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Re: TRUMP Giuliani, Meadows +16 Charged With Racketeering/Perjury/Theft Under 'MAFIA'
TRUMP, Giuliani, Meadows +16 CHARGED- FOURTH Indictment (95 Pages) is The BIGGEST And The Most Serious Yet
Giuliani, Meadows Ensnared With TRUMP in Georgia Indictment
TRUMP: 'Taking Republican Party Straight to The Ditch'
BBC 15 AUG 2023
TRUMP and 18 allies, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorney Rudy Giuliani, are accused of trying to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential election results in an indictment handed down Monday night. 13 new criminal charges.
Donald Trump and 18-codefendants have been indicted under a law that is engineered to prosecute the mob. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has assembled the most comprehensive and wide-ranging indictment of the Trump accountability era, depicting Trump and his allies’ attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a “criminal enterprise.”
The 41-count grand jury indictment claims Trump and his co-defendants “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere.” It doesn’t shy away from naming names.
The first page lists all 19 co-defendants and the adjacent 41 counts they’re accused of. Donald Trump is accused of 13 of the 41 counts, and his co-defendants include his former Chief of Staff, his former lawyers, a former DOJ official, a Georgia state GOP chair, fake electors, and county election officials.
The 19 defendants are Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael A Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton. The charges are serious and include racketeering, conspiracy to commit election fraud, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, criminal attempt to influence witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury.
The indictment outlines a sprawling criminal conspiracy built on the foundation of Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law. This law gives DA Willis the tools to piece together a “pattern of racketeering activity” encompassing multiple defendants who conspired to commit crimes as part of a broader, collaborative goal. And a pattern of organized criminal activity is exactly what is outlined in this indictment. Donald Trump and his allies were held accountable for just about every alleged criminal act we saw outlined in the January 6 hearings and more acts we didn’t know about until this week.
The indictment is structured around the 41 counts, with the bulk of the indictment detailing count 1: Violations of Georgia’s RICO Act. This section presents a robust timeline outlining the conduct of Trump and his co-conspirators, breaking down the methods and acts of the alleged “criminal enterprise.” The timeline spans conduct from October 2020 all the way to September 2022 and includes conduct that took place nationwide in furtherance of the conspiracy, including in Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. All 19 of the co-defendants are accused of this count and the conduct outlined within the count.
The indictment details the fake elector plot that included false statements, the creation of fake documents, and the solicitation of state legislatures to certify fake Trump electors instead of legitimate Biden electors. Trump’s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other attempts to pressure state officials to overturn the election results is presented in this indictment as well. We all heard Trump’s “perfect call,” but seeing it laid out in the framework of “false statement” and “solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer” charges really puts the call into proper perspective.
The pressure campaign targeting former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s pressure on the DOJ is explicitly cited as well, including his infamous quote: “Just say that the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” The harassment and intimidation of election worker Ruby Freeman are also included in this indictment. The conduct outlined in Freeman’s riveting testimony during the January 6 hearings felt criminal, and now it’s being prosecuted as such.
One of the most stunning allegations in this indictment is the alleged conspiracy to breach voting machines. In their desperate attempt to prove their false voter fraud claims, Trump allies allegedly conspired to breach Coffee County voting machines and “stole data, including ballot images, voting equipment software, and personal voter information.” This was allegedly disseminated to other members of the enterprise and elsewhere. The co-defendants involved are allegedly former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, former Coffee County election supervisor Misty Hampton, former Coffee County GOP official Cathy Latham, and pro-Trump poll watcher Scott Hall.
All of that conduct was listed in the RICO count in 161 separate acts, most of which are punctuated with the simple sentence: “This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
The RICO structure of this indictment is brilliant. By presenting each crime as part of an interconnected set of acts in furtherance of the broader conspiracy executed by the “criminal enterprise,” DA Willis can charge the enterprise as a whole with the conduct rather than proving everyone committed every single crime individually. This allows DA Willis to apply more pressure on the defendants and perhaps get some to cooperate with prosecutors. Another benefit of Georgia’s RICO law is that the charges would carry a mandatory minimum of 5-20 years in prison. Rudy Giuliani, who once used the federal RICO Act to take on the mob, has just been indicted himself under the same framework.
In a 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the federal RICO law, the high court ruled that RICO was created “broadly enough to encompass a wide range of criminal activity, taking many different forms and likely to attract a broad array of perpetrators.” Georgia is among the states who implemented their own RICO laws that are protected under this precedent. Given this context, legal experts have said that RICO could appropriately apply to Trump’s alleged criminal enterprise.
The seriousness of these charges and the threat they pose to Trumpworld are the key takeaways here, but the hypocrisy and irony of these charges are also notable. Donald Trump and his alleged “criminal enterprise” were indicted with charges that they falsely accused others of committing in the 2020 election. It’s Donald Trump and his team who are being indicted for a conspiracy to commit voter fraud, not Democrats. It’s Donald Trump and his team who are being indicted for allegedly breaching voting machines, not Democrats. It’s Donald Trump and his team who were trying to steal the 2020 election, not Democrats.
Georgia’s case brings Donald Trump his fourth criminal indictment, or fifth if you count the classified document case’s superseding indictment. It’s his second indictment in relation to his un-American effort to overturn the 2020 election. While Trump has been trying to make indictments part of his 2024 campaign for President, recently begging for another one, I highly doubt that he is happy with this one. This case complicates Trump’s plan to win the presidency to protect himself from criminal liability.
If Trump were convicted in this Georgia case, not only would he not have the power to pardon himself of the state charges, the Georgia governor doesn’t have that power either.
That power resides with the Board of Pardons and Paroles. As Trump’s indictments mount, the odds that Trump might not escape accountability are increasing.
If convicted and facing a mandatory minimum of five years, it would be impossible to run the country from a jail cell. Georgia poses the greatest threat to Trump’s 2024 plans to save himself.
Who Are The 18 Others Charged Alongside TRUMP in Georgia?
John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani have been indicted in cases in Georgia and beyond
The Lawyers
Rudy Giuliani
Perhaps the best known of the co-accused, the former mayor of New York City was a personal lawyer for Mr Trump at the time of the election.
He led legal challenges to dispute the outcome of the elections, and is accused of making numerous false statements about election fraud, including claims that errors had been made by the Dominion vote-counting machines.
He faces 13 charges, more than any of the co-accused except for Mr Trump himself. He has dismissed the investigation against him as politically motivated.
As mayor of New York, Giuliani was one of the most popular politicians in the US. As a close adviser after the 2020 election, he helped organise attempts to challenge Mr Trump's defeat at the polls.
John Eastman
Mr Eastman, a lawyer for Mr Trump, represented the former president in a lawsuit trying to overturn election results in four states he lost in 2020.
In Georgia he is alleged to be part of a plot to urge state senators to disregard the election results and appoint fake electors.
A California law professor who advanced the theory that Vice-President Mike Pence had the power to reject the certified results from certain states that Mr Trump lost in 2020, including Georgia, based on allegations of voting irregularities.
Sidney Powell
Another Trump attorney and a vocal promoter of false fraud claims.
Some of her more outlandish claims - that electronic systems switched millions of votes to President Biden and that he won thanks to "communist money" - led Mr Trump's team to distance itself from her in the weeks after the election.
A lawyer closely tied to Mr Trump's attempts to challenge the 2020 election results. She is also alleged to have been involved with an illegal breach of election data in Coffee County, Georgia, in an attempt to find evidence of voter fraud.
Kenneth Chesebro
Mr Chesebro is an appellate lawyer who first became involved in the Trump campaign's post-election efforts in Wisconsin before expanding into other states lost by Mr Trump.
In Georgia he is accused of helping to devise a plan to submit fake slates of electors for Mr Trump.
It is alleged he wrote a memo that provided instructions for how such electors in states including Georgia should proceed to meet and cast votes for Mr Trump.
The indictment alleges this scheme constituted, among other things, fraud and forgery.
Jenna Ellis
Jenna Ellis is said to have written legal memos for the former president
Another of Mr Trump's legal team alleged to have been involved in trying to get false electors appointed in four states, including Georgia. She is said to have written legal memos for the former president advising how then vice-president Mike Pence could delay the certification of Mr Biden's election win.
A Trump attorney who, along with Mr Giuliani, was one of the most ardent supporters of allegations of election fraud and an organiser of attempts to reverse the election results.
Ray Smith III
A member of the Trump legal team who filed one of the campaign's election challenges in a state court and is alleged to have made false claims at a legislative hearing in the state.
Robert Cheeley
A Georgia-based lawyer, accused of making unfounded accusations that election workers were double and triple-counting votes.
He has also served as an attorney for another of the accused, Cathy Latham, according to the Washington Post.
Smith and Cheeley are attorneys involved in the Trump team's efforts to advance "alternate" presidential electors who claimed Mr Trump won Georgia
Federal and Trump Campaign Officials
Mark Meadows
The former congressman was Mr Trump's chief of staff at the time of the election.
He is alleged to have tried to pressure a chief investigator to speed up signature verification in Fulton County and to have been involved in a phone call in which Mr Trump tried to persuade Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state.
A former conservative leader in the House of Representatives, he headed the Trump White House team. He has been indicted for his involvement in that phone call.
Jeffrey Clark
A former Department of Justice (DoJ) official, Mr Clark is accused of trying to persuade the then acting attorney-general to write to the Georgian authorities claiming voting irregularities had been found there.
He is also alleged to be part of wider efforts to use the department to investigate voter fraud.
Trump reportedly considered making Mr Clark the acting US attorney general - but he backed down when other senior Justice Department officials threatened to resign en masse.
Michael Roman
A senior member of the Trump election campaign, he is said in the indictment to have played a role in organising the fake electors' plot.
Georgia State and County Officials
David Shafer
Mr Shafer was chairman of the Georgian Republican Party.
He is one of those charged with mailing a fake certificate of Trump electors to a federal courthouse, and making false statements to investigators.
He portrayed himself as the "chairperson" of the 16 fake Trump electors. He led the meeting of "alternate" electors who claimed Mr Trump won Georgia.
Misty Hampton
Former election supervisor of Coffee County, who is alleged to have helped Trump supporters gain access to the county's voting equipment.
She also made a video soon after the election claiming that voting machines used in the county could be manipulated.
Cathy Latham
Former Republican Party chair in Coffee County and one of the 16 fake Trump electors for the state.
Shawn Still
Then finance chair of the state Republican Party and now a Georgian state senator, he was another of the fake electors.
Others
Trevian Kutti
A former publicist for R Kelly and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), accused of involvement in a plot to pressure a Fulton County election worker to falsely admit committing fraud.
Stephen C Lee
A Lutheran pastor from the state of Illinois accused of efforts to intimidate election workers in the Georgian state capital Atlanta.
Harrison Floyd
Former head of a group called Black Voices for Trump, also accused of intimidation of Atlanta election workers.
Scott Hall
Bail bondsman and Trump supporter involved in allegedly trying to gain access to sensitive election equipment in Coffee County.
Lee, Floyd and Kutti are Trump supporters alleged to have attempted to illegally pressure Ruby Freeman, a volunteer election worker, into admitting that she committed election fraud.
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