Donald Trump speaks during an event. File

Donald Trump faced a new set of legal woes on Tuesday after a Georgia grand jury used a law developed to take down organised crime gangs to charge the former US president in a scheme for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The charges, brought late on Monday by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charge Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination and 18 associates for a scheme intended to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The sprawling 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal counts in all.

All the defendants were charged with racketeering, which is used to target members of organised crime groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman were among those charged.

"Rather than abide by Georgia's legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal, racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia's presidential election result," Willis said at a press conference.

Trump and the other defendants have until noon on Friday (Aug. 25), to surrender voluntarily, rather than face arrest, Willis said.

She said she intends to try all 19 defendants together.

"We look forward to a detailed review of this indictment, which is undoubtedly just as flawed and unconstitutional as this entire process has been," Trump lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg said in a statement.

Trump called the indictment a "witch hunt" in a social media post and accused Willis of trying to sabotage his presidential comeback bid.

He said he would release a report on Monday on "Presidential Election Fraud" that would exonerate him. "They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!" he said.

Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has repeatedly made false claims that the election was marred by widespread fraud.

Those claims have been rejected by courts, state reviews and members of his own administration.

Giuliani, who rose to national prominence by using racketeering laws to take down New York mobsters in the 1980s, said prosecutors in this case were "the real criminals."

Lawyers for other defendants either declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters