Donald Trump indicted in Georgia in 2020 election interference case

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. president Donald Trump was indicted for a fourth time Monday, this time by a grand jury in Georgia, related to his alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump was hit with a fourth set of criminal charges on Monday when a Georgia grand jury issued an indictment accusing him of efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The charges, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, add to the legal woes facing Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

Prosecutors brought 11 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups.

Prosecutors charged 10 other people, including Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

The case stems from a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to "find" enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger declined to do so.

Four days later, on Jan. 6, 2021, and two weeks before Trump was due to leave office, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying Biden's victory.

Willis also investigated an alleged scheme by the Trump campaign to subvert the U.S. electoral process by submitting false slates of electors, people who make up the Electoral College that elects the president and vice president.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing. He accuses Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.

The court briefly posted a document on its website earlier on Monday listing several felony charges against Trump, but quickly removed it without explanation. Willis's office said at the time no charges had been filed and declined further comment.

Trump has already pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases.

He faces a New York state trial beginning on March 25, 2024, involving a hush money payment to a porn star, and a Florida trial beginning on May 20 in a federal classified documents case. In both cases Trump pleaded not guilty.

A third indictment, in Washington federal court, accuses him of illegally seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump denies wrongdoing in this case as well, and a trial date has yet to be set.

Donald Trump's lawyers on Monday urged a Washington, D.C., federal judge to restrict only "genuinely sensitive materials" in the former U.S. president's 2020 election case from being released to the public ahead of trial.

"In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights," Trump's lawyers said in court papers filed on Monday, referring to the right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to four charges in a Washington, D.C., federal court, in connection with his role in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election which he lost to President Joe Biden.

The four-count indictment alleges Trump conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Biden's victory, and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.

The 77-year-old, who is making a bid to return to the White House as the Republican nominee in the 2024 election, is facing charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct and official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Prosecutors on Friday had asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan for a protective order limiting how evidence from the trial may be handled. That filing pointed to a post from Trump on his Truth Social site that said, "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!"

Georgia, once reliably Republican, has emerged as one of a handful of politically competitive states that can determine the outcome of presidential elections.

Trump persists in falsely claiming he won the November 2020 election although dozens of court cases and state probes have found no evidence to support his claim.