Donald Trump has now been impeached four times this year, as he leads the polls for his re-election to the White House in 2024.
Trump, the current 2024 GOP front-runner, was indicted Tuesday on state charges from Georgia’s Fulton County.
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeff Clark, John Eastman, and others, have also been charged outside the years-long investigation.
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The charges include violating the Georgia RICO Act—the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act; Soliciting a Violation of the Oath of a Public Official; Conspiracy to Impersonate a Public Official; Conspiracy to Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Make False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Soliciting a Violation of the Oath of a Public Official.
In a guest essay, the former George W. Bush administration official said the DOJ’s prosecution of Trump could result in large parts of the country viewing the institution as politicized and corrupt. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Georgia Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave Trump and 18 other dependents until August 25 to surrender. Willis said Monday night at a press conference that he wants the trial to take place within six months.
Trump was first indicted in March from a years-long investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg related to hush payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Bragg said Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that withheld damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
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Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York.
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2023/04/18: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg attends a briefing on the arrest of suspects in connection with 2 men who were drugged, robbed and killed at NYPD Headquarters . Members of the LGBTQ community were targeted in those incidents. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump in connection with payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The Federal Election Commission also dropped its investigation into the matter in 2021.
Those charges from Bragg come amid Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach , Fla.
Fulton County Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Fani Willis speaks at a news conference on April 14, 2015, in Atlanta, Ga. (Kent D. Johnson/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
A few months later, on June 8, Trump was, for the first time, indicted on federal criminal charges outside of that classified record investigation.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges from that probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.
Last month, on July 27, Trump was indicted on three additional counts as part of a superseding indictment from the Smith investigation—an additional count of knowingly withholding national defense information and two additional counts of obstruction.
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Trump aide and valet Waltine Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliviera were also indicted from Smith’s investigation.
Smith is also investigating whether Trump was involved in the riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and any alleged interference in the 2020 election results.
Jack Smith, US special counsel, speaks at a news conference in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On August 1, Trump was indicted on four federal charges stemming from Smith’s January 6 investigation.
Trump pleaded guilty to all charges, which include conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempted obstruction and official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
However, Trump’s allies pointed to the timing of the indictments, stressing that the charges against the former president came only after some kind of critical news or development from the federal investigation into Hunter Biden and others. congressional investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
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On June 8, Fox News Digital exclusively reported details contained in a classified FBI-generated form FD-1023 alleging that Joe Biden, while serving as vice president, was paid $5 million by a Ukrainian natural gas executive firm Burisma Holdings, where his son Hunter Biden sits on the board.
Hours later, Smith indicted Trump on charges related to the classified records probe.
Joe and Hunter Biden at Fort McNair. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
On July 26, Hunter Biden was forced to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor tax charges and one federal felony gun charge, after breaking his plea deal. A day later, Trump was indicted in Smith’s superseding indictment.
On July 31, the House Oversight Committee heard testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer. Archer testified that Joe Biden spoke with Hunter’s foreign business partners at least 20 times, despite Biden’s repeated claims that he was never involved in his son’s businesses.
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Trump was indicted on August 1 from Smith’s investigation on January 6.
“When Biden’s corruption is exposed, the government targets Trump,” the Trump team said. “This is the Biden playbook.”
Meanwhile, the latest polls show Trump leading the crowded 2024 GOP primary field. The RealClearPolitics average has Trump leading the GOP primary field by 39.7 points, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in second place.
In a head-to-head between Trump and Biden, the RCP average has Biden at 44.8 percent and Trump at 44.1 percent.
“This politically motivated allegation, which may have been brought as close as three years ago, is tailored for proper placement in the middle of my political campaign, where I am leading all Republicans—by a lot—and defeating Joe Biden in almost all the polls,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
