'It's A Witch Hunt': Trump On Being Indicted Over 2020 Election Meddling Charges

The case is the fourth targeting Donald Trump this year and could lead to the first televised trial of a former president in US history.

Atlanta prosecutors charged the Republican leader with 13 felony counts

Former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the decision to indict him on charges of racketeering and a election meddling following a probe into his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden. In his TruthSocial platform Trump wrote, "Sounds rigged to me! Why didn't they indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Witch hunt!"

The case is the fourth against the 77-year-old Republican this year and could lead to the first televised trial of a former president in US history.

Atlanta prosecutors charged the Republican leader with 13 felony counts – compounding the legal threats he is facing in multiple jurisdictions as his bid for a second White House term continues.

Trump was charged with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as six conspiracy counts over alleged efforts to commit forgery, impersonate a public official and submit false statements and documents. As per AFP, RICO statutes are used to target organised crime. Anyone connected to a criminal “enterprise” through which offences were committed can be convicted under RICO.  Georgia law doesn't even require the existence of the enterprise.

Georgia, once a solidly Republican state, has now evolved into a politically competitive state capable of determining the outcome of presidential elections.

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

A state trial is scheduled to begin on March 5, 2024, in New York, relating to a hush money payment to a porn star. Subsequently, a federal trial involving classified documents is set to commence in Florida on May 20. In both cases, Trump has entered a plea of not guilty. A third indictment in a Washington federal court accuses him of unlawfully attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat; however, a trial date has yet to be determined.

Trump continues to persistently assert that he won the November 2020 election, despite numerous court cases and state investigations finding no evidence to support his claims, as reported by Reuters.