The former US president is charged of plotting to rig the 2020 election, along with 18 other defendants.
An unnamed law enforcement person familiar with the investigation told CNN that former US President Donald Trump, who is accused with racketeering and 12 other felonies in the state of Georgia, is scheduled to appear for booking at the Fulton County jail on Thursday or Friday.
Last Monday, District Attorney Fani Willis released the 41-count indictment against Trump and 18 other defendants, imposing a deadline for their surrender of August 25. CNN noted that it was difficult to predict when Trump would arrive because talks between his attorneys and the government might go on past the deadline.
Trump and the other defendants, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, could show up to the Atlanta jail at any time to turn themselves in. According to information from the district attorney’s office and the presiding judge, it is currently anticipated that all 19 suspects mentioned in the indictment will be booked at the Rice Street Jail, which is “open 24/7,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, also known as RICO, is the state’s organised criminal law that the former president is claimed to have broken. A number of counts of conspiracy to tamper with an election, perjury, and other counts for recruiting a public official to break their oath are also included in the indictment. In addition to Trump, a long number of present and former solicitors, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, are charged with attempting to void Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Federal prosecutors had previously slapped Trump with dozens of felony counts for the alleged misuse of secret material after he left the White House in 2021, making the new accusations his fourth criminal indictment this year alone. In addition, he is facing charges in New York for allegedly paying Stormy Daniels hush money during his 2016 campaign. Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the secret materials trial, is simultaneously prosecuting him in a separate election interference case.
Trump, who has declared his candidature for president in 2024, has denied all wrongdoing in each instance, claiming he has been unfairly singled out in a politically driven “witch hunt” that started while he was still in office.
The New York Times reports that Trump allegedly chose to forego attending the first GOP primary debate scheduled for the following week in Milwaukee in favour of an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
