FILE PHOTO: Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Georgia Republican Party Convention on June 10, 2023 in Columbus, Georgia, United States. Megan Varner/Reuters
ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened her investigation into Donald Trump after a recording of a phone conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 was released.
Trump suggested during the call that Raffensperger, a Republican and the state’s top election official, could help “find” the votes needed to reverse his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
READ MORE: Who is Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA investigating Trump?
More than two years later, the indictments that could soon be brought by a grand jury could go well beyond that phone call and charge with a web of crimes committed by Trump and others. Willis is widely expected to use Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law to charge Trump and his associates with alleged involvement in a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
Here’s how the law works:
How would an anti-gangster law affect Trump and his allies?
The state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was created in 1970 as a tool to combat organized crime. The law allowed prosecutors to target those in positions of authority within a criminal organization, rather than just lower-level individuals doing the dirty work.
However, its use should never be limited solely to organized crime. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1989 Opinion, stated that the law was “broad to cover a broad spectrum of criminal activity that takes many different forms and is likely to attract a wide range of offenders.”
A few years after the federal law went into effect, the states began to enact their own RICO laws. In general, RICO laws allow prosecutors to indict multiple individuals for different crimes while working toward a common goal.
What Does Georgia’s RICO Law Say?
The RICO statute, passed in Georgia in 1980, makes it a criminal offense to become involved in, gain or retain control of, or conspire to participate in an “enterprise” through a “pattern of extortion activity.” It is important to note that the alleged plan need not have been successful for a RICO indictment to stand.
A “Company” can be a single person or a group of related people with a common purpose. “Extortion” is defined as committing, attempting to commit, inducing, coercing, or intimidating another person into committing any of more than three dozen state crimes listed in the law. At least two such acts are required to meet the standard of a “pattern of extortion activity,” which means prosecutors must show that an individual has committed two or more related crimes as part of his or her involvement with a company in order to be charged under the RICO to be convicted.
READ MORE: Prosecutors begin bringing Georgia 2020 election investigation to grand jury
The US Supreme Court has stated that the federal RICO allegations must have continuity, i.e. However, the Georgia Supreme Court has clarified that there is no such requirement in state law.
Why use the RICO Statute?
“I’m a fan of RICO,” Willis said during an August 2022 news conference when she announced RICO charges against more than two dozen alleged gang members.
Willis said juries want to know all the facts behind a suspected crime and that a RICO indictment allows prosecutors to provide a full picture of all suspected illegal activities. A narrative introduction allows prosecutors to tell a story that can contain a lot of detailed information that may not relate to specific crimes but is relevant to the broader suspected scheme.
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RICO charges also carry a substantial penalty that can be imposed in addition to the penalty for the underlying offenses.
In Georgia, a felony conviction carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison; a fine of US$25,000 or three times the amount of money obtained from the criminal activity, whichever is greater; or both a prison sentence and a fine.
What are the challenges in applying the RICO Statute?
J. Tom Morgan used the Georgia RICO statute to prosecute a corrupt sheriff when he was a district attorney in DeKalb County, which borders Fulton County. He said one challenge is explaining to a jury what the RICO Act is and how it works.
READ MORE: Trump could soon be indicted in Georgia. What are prosecutors investigating?
“Everyone knows what a murder case is, what a rape case is, what a theft case is. But RICO is not in everyday parlance,” he said. “You don’t see a RICO charge on a TV show about crime.”
Does Willis have prior experience with RICO cases?
Yes. As an assistant district attorney in the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, Willis was the lead prosecutor in a RICO case against a group of Atlanta public school teachers in a fraud scandal. In April 2015, after a month-long trial, a jury convicted 11 former educators of extortion over their role in a plan to boost students’ scores on standardized exams.
Since becoming a district attorney in January 2021, she has filed multiple RICO charges against alleged gang members, including several high-profile rap artists.
Attorney John Floyd, a nationally known RICO expert in Atlanta, assisted Willis in the school fraud case. Shortly after beginning the investigation into possible illegal interference in the 2020 Georgia election, she hired him as the special assistant to the district attorney to help with any racketeering cases her office might pursue.
