The Georgia RICO Act is an anti-crime law based on the US RICO Act of 1970. Both federal and state laws were enacted to combat organized crime and criminal syndicates, but their focus has now expanded beyond the mafia and the provisions are now used to target a range of illegal activities, from pyramid schemes to embezzlement to corruption.
In its original scope and intent, RICO bears similarities to the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) of 1999, which is now used in many parts of the country to prosecute defendants for a range of crimes.
Why was Trump charged under RICO?
Trump has been charged with 40 other crimes, mostly including forgery, making false statements, impersonating a public official, influencing witnesses and conspiracy, but the RICO charges form the core of the indictment. It says that Trump and 18 others “formed a criminal organization whose members and associates were involved in various… criminal activities.”
According to the indictment, this criminal organization is a “company.” [that] overt acts committed to influence [their criminal] Goals”. The indictment details up to 161 individual criminal “acts” that it alleges were “committed in furtherance of the conspiracy… and had the same and similar intent, results, accomplices, victims, and methods of commission, and otherwise by distinction.” “Characteristics that were related to each other and were not isolated actions”.
Why is the RICO indictment of Trump significant?
An early New York Times analysis noted Georgia’s RICO prosecutors’ ability to “bundle together seemingly unrelated crimes committed by a variety of different people when those crimes are perceived as having a common goal.” .
The NYT report quoted Michael Mears, a law professor at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, as saying the law “allows a prosecutor to prosecute the head of an organization without having to prove that that leader was directly involved. “a conspiracy or any acts violating state law.” That means, Mears told The NYT, “If you’re a prosecutor, it’s a gold mine. If you’re a defense attorney, it’s a nightmare.”
Georgia’s RICO law essentially requires prosecutors to prove the existence of an “enterprise” and a “pattern of racketeering activity.” The “bar” for this pattern is “pretty low,” according to the NYT. The report states that courts in Georgia have ruled that even two acts of extortion within a four-year period constitute a “pattern.” The 161 acts listed in the indictment were committed in a 22-month period from November 4, 2020 to September 15, 2022.
What “overt acts” were committed by the alleged organized crime enterprise?
In an op-ed on the indictment, The NYT pointed out several, including the following:
* According to the indictment, on November 19, 2020, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, one of the 19 people indicted, “appeared at a press conference … and made false statements about fraud in the presidential election in Georgia on November 3, 2020” and elsewhere. These were blatant acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
The NYT commentary added: “This was the infamous event where Giuliani’s hair dye ran down his face and where he and.” [another Trump lawyer] Sidney Powell spread the conspiracy theory that Dominion voting machines had been hacked.”
* According to the indictment, on November 21, 2020, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “sent a text message to U.S. Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and said, ‘Can you send me the number of the spokesman and the leader of…? ‘ PA Legislature. POTUS wants to chat with you.’ This was an obvious act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
* According to the indictment, on December 3, 2020, Trump posted on Twitter: “Wow! A blockbuster testimony is currently taking place in Georgia. Ballots were stuffed by Democrats as Republicans were forced to leave the large counting room. There are many more to come, but that alone results in an easy victory for the state!” The indictment states: “This was an obvious act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
The NYT commentary says, “The inclusion of several of Trump’s tweets in the indictment suggests the broad nature of the racketeering charge.” It would be difficult to prove that each tweet was a criminal act in and of itself, but prosecutors are going “everyone was part of a larger conspiracy to obstruct the election.”
* On December 8, 2020, Trump and conservative lawyer John Eastman, who is among the defendants, called Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and asked her “for her assistance in gathering certain people to meet and cast electoral votes to vote for Trump in certain states,” “despite the…” fact that… [he had] lost the… election.”
The NYT commentary said that while Trump and Eastman’s attempt to implicate McDaniel in a “plot to create fake voter rolls for Trump” first surfaced in the work of the House special committee investigating Jan. 6, it said but it’s still a big deal. . This is because “both the former president and the Republican establishment are directly implicated in the plan to falsify voter rolls for the Electoral College.”
How likely is it that these allegations will stick?
Georgia’s law speaks of a “pattern of racketeering activity” and, according to the NYT, is “broader than federal law in that it can consider attempting, soliciting, coercing, and intimidating another person to commit any of the crimes.” Racketeering activity” .
Mears, the legal expert cited above, told the NYT that the law does not require the state to prove that Trump knew about or ordered all the crimes, only that he was the head of a company that carried them out.
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Trump’s main defense would likely be to show that the various actors had no intent to commit a crime, the NYT report said.
The NYT report noted Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis’ “extensive experience” with racketeering cases. “RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor or law enforcement agency to tell the whole story,” Willis, who brought the charges against Trump, said at a news conference in August, The NYT said.
A conviction for racketeering in Georgia carries a prison sentence of 20 years.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/XM7O6ATEK5IHJA7K3M26Y63NAI.jpg "A Georgia judge overturns the state’s six-week abortion ban")
