With the fourth indictment in five months, Donald Trump’s chances at the 2024 election might be seriously challenged.
Former US president Donald Trump faces another series of federal charges as the fourth (and probably last) indictment was made official. Donald Trump is also the favorite Republican candidate for the 2024 general election.
This fourth indictment relates to Trump’s alleged meddling in the 2020 election in the State of Georgia. Donald Trump appears as the defendant with 18 other Republican members including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Trump and his associates are accused of charges usually associated with an organized racketing or a criminal enterprise. The 100-page document lines several misbehaviors by Trump who allegedly tried to swing Georgia in his favor at the electoral college.
In the United States, presidents are voted by an electoral college made of representatives by single states. The citizens of the state vote for these representatives. A majority of 270 representatives is needed for either party candidate to win.
In the 2020 election, it seemed Georgia was a crucial state for either Republican or Democratic victory. As it became clear Georgia voted for the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Trump allegedly tried to change the result.
Episodes include a phone call from Donald Trump to the Georgia secretary of state asking him to “find” the 11,780 votes needed for a Republican victory. Also with the Georgia secretary of state, Trump is accused of making false claims regarding 300,000 “missing” ballots.
“The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges,” prosecutor Fani Willis specified, “the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.”
Willis said she will pursue a start of the trial within six months, and that she plans to try all the defendants together.
Trump’s indictments
The Georgia accusations are the last of a series of investigations ending with an indictment for Donald Trump. In five months, the former president has been indicted four different times for dozens of federal charges.
The first trial concerns the alleged hush money paid with public campaign funds to adult actress Stormy Daniels to hide her love affair with Trump.
The second indictment came for the alleged mishandling of top-secret documents by Donald Trump after his presidential term had ended.
The third and most serious trial concerns Trump’s involvement in the January 6th assault on the Capitol. Trump is accused of endorsing a direct attack on American democracy in order to stay in power.
The first two trials are set to begin ahead of the 2024 election, while the other two do not have a fixed starting date yet. In any case, they represent a serious threat to Trump’s electoral efforts even though he is the leading Republican candidate.
Losing even one of these trials could mean jail time for Donal Trump, preventing him from running altogether. It is unclear how Republican supporters will take it and how things could develop within the American population.
