Donald Trump added yet another indictment to his list of court cases which is getting longer while the Republican primaries loom. The former president, along with 18 others, was charged by prosecutor Fani T. Willis with conspiring to “illegally change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia released the indictment Monday night. The investigation began in February and has seen a parade of numerous witnesses. Willis’ months of work led to arrest warrants for 19 defendants, who face 41 charges in total and have been given until noon on Friday, August 25, to surrender voluntarily.
As in the four previous cases, the Republicans closest to Trump protested the accusations and those farther removed from the former president celebrated it, taking the opportunity to criticize the tycoon.
Republican reactions to Trump’s indictment in Georgia
The first mention of the events from Congress came from the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). He chose to speak out on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election,” he wrote.
Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election.
Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career.
Americans…
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) August 15, 2023
“Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career.”
Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the case is “the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT,” adding that the former president “did nothing wrong.”
Today’s indictment is just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump.
He did nothing wrong!
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 15, 2023
Ted Cruz (R-TX) was one of the Senators to remark on the events. The Texas senator directly aimed at the prosecutor, stating that she entered the case “with an objective to indict Donald Trump.”
“Democrats don’t believe in democracy because they’re worried that voters don’t want four more years of the disaster that is Joe Biden. They want to abuse the judicial system to take that option away from voters,” added the author of “Justice Corrupted: How the left weaponized our legal system.”
This prosecutor went in with an objective to indict Donald Trump.
Dems don't believe in democracy because they're worried the voters don't want four more years of the disaster that is Joe Biden.
They want to abuse the justice system to take that choice away from voters. https://t.co/82CcPf5fWv
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 15, 2023
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined the Trump campaign and said she has no doubt that he is the victim of political persecution. “Once again, the radical left is targeting the Republican front-runner, President Trump, to distract attention from the corruption of the Biden family,” she said.
Trump’s primary rivals did not let the occasion pass without comments either. Vivek Ramaswamy was quick to criticize the accusation and Fani Willis.
“Since the four prosecutions against Trump are using novel & untested legal theories, it’s fair game for him to do the same in defense: immediately file a motion to dismiss for a constitutional due process violation for publicly issuing an indictment before the grand jury had actually signed one. He should make a strong argument on these grounds & it would send a powerful message to the ever-expansive prosecutorial police state,” he wrote in X.
“As someone who’s running for President against Trump, I’d volunteer to write the amicus brief to the court myself: prosecutors should not be deciding U.S. presidential elections, and if they’re so overzealous that they commit constitutional violations, then the cases should be thrown out & they should be held accountable.”
“Trump’s actions disqualified him from serving as president”
Republican opponents of the current candidate seized on the new accusation to criticize him. As with the previous indictment, Asa Hutchinson fired away at his opponent in the primaries and questioned his credentials to return to the White House.
Read my statement on the fourth indictment of #DonaldTrump.
Donald Trump has disqualified himself from ever holding our nation’s highest office again.
I’m ready to take the case to him on the debate stage. Help me qualify here: https://t.co/0t63rhb8WJ pic.twitter.com/id3lBljEHe
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) August 15, 2023
“Donald Trump has disqualified himself from ever holding our nation’s highest office again. (...) As a former federal prosecutor, I have personally pursued racketeering charges in federal courts against terrorist organizations, and I understand the difficulty of a multi-defendant indictment and how slow the case will proceed in state court.”
