On Monday, the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, charging them a total of racketeering and 40 other counts.
Once a jury is sworn in, District Attorney Fani Willis or one of her assistants will deliver an opening statement at a future trial. As two former federal prosecutors, we offer this draft opening statement as an example of what Willis’ opening trial against Trump might look like.
members of the jury,
You probably know some of what happened after the 2020 election, but it took a grand jury to tell the full story, which the evidence in this case will tell you. It’s about a man trying to keep the President in power by ending democracy and the Confederate army he deployed in his support.
It’s about a self-serving Commander-in-Chief, Donald John Trump, trying to stay in office by defeating the will of the majority. We are here because the former President placed a special emphasis on our state.
In America, majority voting protects our rights and freedoms. Where individuals conspire to bury our democratic system, as we will show here, accountability to the law must follow.
They have taken on a sacred and not always pleasant duty to ensure that accountability. But without a jury of the defendant’s peers to honor that profound commitment, our freedom is a breath in the wind. Thank you for your service.
You will hear evidence of several illegal activities from many witnesses. This is how we make it easy for you.
There is an overarching framework. The first count of those 41 counts involves a violation of our state’s RICO law. This acronym stands for Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization.
Don’t let this title confuse you. Not everyone who commits crimes that violate this law is a mafia thug. Georgian legislators have recognized that wearing business suits can be just as serious an abuse of the security of our citizens and public order by people up to no good.
You can be a gangster without being a gangster.
If, as the evidence shows, the defendants chose to overturn the election through a series of frauds, threats and other crimes, then they broke RICO law. Georgian criminal law does not exempt influential politicians and officials from the same rules that apply to everyone else. Nobody is above the law.
Here’s what RICO means in a nutshell.
It is unlawful for anyone to acquire or maintain an interest in a company through extortion. Two crimes on a list of 40 crimes established by the legislature are considered patterns of extortion.
We call these crimes RICO’s “Predicate Offenses.”
In this case, the predicate acts alleged by the grand jury include the following:
1. false information and writings,
2. Counterfeiting;
3. unauthorized intrusion into the computer;
4. Perjury and
5. Influencing Witnesses.
We will show that the defendants committed at least two of these crimes as part of a “criminal enterprise.” As we will prove, the 19 co-defendants had a number of unlawful plots to overthrow the election, such as conspiring to submit fake votes from our state to Congress on that tragic day, January 6th.
RICO allows us to tell you virtually the entire criminal story from the first count of charges. The same evidence will, of course, support the other allegations.
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This includes other charges of conspiracy. A conspiracy is an agreement between the accused that requires at least one overt act to achieve the unlawful end; here, lifting your choice.
The criminal enterprise charged in the RICO count almost succeeded. It nearly ended our constitutional republic.
Evidence will show Georgians cast over 11,000 more votes for President Joe Biden than then-President Trump in the hard-fought 2020 election.
In a country and state that values democracy, a majority of one vote, a majority of 11,000 votes, or a majority of a million votes produces the winner.
And a society based on the rule of law can only function safely if the candidate who loses accepts the will of the majority. The evidence will show that Trump did not do this.
We’ve all read of countries where generals, unhappy with the results of an election, take the law into their own hands and try to throw out results they don’t like.
You will hear that in this case the defendants conspired to the same end, not with tanks and guns, but with lies and threats.
Let’s get to what happened here in Fulton County. You will hear from Georgian Foreign Minister Brad Raffensberger. His testimony personally ties defendant Trump to his corrupt organization’s illegal RICO plan.
The then president tried to pressure Raffensperger and threatened to change the confirmed election results. In a recorded phone call dated Jan. 2, 2021, hear the accused Trump tell Raffensberger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” That was one more than it took to undo Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Spreading dangerous disinformation was also part of the corrupt enterprise. You’ll hear the defendants repeatedly plant multiple false narratives to convince citizens to adopt Trump’s big lie that the election was stolen to pressure elected officials to back down.
Georgia never did.
The evidence will show that in pursuing their plan, the defendants went so far as to falsely claim that honest officials and citizens had betrayed their public responsibilities.
These false allegations, deliberately reinforced by the defendants’ exceptional access to public media, irresponsibly endangered lives and subjected individuals and their families to death threats.
For example, you’ll hear how the defendants repeatedly falsely accused Georgians, such as Fulton County poll worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, of trading real ballots for fake ballots. You will hear these women testify that lies about their good names and threats of violence from Trump supporters were the unwelcome rewards of these two campaign workers from this criminal organization.
They will tell you that, with complete integrity, they have taken on the frontline duties on Election Day that we expect citizens to do. They helped officials sort the completed ballots so they could be properly counted.
Let me specify some of the “predicate offenses” that the defendants used to fuel their RICO organization, the Trump campaign.
Do you remember that I spoke of “false statements and writings” by the accused and of “falsifications”? Evidence will show that these predicate offenses were part of the plot orchestrated by the defendants to create fake voters in Georgia and elsewhere. This conspiracy was part of their attempt to overthrow the election.
Had Trump won the state vote, Republicans would have been Trump’s official voters when the electoral college ballot was tallied on Jan. 6. But when Trump lost, his campaign prompted individual Republicans to create fraudulent voter rolls. They were intended to be used as an excuse for Vice President Mike Pence to refuse or delay Congress’ Jan. 6 confirmation of President Biden’s victory.
To achieve this goal, the fake voters signed bogus certificates that falsely confirmed their official status. This was false written information and therefore falsifications within the meaning of the law.
These were therefore predicate offenses alleged in the RICO indictment. On other counts, these false writings and forgeries are also charged as material offenses and blatant acts in support of separate conspiracies.
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Let me preview the evidence of another set of predicative RICO acts, namely soliciting criminal computer intrusion. You will hear testimony that certain defendants associated with the Trump campaign solicited individuals in Coffee County to unlawfully possess voting machines and the computer software they contain. Evidence will show that they did this and then illegally passed the information across state lines to individuals.
We will prove that they made an effort, if necessary through disinformation, to show that the machines have shifted the votes from Trump to Biden.
Of course, as the evidence will show, nothing was further from the truth. And although little came of the wrongdoing, it was dangerous. Importantly, whether or not he succeeded in achieving his unlawful objective, it was a predicate RICO crime.
At the end of the hearing, the court will explain to you the provisions of Georgian criminal law that you must apply to the evidence. The witnesses and documents leave you in no reasonable doubt that these defendants broke the laws of that state in a complex RICO violation and conspiracy.
You have assumed a heavy responsibility, one of the most important that any citizen can fulfill. They ensure that the law applies fairly and honestly. It must apply equally to the rich and powerful, as well as to individuals without means or influence.
Nobody is above the law.
