Trump Indicted in Georgia

Former president Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by an Atlanta grand jury late Monday night. They face several racketeering charges stemming from their attempts to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Among those charged are former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s former attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. Former Assistant US Attorney Paul Charlton discusses this breaking news.

“The single most distinguishing feature about this indictment would be the number of defendants, 19, and the number of charges, 47, and I would say this is one of the only, if not very few indictments I’ve ever seen where there is a table of contents to let us read more easily,” said Charlton.

Georgia’s Fulton Country District Attorney Fani WIllis is using the RICO act to prosecute the former president as well as 18 other defendants. RICO (Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organization) was created to take down organized crime.

“Think back to the example of the mafia, a prosecutor might say, ‘Here is some extortion acts that a family was doing, here are some shakedown acts,’ all of that would come into court and be put before a jury. In this case, Ms. Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta would say, ‘I have a whole scope of crimes that former president Trump and others have committed and i wish to put all of those crimes and all of those defendants to tell the whole story before this jury,’” said Charlton.

RICO statutes also allow District Attorney Willis to encompass evidence that occurs throughout the country. Trump’s actions in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan were included in the indictment. Though Willis is confident she will be able to take all 19 defendants to trial within the next few months, Charlton has his doubts

“This is a trial that, if it moves at light speed, will occur probably short of two years, maybe even longer than that. And we will not see all 19 defendants go to trial,” said Charlton, who believes some of the defendants will take plea deals to avoid trial.