Rico and the Man
Well, Georgia didn’t find 11,780 votes for Donald Trump. But they did find 13 counts against him, a total of 41 charges, 18 co-defendants, 30 unindicted co-conspirators, 161 separate alleged overt acts, and 98 pages of a fourth indictment that is the first legal document to broadly lay out the Trump-led scheme to overthrow an election and defraud America. AP: Trump and 18 allies charged in Georgia election meddling as former president faces 4th criminal case. From Trump, there will be a lot of bluster and lot more Tamper Tantrums. Here’s why: A president cannot pardon a person convicted of a state crime in Georgia. Neither can the governor of Georgia. All the ALL CAPS and racketeerdrops in the world can’t change that fact.
+ This is a RICO case (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), under which Trump is accused of leading broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the election result. As the indictment explains: “Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.”
+ From the NYT (Gift Article), here’s a look at all 19 people charged. There’s almost no doubt that some of these defendants will plead out or flip. The nearterm question is who flips first. The co-defendant list includes Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, who once had a reputation for the groundbreaking use of the racketeering law he now finds himself charged under. (Rudy has called for a press conference at the Four Seasons Total Georgia State Prison.)
+ “Bizarrely, there is a temptation to not even bother with the details, no matter how remarkable they may be. That which was unthinkable has now become something of a political routine: another week, another indictment.” But this is not just another political story. It’s not even just another mob story. The New Yorker: In Georgia, Trump and His Gang Get the Mob Treatment.
+ Because there’s no pardon option available to Trump and his crew in Georgia, there will be a massive legal (and otherwise) effort to get the trial moved to federal court. And there’s already Georgia’s conveniently timed creation of a “commission empowered to discipline and remove wayward prosecutors, saying it will curb ‘far-left prosecutors’ who are ‘making our communities less safe.'” But don’t underestimate Fani Willis. How Fani Willis oversaw what might be the most sprawling legal case against Donald Trump.
+ While the latest indictment lists 18 co-defendants and 30 unindicted co-conspirators, I’d argue that the latter group could number in the hundreds, if not thousands. Everyone who propped up the big lie and continues to cravenly pretend that the justice system is being weaponized against Trump is part of this ongoing crime.
+ In a sign of the times, last night NBC news interrupted their reporting of one Trump crime with breaking news about another Trump crime.
