[1/5]Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on August 12, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Aug 14 (Reuters) – A grand jury in Georgia probing Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss handed up a criminal indictment on Monday, but it was unclear whether the charges involved the former president.
Fulton County Court officials handed the indictments to Judge Robert McBurney but did not make them public.
Media accounts showed images of a cover sheet saying the grand jury had returned 10 indictments, but did not say who was indicted or what charges were filed.
The lawsuit, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis, could add to the legal problems facing Trump, who is leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Earlier, Fulton County Clerk of Court Chey Alexander told reporters it could take up to three hours to process indictments after they are accepted by a judge.
It stems from a January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensberger, to “find” enough votes to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Raffensperger refused to do so.
Four days later, on January 6, 2021, two weeks before Trump leaves office, Biden’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to block lawmakers from winning.
Willis also examined the Trump campaign’s alleged plan to subvert the US electoral process by having electors, members of the Electoral College who elect the president and vice president, submit false ballots.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accused Willis, an elected Democrat, of being politically motivated.
Trump, 77, has been criminally indicted three times so far this year, including once on charges that US special counsel Jack Smith tried to overturn his election loss.
He has long dismissed several investigations, including two accusations he faced during his years in politics, of politically motivated “witch hunts.”
(This story has been rephrased to change ‘imagination’ to ‘pictures’ in paragraph 3)
Jacqueline Thompson, Joseph Ax and Sarah N. Additional reporting by Lynch; By Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Koller
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