A Georgia state law against racketeering could be a powerful tool in prosecuting Donald Trump, but applying charges traditionally used to take down organized crime risks miring the case in legal and logistical complications.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday charged the Republican former president and 18 associates in a wide-ranging scheme to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden.
“You can tell a great story in your indictment, and you might be able to prove it. But you also might be making it more complicated,” said former federal prosecutor Harry Sandick. “The problem with RICO is that it takes a lot longer because there are so many more elements to it,” said Jerry Froelich, a Georgia criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. “I don’t know if you could even find a courtroom big enough for 19 defendants.”In RICO cases, defendants are often loosely associated, making it easier for prosecutors to get them to "flip," or turn on one another.
Willis’ 98-page indictment is thin on narrative detail, but it lists 161 overt acts by the defendants that allegedly demonstrate how they “willfully joined a conspiracy to change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
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