What Georgia's racketeering charges could mean for Trump
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the fourth indictment of former president Donald Trump, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis alleges that Trump and 18 others participated in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
To do so, Willis is hoping to use the same legal tactic federal prosecutors have traditionally used to prosecute mafia bosses.
“She's using a statute in Georgia called the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which mirrors a federal law that was originally written to go after the mafia in New York City,” Washington Post national political correspondent Amy Gardner said. “And so basically what she's doing is accusing the former president, Donald Trump, of being the head of a criminal enterprise whose purpose was to steal the 2020 election.
Gardner joins Post Reports today to explain what makes Trump’s latest indictment unique, and the bar the district attorney will need to clear to secure a conviction.
Read more:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | My colleague, Amy Gardner, covers voting in elections for the post. |
| 0:06.9 | And lately, that means spending a lot of time in Georgia. |
| 0:11.6 | I've been back and forth a lot. |
| 0:13.2 | I should fly Delta because then I would do better in Atlanta. |
| 0:17.8 | Three years ago, Amy broke the news that Donald Trump had called Georgia Secretary of State |
| 0:22.9 | Brad Raffensberger asking him to find enough votes to change Georgia's election results. |
| 0:29.5 | The state had been called for Biden in the 2020 election. |
| 0:33.0 | So, look, all I want to do is this. |
| 0:36.7 | I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have because we want to say, |
| 0:50.1 | don't, don't tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? |
| 0:53.6 | We want the election and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. |
| 0:58.6 | That is going to be very costly in many ways. |
| 1:03.0 | That phone call got the attention of Fulton County District Attorney, Fanny Willis. |
| 1:08.4 | And that call was on January 2nd, 2021, and she launched her investigation just a couple |
| 1:15.7 | of weeks later. |
| 1:18.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:22.4 | I'm Rhonda Kulvin and I'm your guest host today. |
| 1:25.2 | It's Wednesday, August 16. |
| 1:27.7 | Did Trump engage in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election? |
| 1:33.6 | We dig into the indictment in Georgia and what sets it apart from Trump's other legal |
| 1:38.0 | troubles. |
| 1:39.8 | Amy, if you could lay out for us, what exactly is DA Fanny Willis charging Trump and his |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.