criminal trial process, would normally happen in a few days ordinarily. the prosecutor in this case as she is giving the defendants 19 defendants until midday local time on friday to voluntarily surrender but in donald trump s case certainly hears a secret service protective. that means the secret service and local law enforcement have to discuss that timing. more will be clear over the next 12 24 hours. in terms of the timing of the trial prosecution that they will ask whether it s possible to bring this to trial within the next six months but what would be likely to happen as with the other cases is that mr trump los lotharios would say hang on, we have two years of investigations, the grand jury have interviewed 75 witnesses, the evidence in the case is enormous and we need time to