Nineteen defendants, 41 counts, 98 pages. That is the scale of the indictment a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury of 23 citizens returned against Donald Trump and 18 others on August 14, 2023. It was unsealed Monday.
Every defendant faces a racketeering charge under Georgia’s RICO law, which carries 5 to 20 years in prison. Trump personally was charged with 13 counts, including racketeering, conspiring with others around his campaign over fake electors, and several counts of soliciting a public official to violate an oath. It is the fourth criminal case against him in 2023, and he now faces 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing. He has accused District Attorney Fani Willis of “election interference” for pursuing the case while he runs for president.
What prosecutors allege
The indictment says Trump and the others “refused to accept that Trump lost” and “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” It lists 161 racketeering acts, spread across pages 20 through 71. CNN analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, said he had handled many RICO cases and had “not seen anywhere near that number.”
The centerpiece is the January 2, 2021, call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump asked him to “find” 11,780 votes, one more than the 11,779-vote margin by which he lost the state. Trump has called that call “perfect.” Willis charged him with soliciting Raffensperger to violate his oath and with making false statements during it. She listed 13 of them, among them a claim that close to 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia.
The fake-elector scheme is the second pillar. Prosecutors say people signed a certificate falsely declaring that Trump had won Georgia. Some of those electors have since struck immunity deals with Willis’s office, according to court filings. The indictment names at least 30 unindicted co-conspirators, many of them alleged participants in that plot.
A third strand concerns Coffee County, where a voting system was breached after the 2020 election. Sidney Powell, Misty Hampton, Cathy Latham and Scott Hall are charged in connection with it. Latham also faces perjury charges over a deposition in a civil election-security suit.
The indictment also accuses several defendants of falsely accusing Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman of election crimes.
Who is charged
Rudy Giuliani faces 13 counts, as many as Trump. Others named include former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and lawyers John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Ray Smith. Meadows is the highest-ranking White House official charged. Willis cited a text message he sent asking whether Fulton County signature verification could be sped up.
Chesebro’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, said his client had been giving the campaign legal advice and “stands ready to defend himself against these unfounded charges.” Eastman’s attorney, Harvey Silverglate, said he had sent Willis’s office a memo explaining why his client should not be charged. Ellis tweeted that “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law.” Meadows, Powell and Smith did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Next steps
Willis said arrest warrants were issued and each defendant had until Aug. 25 to surrender voluntarily. She wants to try all 19 together and aims for a trial within six months. A special grand jury that heard 75 witnesses, including Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, had examined the evidence the year before.
Because it is a state case, any conviction would not be subject to a presidential pardon.
The case did not reach a verdict. The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis in December 2024. In November 2025, Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over as prosecutor and, on November 26, dropped all charges against all remaining defendants. Four defendants had earlier pleaded guilty to some charges and agreed to cooperate.
Sources
- Georgia election racketeering prosecution – Wikipedia
- Former President Donald Trumpâs fourth indictment, annotated
- Trump and 18 co-defendants charged with racketeering in Georgia 2020 election probe
- Georgia election racketeering prosecution
Sources
- Georgia election racketeering prosecution – Wikipedia
- Former President Donald Trump's fourth indictment, annotated – CNN
