As virtually all are aware, Fulton County (GA) District Attorney Fani Willis has announced an indictment issued by a Fulton County Grand Jury against former President Donald Trump and 18 other named co-conspirators under Georgia’s state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (“RICO”), alleging they conspired to unlawfully overturn Mr. Trump’s Georgia 2020 presidential election loss.
The indictment reportedly runs to 100 pages. I haven’t read it. Although one can never be sure, it appears to be the last major shoe to drop of the criminal hazards that legal commentators have been indicating for months might well be brought against Mr. Trump and one or more of his cohort arising from their alleged insurrectionist activities following the 2020 presidential election.
One doesn’t need a legal background to surmise that any case with so many charges against so many defendants (and thus, involving so many, many defense lawyers 😉 ) is not going to trial any time soon.
The hallmark of our criminal justice system is that all defendants are presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by the unanimous verdict of 12 citizen jurors. As those of us who fear for our democracy if Mr. Trump returns to the White House are acutely aware, prosecutors’ daunting challenge in each of the two federal cases now pending against Mr. Trump respectively for attempting to defraud the United States and for mishandling of classified documents, in the New York case alleging his falsification of business records in violation of NY state law, and in the Georgia RICO case, is to get all 12 jurors to find him guilty. Mr. Trump will be free if — in a polarized, hyper-toxic political environment rife with propaganda in which he will be supported by a rabid cult already shown to be willing to use intimidation and violence on his behalf — he can persuade just one juror in each case that he is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
That said: one set of charges in the Georgia case stands out to me: three counts against Mr. Trump for “Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Official.” All of us have heard the recording of Mr. Trump’s phone call with Republican GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Mr. Trump – despite Mr. Raffensperger’s assurances that there was no evidence that Georgia’s presidential vote tallies were materially inaccurate — asked Mr. Raffensperger to “… find 11,780 votes” after Georgia state officials had officially reported that President Joe Biden’s margin of victory in the state was 11,779. As far as I know, Mr. Trump has never denied that the call occurred nor claimed that the tape is doctored.
The evidence seems damning. It has brought home to me the magnitude of the challenge facing Mr. Trump. The former president is facing four sets of able prosecutors (although Special Counsel Jack Smith leads both federal prosecutions, presumably he has two able lieutenants respectively leading separate teams dedicated to each of the federal cases) asserting tens of felony counts against him in four forums (at least three presumably hostile, whose jurisdiction is nonetheless legally unassailable). To retain his liberty, he has to run the table – get a Not Guilty verdict on them all. If Mr. Trump is found guilty on just one of these many felony counts he faces (let’s save perhaps for another day the scope of the Constitutional power of Pardon he might have regarding his own federal felony convictions if inaugurated president in 2025), he is seemingly done for.
So from either side of the table: It takes just one.
McCoy's Noise 