Trump indicted for racketeering

Created
Tue, 15/08/2023 - 23:00
Updated
Tue, 15/08/2023 - 23:00
18 others swept up in Georgia election crimes Where to begin with the sweeping, 98-page indictment issued by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis? The document released before midnight Monday accuses former president Donald Trump and 18 others with conducting a criminal enterprise to undermine the 2020 Georgia election results. Willis means to take this case to trial within six months. Willis’ introduction begins, “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. 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.” The 41-count indictment includes 13 directed at Trump himself, the Washington Post reports, “including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.” The indictment details 161 “overt” acts committed “in furtherance of the conspiracy” and cites 30 unindicted co-conspirators. Willis has only to prove two of the Georgia RICO charges to convict, the New York Times explains: Prosecutors need only show “a pattern of racketeering activity,” which means crimes that all were used to further the objectives of a corrupt enterprise. And the bar is fairly low. The Georgia courts have concluded that a pattern consists of at least two acts of racketeering…