PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: Good, evening and welcome to the "NewsHour."

For the fourth time this year, former President Donald Trump is defendant Donald Trump.

Late yesterday, a grand jury in Georgia charged Mr. Trump and 18 others and a far-reaching racketeering case related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

LISA DESJARDINS: Today on social media, Donald Trump lashing out, calling the latest indictment a witch-hunt and promising to release his own report alleging election fraud next week... SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): They're trying to take Donald Trump down.

LISA DESJARDINS: ... while his Republican allies rally to his defense.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): This is disgraceful, it is wrong, and it is an abuse of power by angry Democrats.

LISA DESJARDINS: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called the chargers a desperate sham, saying: "The radical DA in Georgia is following Biden's lead."

The latest charges were voted on by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, late yesterday and announced by district attorney Fani Willis, who led the two-and-a-half year investigation into Trump and the 2020 election.

FANI WILLIS (D), Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney: The indictment alleges that, rather than by abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result.

LISA DESJARDINS: The Georgia indictment charges Trump and 18 others with a combined 41 counts in a wide-ranging case, among them, violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, Act, often used to prosecute organized crime, soliciting a violation of oath by a public officer, filing false documents, and making false statements.

Willis launched the investigation in February 2021,a few weeks after audiotape revealed Trump knew he was short of votes in the state, but asked Georgia's secretary of state to change the outcome anyway.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: All I want to do is this.

I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.

LISA DESJARDINS: The allegations expanded to a multipronged criminal conspiracy, including false claims of election fraud, a scheme to appoint fake electors, tampering with voting machines and harassment of election workers.

Alongside Trump, the indictment charges several co-defendants from his inner circle, lawyers Rudy Giuliani Sidney Powell and John Eastman, his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, and other Georgia Republican officials.

This is the fourth indictment of the former president this year, bringing the number of felony charges against him to 91.

The Georgia case into election interference overlaps with federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith earlier this month, but the state charges are seen by legal experts as significant on their own.

Unlike the DOJ case, Trump could not pardon himself or attempt to shut down the Georgia investigation if he is reelected president next year.

FANI WILLIS: The grand jury issued arrest warrants for those who are charged.

LISA DESJARDINS: In the meantime, all defendants are to surrender by the end of next week for processing and mug shots, including one to be taken of Trump.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.