If you let me editorialize a moment, Fanni Willis should be attorney general, and Merrick Garland should still be a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump’s place was searched (not raided, that’s MAGA talk) in August. A few weeks after the mid-term elections, Trump jumps into the “race” for president, and soon after, Garland plays along and grants Trump his Christmas gift. A special counsel. We were promised that the special counsel wouldn’t delay anything. It has delayed things, significantly. Jack Smith is subpoenaing more witnesses and documents, and here we go again.
Not Fanni Willis. She empaneled a special grand jury to authorize a report to the judge overseeing the district, and now she’s about to move. Want to know why? Because Willis didn’t fck around. Unlike Garland and Congress, WILLIS got Meadows deposed. She got Lindsey Graham – who has his own phone call troubles in Georgia – to testify. She stood up and got it done.
Now she could file a RICO, racketeering charges against Trump, and, according to Georgia State law professor Clark D Cunningham, Willis has done it in prior cases where it didn’t seem obvious. From The Guardian. RICO statutes in Georgia are far broader than the matching RICO statute under federal law:
“Among the things that are considered racketeering activity in the state of Georgia is knowingly and willfully making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of state government,” said Clark D Cunningham, a professor of law at Georgia State University. “If you do that, you’ve committed a racketeering activity. If you attempt to do that, if you solicit someone else to do it or you coerce someone else to do it – it’s all considered racketeering under Georgia law.”
Georgia’s Rico Act, which dates back to 1980, can be used more broadly than the more strict federal Rico statute, Cunningham said. Prosecutors can bring charges under many different state and federal laws to allege a pattern of misconduct, and convictions carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
And better yet? Willis has a lot of practice in this area. She has secured three high-profile prosecutions before and:
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Willis praised the utility of Georgia’s law. I have right now more Rico indictments in the last 18 months, 20 months, than were probably done in the last 10 years out of this office,” she said.
If you think about the “pattern” of lying that Willis could establish (With only one activity needing to happen in Georgia or to a Georgia agency,), Willis herself could bring Trump down for a lot more than one phone call to Brad Raffensperger.
The RICO act in Georgia allows one to be sentenced to up to 20 years. Fanni Willis should be A.G., and Garland should be where he is more comfortable, a judge in the DC Circuit, where no one gets hurt.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: FBI COUNTER INTELL ARREST IS LESS A PROBLEM FOR THE FBI THAN IT IS FOR TRUMP
Good point. He’s become an accomplice to the coup. How ironic it would be for a black woman to bring down this fucker while the rich white lawyer didn’t have the balls to step outside his comfort zone.
I never went to law school. Got taught a fair amount of tax law and some general stuff by my best friend in in my small hometown in the years before (at age 26) to the Marines. I can read and to a certain degree digest statutes, court rulings and such BUT I know damn well I don’t have the requisite training or knowledge to speak as an expert. At best I can offer “semi” educated opinions. And I also know there are differences in not just federal and state laws but that laws on the same matters (as well as Constitutional provisions) vary from state to state. it’s why each state has it’s own Bar that licenses attorney to practice.
I’d assume that the GA statute for RICO was similar to another state’s, one with which I have a bit more familiarity. NY State’s version of RICO is similar to federal law and has teeth that are similarly sharp. I had no idea Georgia’s statute was somewhat broader. And I’ll bet Trump didn’t either. Or his lawyers. Or Rudy G. Lindsay Graham (lawyers) and others. Oopsie on their part. Add in the fact Willis has made several high profile (for Georgia) successful prosecutions using that law and I’m starting to think Trump and others are about to get tossed into a hog waste pond, a DEEP one with a set of concrete block shoes!
I just though of a song from when I was way young – something from the 1960s: All you fellow old farts sing it with me:
Fani’s got RICO, yes Fani’s got RICO
She’s got a RICO law and she knows how to use it!
I agree. I’ve often said that Willis has more balls than Garland, no contest.
Agree also. Garland votes Republican and Willis votes Democrat. Willis has “street smarts” which Garland does not. Willis also has more years of experience prosecuting criminal cases where the defendants were hard-core criminals including gangs members. Both prosecuted cases involving public corruption, drug trafficking & fraud, however Garland’s bulk of experience was not as a prosecutor but as a DC Circuit Court Judge. Both are deliberative and methodical in their approaches.
Have to applaud both for taking on Trump, and both for hiring the best and most experienced legal teams with adequate staff to do the heavy investigative lifting needed to go the distance.
Anticipating criminal indictments to be filed in the GA case by Willis in February against at least 10 defendants including Trump himself.
Expecting criminal indictments to be filed by Garland between April & June in the stolen documents case against Trump and multiple other defendants. Then we look forward to the setting of hearing dates and whether a bench or jury trial will occur.
A hearing date has also already been set in October 2023 for the NY State AG’s Trump Tax Fraud case.
Expect Trump and his attorneys to do everything they can to drag these cases out ad infinitum as he has always done. Prime example: He dragged out the case from his 1980 demolition of the Bonwit Teller building in court for 15 years until he finally settled out of court on December 29, 1998, with payment of $1.4 million. He used illegal Polish immigrants – who he never paid – to demo this building as fast as possible while violating construction codes, safety and environmental laws & resulting in deaths and asbestos exposure of the workers – to move up the construction start date of his NYC Trump Tower that was built on the same site.