- Title: 'This is the main event' - legal expert on latest Trump indictment
- Date: 2nd August 2023
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 2, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL, PROFESSOR OF LAW, JOHN COFFEE, SAYING: “The Georgia, the Fulton County district attorney is hinting that she's going to indict Trump under the Georgia State RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] Statute and that she will name everybody. So, Rudy Giuliani and others may well get indicted in a giant circus trial down in Georgia. The problem with that kind of trial is it can't be over within even six months.â€
- Embargoed: 16th August 2023 16:10
- Keywords: 2020 election Trump indictment legal reaction
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA009175002082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A legal expert characterized the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump as "the main event" in an interview with Reuters Wednesday (August 2).
"This is center stage. This is American history," said John Coffee, professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Trump was indicted on Tuesday (August 1) for his wide-ranging attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the third time in four months that the former U.S. president has been criminally charged even as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year.
“What stands out to me above all else is that this indictment, which is very well written, is aimed at one thing: expediting the possibility of a trial before the '24 election," Coffee said.
The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Republican Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.
Then-President Trump pushed fraud claims he knew to be untrue, pressured state and federal officials - including Vice President Mike Pence - to alter the results and finally incited a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in a desperate attempt to undermine American democracy and cling to power, prosecutors said.
Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday (August 3). The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.
(Production: Christine Kiernan) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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