Opinion | This Indictment of Trump Does Something Ingenious
Fani Willis’s indictment powerfully complements the federal Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump.
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In contrast to the special counsel Jack Smith’s latest laser-focused federal indictment of Mr. Trump, Ms. Willis charges a wide range of conspirators, from people in the Oval Office to low-level Georgia G.O.P. functionaries, and is the first to plumb the full depths, through a state-focused bathyscaph, of the conspiracy.
Her case also provides other important complements to the federal matter: Unlike Mr. Smith’s case, which will almost certainly not be broadcast because of federal standards, hers will almost certainly be televised, and should Mr. Trump or another Republican win the White House, Ms. Willis’s case cannot be immediately pardoned away. It offers transparency and accountability insurance.
Don’t know if the article picked this up, but in Georgia a pardon board, not the governor, makes the pardon determination and, I am told, requires that a portion of the criminal sentence be served before a pardon is considered. This is a tough case to prosecute, and these are uncharted waters, but it raises the specter of a candidate running for president from behind bars.
That is specifically mentioned in the article as well as delineation of state versus federal crimes in regard to presidential pardons.
A pardon can't even be considered until 5 years after any criminal sentence is completed. The talk of changing the Georgia Constitution to allow the governor to pardon Trump would required Democratic support and is not going to happen.
For anyone curious but not reading the article, a large part of the "something ingenious" seems to be RICO charges.
"Ms. Willis ties them all together by levying one charge against Mr. Trump and each of the 18 other defendants under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO, accusing Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators of functioning as a criminal gang.
American law has long recognized through the crime of conspiracy that combinations of criminals are more dangerous than lone wolves. RICO is conspiracy on steroids, providing for stiffer penalties and other advantages like bringing multiple loosely connected conspiracies under one umbrella.
Georgia has one of the most capacious RICO statutes in the country. "
It does sound exciting, maybe this will have been worth the wait. I'm not even American, but I don't think it's overstating things to say that the fate of the world is (at present) pretty tied into the fate of American democracy. Even the indirect ripple effects from something like this are huge
(Edit: quote formatting)
The one thing to note is that, with something like 20 defendants, it's going to be pretty slow getting to trial.
Sounds like the Georgia investigation was worth the wait.
That last bit about pardons only being available 5 years after serving the punishment is great to hear.