What charges did the Fulton County indictment against Donald Trump allege and what is the case status?
Executive summary
The Fulton County indictment returned August 14, 2023, accuses former President Donald J. Trump and 18 co-defendants of taking part in a sprawling scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results, anchored by a racketeering (RICO) theory and dozens of felony counts [1] [2]. The case has proceeded through arrests, pleas by some co-defendants, extensive pretrial litigation including efforts to move portions of the cases to federal court, and judicial trimming of several counts—Trump pleaded not guilty and remained entangled in motions practice as of the sources’ reporting [3] [4] [1].
1. The indictment’s frame: RICO and an enterprise accusation
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis presented a 98‑page indictment that frames the alleged conduct as the actions of a criminal enterprise under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute — a charging choice that bundles many related acts into a single theory of coordinated wrongdoing [1] [2]. The grand jury returned what prosecutors described as a multi‑count indictment tied to 16 separate Georgia statutes and cataloged roughly 161 alleged acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, signaling prosecutors’ intent to knit disparate events (phone calls, public statements, alleged document tampering and more) into a single criminal narrative [1].
2. The principal charges alleged against Trump
Reporting and indictment materials show the case includes racketeering counts as its centerpiece along with multiple ancillary felony allegations: solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy-related counts tied to creation and use of alternate “pro‑Trump” electors, and alleged efforts to obtain or access voting materials and data — all described in service of overturning Georgia’s certified result [2] [5] [1]. Published docket summaries and draft filings indicated the indictment contained dozens of counts overall, with at least 39 charges in some clerical drafts and roughly a dozen or more counts naming Trump specifically [6] [7].
3. Broader allegations sketched in the indictment
The indictment, and contemporaneous reporting, ties several episodes to the alleged scheme: the phone call in which Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" votes, the organization of alternate slates of electors, alleged computer intrusions by some allies, and a pattern of communications and actions meant to create or amplify claims of fraud — claims that were widely litigated and rejected in other forums [1] [8] [5]. Prosecutors also listed numerous unindicted and unnamed co‑conspirators, a move that underscores the wide net of the charging document but does not itself detail proof of each participant’s guilt [1].
4. Co‑defendants, plea deals and early dispositions
Several defendants in the Fulton probe accepted plea deals and cooperated: Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro pled guilty and were sentenced under agreements that included probation and cooperation terms, and Jenna Ellis likewise pled and was sentenced, signaling that some pieces of the prosecution’s theory were resolved short of trial [1]. Other high‑profile defendants pursued aggressive pretrial strategies, including attempts to remove their cases to federal court; those removal bids were in many instances denied or remain contested in the record [1] [9].
5. Arrest, arraignment, pleadings and the litigation posture
Trump surrendered and was booked in late August 2023, posting a pre‑negotiated $200,000 bond and having a booking photograph taken — a procedural milestone that accompanied an arraignment and his formal plea of not guilty on state charges on August 31, 2023 [3] [4]. What followed was extended pretrial litigation: defendants filed motions seeking dismissal or federal removal, the court heard demurrers and special motions, and Judge Scott McAfee struck several counts in 2024 for lack of specificity and constitutional concerns, reflecting an active and narrowing set of claims even as other charges remained [4]. Available reporting documents the case’s complex procedural posture but does not provide a single final judgment on every count across all defendants in the sources supplied [4] [6].