Trump Can’t Pardon Himself Out of the Georgia Indictment

Donald Trump won’t be able to easily escape his latest indictment.

Trump was indicted for a historic fourth time late Monday. He and 18 co-defendants were charged with racketeering for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. A date has not been set for Trump’s arraignment, but arrest warrants have been issued for him and the other co-defendants. They have until August 25 at noon to surrender to state authorities.

Shockingly, Trump is still the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. And if he were to win in 2024, he would very likely try to pardon himself for the federal charges against him. He reportedly already considered doing so just before he left office.

But he won’t be able to snap his fingers and make the Georgia charges go away.

In a state case, Trump wouldn’t be able to self-pardon—and when it comes to Georgia, a Republican governor wouldn’t be able to save him either.

Georgia is one of just five states that does not issue pardons through the governor’s office. The state’s constitution dictates that pardons are determined by the Board of Paroles and Pardons. The board’s five members are appointed for seven-year terms by the governor and then confirmed by the state Senate. From then on, they operate as an independent body.

To be eligible for a pardon, a person must have completed a “full sentence obligation” and paid all fines. They must also have been “free of supervision (custodial or non-custodial) and/or criminal involvement” for five consecutive years after completing their sentence and for the five consecutive years before applying for a pardon.

So if Trump is found guilty, it will be at least five years before he can even ask for a pardon. It will be even longer if he is actually forced to serve a prison sentence. Racketeering charges in Georgia carry a minimum sentence of five years in prison and/or a minimum fine of $25,000.

A big part of why Trump is running for president is likely so he can simply stay out of prison. It’s looking like that may no longer be an option.

Donald Trump has been indicted for a fourth time in Georgia—this time for helping to lead a “criminal racketeering enterprise” in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

This case is the first indictment where we may get a mugshot of the former president. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat promised earlier this month that Trump will be treated like anyone else accused of a crime and have his mugshot taken if indicted.

“Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you,” Labat said.

In earlier indictments, Trump simply had his fingerprints taken.

But in Georgia, things are expected to be different. So we decided to imagine what Trump’s mugshot could look like.

Trump, along with his 18 co-defendants, were charged Monday with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute that prohibits racketeering. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis argued that Trump and his co-conspirators “constituted a criminal organization” in their attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.

Georiga’s RICO statute is punishable by between five to 20 years in prison.

Donald Trump was indicted Monday for a whopping fourth time, and the second time for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump and several of his top allies were charged with felony racketeering for their role in efforts to overturn the results of the election in Georgia. The 41-count indictment also goes after Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Ray Smith, along with several others. Trump himself faces 13 criminal counts.

The former president and his 18 co-defendants were charged with engaging “in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.”

The charges fall under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act), which was originally used to go after organized crime groups and mobsters. Prison sentences for those found guilty under Georgia’s RICO Act are between five and 20 years.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been steadily working her way closer to Trump for the past two years.

The charges cite Trump’s January 2, 2021 phone call begging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes—the exact amount needed to flip the state’s election results away from Joe Biden. Several of Trump’s co-defendants are also facing charges related to a breach of voting machines in Coffee County, which is a few hours south of Fulton.

A group of pro-Trump people, paid by Powell, accessed voting machines at the county’s election office. They copied sensitive data and uploaded them to a site for election deniers to access and use to try to prove the election had been rigged. Coffee County is not in Fulton’s jurisdiction, but the racketeering charge lets prosecutors point to the data breach as part of a pattern of behavior to corruptly keep Trump in office.

Trump is still—appallingly—the frontrunner in the Republican presidential race, despite the growing mountain of charges against him. The twice-impeached former president has already been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. He was indicted earlier this month for his role in inciting the January 6 riot, and he has been charged with keeping classified national defense documents without authorization, making false statements, and conspiring to obstruct justice. Trump also has been charged with business fraud in New York for his alleged role in making hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

And in classic Trump form, he’s not taking any of it well. He has attempted to block the Georgia investigation and get Willis disqualified from court proceedings. Trump also begged for a new sexual abuse trial and to toss E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against him—all to no avail.

The Fulton County Court website on Monday briefly posted—and then deleted—a document listing 39 charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election in Georgia.

The two-page document, which was first reported by Reuters’s Jack Queen, notes that Trump will be charged under 13 criminal statutes. The charges include racketeering, conspiracy, making false statements, and soliciting public officials to violate their oaths of office.

The document was dated August 14 and specifically named Trump as the defendant. It vanished from the court website after a flurry of media activity.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s office noted that Trump has not yet been charged.

“The Reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment,” a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said.

Still, the official announcement of Trump’s fourth indictment should be coming soon. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team began presenting evidence to the grand jury on Monday morning.

The document confirms earlier reports that Willis would seek racketeering, or RICO, charges against Trump. Willis will have to show evidence that Trump had created an “enterprise” in his attempt to remain in office.

CNN over the weekend reported that Willis and her team are in possession of text messages and emails “directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County.” Willis could also point to Trump’s phone call that same month to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”—the exact amount that Trump needed to win Georgia.

Trump already faces 78 criminal charges from three other indictments.

The former president has not been handling any of this news well. He kicked off his week by trying to intimidate a witness, warning in a Truth Social post on Monday that former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan “shouldn’t” testify before the grand jury.

It is no secret that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is aging, but now even his Republican colleagues are expressing growing concerns about the senator’s declining health.

Politico reported Monday that several Republican lawmakers have “grown more alarmed” at the 81-year-old senator’s fitness, and his hearing loss in particular.

One attendee of a recent Senate Republican lunch told Politico, “[McConnell] was just sitting there as the conversation went on around him.” Another even suggested to McConnell’s campaign staff that the Senate leader should consider hearing implants.

Hearing loss might explain recent accounts that McConnell has not been participating as much in weekly party meetings, and has appeared to be generally out of it. “I think he is just not processing,” one senator said of McConnell’s behavior last month.

Mitch McConnell’s worsening health had been largely out of view of the American public, until a press conference last month where he fell eerily silent, and had to be escorted away. The senator has declined to explain the incident, and whether or not it was connected to a fall he took in March which resulted in a concussion and weeks-long absence from the Senate.

In private, McConnell’s colleagues have become increasingly concerned, and some have begun planning for his eventual replacement from the Senate.

One senator previously told Politico that “the next leadership election is underway.”

Earlier this month, McConnell attended the annual Fancy Farm picnic, a real who’s-who of Kentucky politicians and McConnell’s first public event since his unnerving press conference appearance.

There, McConnell spoke in a strained voice, and was closely attended to by his wife and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Chao repeatedly had to help McConnell up from his chair, giving the impression that McConnell has not fully recovered from his episode last month.

Even Jonathan Martin, Politico’s senior political columnist, said that McConnell’s worsening health is distressing. “As somebody who’s covered McConnell for years, it’s jarring to see his decline,” Martin wrote.