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Trump seeks to weaponize Georgia indictment in 2024 race

by Jared Gans and Julia Mueller - 08/16/23 6:00 AM ET

Former President Trump and his allies are looking to weaponize his mounting legal woes after he and 18 co-defendants were indicted Monday night by a grand jury in Georgia on charges related to interference in the 2020 presidential election, the fourth criminal case brought against Trump this year.

The 98-page indictment alleges Trump and his allies pushed a pressure campaign against Georgia election officials to reverse the former president’s 2020 loss and put forth an alternative slate of electors to assert he had won. The charges facing the former president include multiple counts of conspiracy, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath of office and racketeering — a statute normally associated with mobsters.

Trump lashed out at investigators even before the indictment was handed up and did not waste any time in responding, denouncing the indictment itself as election interference intended to hurt him as he runs in the 2024 presidential race. He re-raised arguments he made in the aftermath of the other three indictments, saying that they show a double standard of the justice system specifically targeting him.

The former president’s allies will now likely seek to capitalize on the indictment, painting a picture of a weaponized federal government in order to help Trump lock up the Republican nomination for the presidency and try to set up a path back to the White House.

Saul Anuzis, a Republican strategist and former Michigan GOP chairman, said he thinks Trump has “done a very good job of framing” his legal woes, facilitating his supporters to buy into his “premise” of two-tiered, targeted justice.

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“Most of these indictments right now are being viewed by his supporters as being politically motivated,” Anuzis said.

“I think, until they actually come to fruition somehow, they are probably helping him solidify his base [and getting] others to think he is unfairly being treated,” Anuzis said of the four indictments, but he noted that Trump can still take advantage of them — via fundraising or media attention — if they do progress further.

After more than two years of investigation — led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) — into Trump and his allies’ attempts to intervene in his reelection loss in the state, Trump is now facing 13 new charges, bringing Trump’s tally across his four indictments this year to 91 criminal counts.

“No, I didn’t tamper with the election! Those who rigged & stole the election were the ones doing the tampering, & they are the slime that should be prosecuted,” Trump wrote in one Truth Social post.

Trump and his campaign have argued that the Georgia case could have been brought years ago, alleging that the indictment comes now as “election interference” as Trump tries to get back to the White House in 2024.

The former president has similarly dismissed each of the indictments he’s faced so far and pleaded not guilty to all charges at arraignments for the first three cases. An arraignment for the Georgia case has yet to occur.

Trump was first indicted in April on charges of falsifying business records following an investigation from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D). After two probes led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, Trump faces charges related to his classified and sensitive document handling, as well as charges related to the 2020 transfer of power surrounding Jan. 6, 2021.

Judges appointed by Republican lawmakers are overseeing two of Trump’s four criminal cases: Judge Scott McAfee, appointed by Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, will handle the state’s case against Trump, and Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon is presiding over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents case.

To Trump supporters looking at the legal battles, which Anuzis described as “all from very partisan [district attorneys] and anti-Trump sectors,” the latest indictment “in and of itself does appear to be a way to weaponize the legal system against Trump,” he said.

Trump himself has made those arguments, bashing Bragg, Smith and Willis — and arguing that he’s the target of a “witch hunt.”

The former president also moved immediately to fundraise off his first federal indictment, framing it as an existential threat and warning that “we are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes.”

Trump has threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family if he were reelected. As a 2016 presidential candidate, Trump regularly stoked chants of “lock her up” against his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and called for her to be investigated and jailed. He also said at a 2016 campaign rally that a president under an indictment would cause a constitutional crisis, as first noted by CNN.

“With all of his legal challenges, he’s used a similar tactic, which is to cast it as a political prosecution that he’s being targeted, that the justice system is treating him one way and treating the Bidens and others differently,” said GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak.

“That message has been pretty consistent, irrespective of the charges, the specific charges, the jurisdiction, the people involved,” he said, arguing that tactic has been “pretty successful at rallying Republicans” as Trump campaigns for 2024.

“I think he’s gonna be really consistent and use this to fundraise,” Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist and former Senate leadership aide, said of Trump and his indictment messaging, adding that the former president will use “his grassroots MAGA supporters to try to really capitalize on this significant moment.”

Bonjean said alleged “political persecution” is the only topic Trump has been able to remain on message with when addressing voters.

“Nineteen people [indicted] tonight, including the former President of the United States, me, by an out of control and very corrupt District Attorney who campaigned and raised money on, ‘I will get Trump,’” Trump said of the Georgia charges in another Truth Social post.

Trump also referenced an incident Monday in which Reuters published a premature report of the indictment. The outlet later clarified that the Georgia court’s website briefly posted a document listing criminal charges “before taking the document down without explanation.”

The charges that the document listed ultimately were the charges that the grand jury approved for Trump later in the day. The Fulton County clerk’s office later said in a statement that the document was a “sample working document” being used for a “trial run.”

“And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me!” Trump said.

Others in the GOP have piled on to back up Trump’s claims as each of his latest legal complications have come down.

“Trump has been indicted again. Every time there is bad news about Hunter and Joe Biden, another Trump indictment immediately follows—do they think the American people are stupid? It’s beyond belief – total weaponization,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) after the news of the Georgia charges.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Biden and Democrats of weaponizing the justice system because “they are afraid of the voters.”

“This is disgraceful, it is wrong, and it is an abuse of power by angry Democrats who have decided the rule of law doesn’t matter to them,” he said during an appearance on Fox News.

“All of these communist indictments are about silencing President Trump’s speech and ultimately YOUR free speech,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Greene called out a clarification on the indictment document that had been prematurely shared, writing, “Fani Willis thinks we’re stupid. The charges against President Trump were published on a government website, now they are ‘fictitious???’”

But Republican strategists predict that Trump’s long-standing framing of the legal woes as a witch hunt will likely mean this fourth indictment doesn’t alienate his base — or even tip the scales for some undecided voters.

“I don’t think there’s that many undecided people that are being moved by this. I do not believe any of his supporters are pulling away because of it. And for his opponents, it’s just one more talking point,” Anuzis said.

Bonjean, though, underscored that the stacking indictments could be crucial during the general election — if Trump wins the GOP nomination and goes against likely Democratic nominee President Biden — as the former president looks to secure swing voters.

“This is not helpful for swing voters. I mean, swing voters are looking at the landslide of indictments,” Bonjean said. “And that does work against him in a general election. But right now … he can easily play the victim.”

Mackowiak said the effectiveness of Trump’s strategy of focusing on alleged political motives and not on the specifics of the case will become more limited as the general election approaches, and as the various cases progress.

“What will be interesting to see is whether his political strategy … ultimately starts to diverge, and whether they’re able to thread that needle. Generally, lawyers don’t want you talking about active litigation, active cases,” he said.

“We’re in a unique circumstance here where we have an active candidate for president of the United States running for president again. And so, he’s gonna want to both win in court and with public opinion, with the electorate, and those two things may be in direct conflict here before too long.”