Donald Trump’s racketeering indictment is the most sweeping yet
ON A TENSE Monday morning on January 4th 2021, Fani Willis started her new gig as chief prosecutor in Fulton County, the seat of Atlanta and several adjoining suburbs. The night before a tape had been released of Donald Trump begging Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes”—the exact number needed to overturn the swing state’s 2020 election results in his favour just a fortnight before Joe Biden’s inauguration. Though she later admitted to praying that Mr Raffensperger had been outside the county when he took the now-infamous phone call, Ms Willis has come to embrace her role of top cop on Georgia’s biggest case. On August 14th, after a two-and-a-half year investigation, she accused Mr Trump and more than a dozen others of orchestrating a master plan to overturn the election results in the state. As the sun set over the downtown courthouse a grand jury swiftly indicted them.
The news is part of what has become a familiar pattern. It has not even been two weeks since Jack Smith, a federal prosecutor, brought the Department of Justice’s case against Mr Trump for conspiring to reclaim the Oval Office. The new charges are the former president’s fourth set in five months, raising his felony-charge tally to 91.
The primary charge levelled against Mr Trump this time is more commonly used to ensnare mob bosses than to keep politicians in check. Ms Willis contends that Mr Trump and 18 named acolytes violated Georgia’s capacious Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act by arranging a criminal ring that conspired to defraud the state and obstruct the counting of votes. The group, she alleges, solicited high-ranking officials to commit crimes, made false statements, influenced witnesses and impersonated public officers, among other offences. The state law, which is broader than an equivalent federal one, allows Ms Willis to bring evidence…
2023-08-15 01:31:10
Original from www.economist.com
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