Seething Rudy Giuliani calls his indictment ‘an affront to American democracy’ branding Georgia officials who brought charges against him, Trump and 17 other the ‘real criminals’

A seething Rudy Giuliani has labeled his indictment an “insult to American democracy” and called the Georgia officials who brought charges against him, Donald Trump and 17 others, the “true criminals.”

The indictment lists a litany of calls from Giuliani, former President Trump and others to various state officials for the purpose of unlawfully appointing bogus voters to sway the Electoral College in Trump’s favor.

The former Trump attorney alone faces 13 felony counts, including more than harassment charges against two pollsters in Fulton County.

He said overnight that the indictment causes “permanent, irrevocable damage to our justice system.”

He called it “just the next chapter in a book full of lies designed to frame President Donald Trump and anyone willing to stand up to the ruling regime.”

“The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly,” he said.

Giuliani played a prominent public role in the Trump campaign’s efforts to advance false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The former mayor of New York City was involved in a lawsuit that was dismissed by courts and falsely claimed at local hearings in Georgia that he possessed evidence proving voter fraud.

The indictment alleges he made numerous false statements of voter fraud, including to officials in other states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, in a failed attempt to convince them to approve an alternate list of voters to keep Trump in power.

He and other Trump allies are also accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election, including allegations of vote-counting errors by Dominion voting machines. Giuliani’s attorney declined to comment.

Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, secured a 41-count indictment from a grand jury on Monday.

She told a news conference that the charges alleged “violations of Georgian law stem from a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the election in this state.”

Trump lashed out at her, saying she was “an out-of-control and very corrupt prosecutor,” declaring the allegations were part of a “witch hunt.”

The case – based on laws typically used to bring down gangsters – is the fourth case against the 77-year-old Trump this year and could mark a turning point, the first televised trial of a former president in the history of the United States. The United States.

He was charged along with Giuliani and 17 others – John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Ken Cheseboro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall and Misty Hampton.

Willis said she wants to try them all at once. They have until noon on August 25 to turn themselves in or an arrest warrant will be issued.

The case stems from a January 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” 11,780 votes — enough to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger refused to do so.

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol four days later, on January 6, in a failed attempt to prevent lawmakers from ratifying Biden’s victory.

The indictment cites a number of crimes allegedly committed by Trump or his associates, including falsely testifying to lawmakers that election fraud had occurred and urging state officials to violate their oath of office by altering the election results.

Prosecutors also cited the violation of a voting system in a rural Georgia county and the harassment of an election clerk that became the focus of conspiracy theories.

It also mentions an alleged plan to undermine the US election process by filing false electoral rolls, people who are part of the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president.

Georgia poses perhaps the most serious threat to Trump’s freedom, as he comfortably leads the field for his party’s nomination to bid for re-election.

Even if returned to the Oval Office, he would have none of the powers that presidents arguably enjoy in the federal system to pardon themselves or have prosecutors drop cases.

The harsh penalties associated with RICO cases can provide an incentive for co-defendants to seek cooperation agreements, and the statutes are usually used to deal with organized crime.

Thirty unindicted co-conspirators were named in the indictment.

Under federal law, anyone associated with a criminal “enterprise” with which crimes have been committed can be convicted under RICO. The broader Georgian law does not even require the existence of the company.

Other Trump allies were charged with accessing sensitive data from an election office in a rural county south of Atlanta, a day after the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.

Trump is already facing dozens of felonies after being charged federally with the alleged plot to undermine the election, and further prosecutions for his alleged mishandling of classified documents and keeping allegedly fraudulent business records.

Authorities in Atlanta set up security barricades outside the downtown courthouse in anticipation of a possible influx of Trump supporters and counter-protesters in the latest case.

Lawmakers scrutinizing Trump’s attempts to stay in power heard evidence during a series of congressional hearings last summer that would challenge his potential defense’s genuine belief that he had been cheated in the election.