A court in Georgia has charged Donald Trump with trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
Among the charges is “solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer” – in other words trying to persuade someone to betray their office.
It is the fourth set of charges against the former president this year.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought 13 counts against Trump and 18 of his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is most often used to target members of organized crime groups.
In a press conference, DA Willis gave Trump and all his fellow accused until noon on 25 August to surrender to police.
She added that she hoped to get a trial date within the next six months and planned to try all 19 defendants together.
According to Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act it is a crime to participate in, acquire or maintain control of an “enterprise” through a “pattern of racketeering activity” or to conspire to do so.
The scheme the charge relates to does not need to have been successful for it to be considered criminal.
Several other people have been charged including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s former lawyer and ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, another of Trump’s ex-lawyers.
In a statement passed to US broadcaster NBC by an adviser, Giuliani said: “This is an affront to American democracy and does permanent, irrevocable harm to our justice system. It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime. They lied about Russian collusion, they lied about Joe Biden’s foreign bribery scheme, and they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive proving 30 years of criminal activity.
“The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly.”
