'Voluntarily surrender by noon on Aug. 25': Fani Willis gives Trump and his allies deadline for arrest
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told Donald Trump and others charged that they must submit for arrest by Friday at noon.
"Subsequent to the indictment, as is the normal process in Georgia law, the grand jury issued arrest warrants for those who are charged. I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday the 25th day of Aug., 2023," she told the press late on Monday night.
After announcing the names of those who are being indicted, she also listed off the premise of her indictment of the 19 individuals and 41 counts.
"Specifically, the participants in association took various actions in Georgia and elsewhere to block the counting of the votes of the presidential electors who were certified as the winners of Georgia's 2020 general election. As you examine the indictment, you will see acts that are identified as overt acts and those are that are identified as predicate acts, sometimes called acts of racketeering activity," she explained. "Overt acts are not necessarily crimes under Georgia law in isolation but are alleged to be acts taken in furtherance of the conspiracy."
She went on to say that many occurred in Georgia, while some happened in other places, but are included because they are part of the effort to overthrow the 2020 election results in Georgia.
"The acts identified as predicate acts or acts of racketeering activity are crimes that are alleged to have been committed in furtherance of the criminal enterprise," Willis explained. "Acts of racketeering activity are also charged as separate counts in the indictment against those who are alleged to have committed them. All elections in our nations are administered by the states which are given the responsibility of ensuring a fair process and an accurate counting of the votes. That includes elections for presidential electors, Congress, state officials and local offices. The state's role in this process is essential to the functioning of our democracy. Georgia, like every state, has laws that will allow those who believe the results of an election are wrong, whether because of intentional wrongdoing or unintentional error, to challenge those results in our state courts. The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result."
Willis went on to say that she intends to try all 19 defendants together.
See her full statement and answer questions in the video below or at the link here.
Fani Willis press conference on indictment around attempt to overthrow the 2020 election www.youtube.com
