Thread: Legal Charges Against Trump

Originally Posted by S Landreth

19 individuals - GA. Rico has a mandatory minimum

I know where I'd like this to go, I think Trump looks good in orange. But RICO actions in Georgia could take years:



Last year, Ms Willis leaned on Rico statutes again to allege that Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and 27 associates at his YSL music label are a "criminal street gang".

"The reason that I am a fan of Rico is, I think jurors are very, very intelligent," she said at a news conference to announce the charges.

"They want to know what happened. They want to make an accurate decision about someone's life. And so Rico is a tool that allows a prosecutor's office and law enforcement to tell the whole story."

But a trial that was set to begin this past January is now eight months into a glacial jury selection process, with thousands of jurors excused and not a single juror seated.

...




The plodding pace of Young Thug's trial has set it on course to beat the record set by the Atlanta educators' trial as the longest in state history.

That is not unusual for multi-defendant and multi-attorney Rico cases, which can create major backlogs in the legal system.

"The whole courthouse is basically closed," said Meg Strickler, another local defence attorney.

"I hate the Rico Act," she added, saying clients are frequently intimidated by the penalties they could face, and the time and money needed to defend themselves.

And, given how lengthy and complicated Rico trials are, she expects the Trump trial will prove a confusing and uncomfortable affair for a jury, if one can eventually be seated.

"Jurors are going to fall asleep long before they understand it," Ms Strickler predicted.

What is racketeering? Trump charged with mafia-busting law in Georgia - BBC News

Originally Posted by S Landreth

18 allies

All under pressure to make a plea deal to avoid going to prison for Trump.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

It might difficult to sit a jury willing to take part in this case (if the jury is sequestered)

Yes, because opting out of jury duty, especially in a case of this magnitude, should be no problem.

Originally Posted by Norton

All under pressure to make a plea deal to avoid going to prison for Trump.

I believe some will flip (few might not) and maybe help Fani Willis’s case move along quicker.

But I would like to hear that she told each and every one of them that she has them dead to rights and to go take a leap.

5 years for you, 5 years for you, 5 years for you……..

_________

• Trump now faces 91 felony counts. But the most recent batch is different

Just some highlights…..

At the start of the week, Donald Trump faced 78 felony counts across three criminal prosecutions. Then, near midnight on Monday in Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis added a fourth case with 13 more.

While the indictment lists a total of 41 felony counts, the 13 counts that apply to Trump fall into the following categories:

• One count of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO.
• Six counts of making false statements and writings, filing false documents or conspiring to do so.
• Three counts of soliciting the “violation of oath” by a public officer.
• Two counts of conspiring to commit first-degree forgery.
• One count of conspiring to impersonate a public officer.

The prospect of mandatory prison time is a first among Trump’s criminal cases. In his other cases, some charges — like allegedly falsifying business records in his New York hush money case — are unlikely to result in any prison time for a first-time offender. Other, more serious charges — like Trump’s alleged violations of the Espionage Act and his alleged obstruction of justice in his federal case involving classified documents — typically result in significant prison sentences, but federal judges have discretion.

The gravest charge in the Georgia case is racketeering under the state’s RICO Act. In fact, that’s the only count in the indictment that is denoted on the court’s docket as a “serious felony.” (The other counts are all known simply as “felonies.”) Georgia law uses the “serious” designation to classify certain crimes that carry heavier penalties, in the same way that other states use “A” or “B” felony designations, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University.

Although prison time is not automatic for a conviction under the state’s RICO Act (a judge can decide to dole out only a fine), if the judge does decide to impose a prison sentence, it must be at least five years.

Acevedo speculated that Willis’ willingness to bring such a charge likely has to do with an effort to pressure some of Trump’s 18 co-defendants to flip on him, because the heavier penalties the charge carries impose a significant threat.

Mar-a-Lago manager De Oliveira pleads not guilty in alleged effort to delete surveillance footage

Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager accused of helping in former President Trump’s attempt to delete footage from his home, pleaded not guilty in a Florida courtroom Tuesday.

The arraignment marked De Oliveira’s third appearance in the case after he twice failed to come to court with a Florida-based attorney.

De Oliveira is facing obstruction of justice charges as well as charges over making false statements to investigators during the Mar-a-Lago probe.

The indictment noted efforts from De Oliveira, 56, to determine how long security footage was stored on the Mar-a-Lago system. It says he later told another employee there that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted.”

The filing also points to a 24-minute call between De Oliveira and Trump shortly after the Justice Department warned it would soon be subpoenaing the video camera footage from Mar-a-Lago.

The indictment details De Oliveira’s attempts to apparently conceal the plans, describing him and fellow co-defendant Walt Nauta walking among the bushes around the IT office where the security footage was managed.

At another point, De Oliveira and Nauta “walked with a flashlight through the tunnel where the storage room was located, and observed and pointed out security cameras.”

The charges against De Oliveira were brought in a superseding indictment by prosecutors, one that resulted in additional obstruction of justice charges for Trump relating to the footage, as well as an additional charge over violating the Espionage Act.

Fani Willis proposes March 4 start for Georgia election trial

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday proposed a start date of March 4, 2024, for former President Trump's election interference trial in Georgia.

Why it matters: The proposed trial start date would fall one day before Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states will hold Republican primary contests.

• It would also be one week before Georgia's presidential primary, which is scheduled for March 12.

Driving the news: Willis in the Wednesday court filing also said that arraignment for Trump and his 18 co-defendants should take place the week of Sept. 5.

The big picture: An Atlanta grand jury indicted Trump and more than a dozen allies earlier this week in the probe into his alleged efforts to flip Georgia's 2020 election results.

• Trump faces an already packed courtroom calendar that is on a collision course with his 2024 presidential campaign.
• Trump was charged with 13 counts in the Georgia indictment, including violation of Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, ACT (RICO).

Special counsel Jack Smith last week proposed a Jan. 2 start date in the federal trial on Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

• The former president's mounting legal fights already are burning through his campaign war chest.

Indictment #5 Watch

Arizona AG investigating 2020 alleged fake electors tied to Trump

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' office is conducting an ongoing investigation of an alleged attempt to use alternate electors after the 2020 presidential election to benefit former President Donald Trump, a spokesperson for the attorney general confirmed.

Arizona is one of seven states that Trump lost in 2020 but where the former president's allies allegedly attempted to create a fraudulent slate of electors. How long the investigation has been underway, its status, and its scope, are not clear. Mayes, a Democrat, made her first public comments about the investigation on Wednesday.

"We are taking this investigation very seriously, very solemnly," Mayes told local media this week, adding "we're going to do it on our timetable as justice demands."

_________

Trump seeks trial on election interference charges in 2026

Donald Trump says he’ll be ready to go on trial on federal charges over his bid to subvert the last election … in April 2026.

Citing extraordinary amounts of evidence — including a tranche of 11.5 million pages that prosecutors handed over earlier this month — Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche said in court papers filed Thursday that a 2.5-year delay before picking a jury would properly factor in the complexity of the case.

The proposal stands in almost absurd contrast to prosecutors’ call for a trial to begin on Jan. 2, 2024, a highly ambitious timeline. And it sets up a consequential choice for U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has indicated she will set a trial date by Aug. 28.

__________

Trump scraps plans for releasing report on Georgia election

Trump scraps plans to release 'irrefutable report' claiming election fraud in Georgia

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he will no longer hold an event to present what he called an “irrefutable report” about the 2020 election in Georgia.

Trump announced the planned “major news conference” Tuesday morning, the day after he and 18 other defendants were indicted in the election interference case in Georgia.

“A Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me at a major News Conference at 11:00 A.M. on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should be dropped against me & others — There will be a complete EXONERATION!”

But the event was never formally advised by the campaign, and Trump’s spokespeople and attorneys had also been silent about it.

In a Truth Social post Thursday evening, Trump canceled Monday’s event and said the report would not be released that day, either.

_________

Just for fun.

Trump stiffed his alleged co-conspirators, whose false claims brought in $250 million: Trump alleged co-conspirators never got paid by Trump team

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis is crowdfunding her Georgia indictment defense fees: Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis is trying to crowdfund her defense fees

Trump attorneys, Fulton County DA expected to meet next week

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are expected to meet early next week with the Fulton County district attorney's office in order to negotiate terms of the bond package for the former president following this indictment last Monday, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Willis gave all the defendants until noon on Friday, Aug. 25, to turn themselves in for processing.

__________

Troubled Georgia jail set to make history as first to take Trump's mugshot

The Fulton County jail in Georgia could make history in the weeks ahead as the first institution to ever take a U.S. president's mugshot.

Driving the news: The local sheriff's office says it expects to book all 19 of those indicted this week on election-related charges — including former President Trump — at the notorious detention center, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

________

Trump’s Georgia case lists 30 unindicted co-conspirators: What we know

Individual 1: Drafted Trump election speech

Individual 2: Fake elector

Individual 3: Boris Epshteyn

Individual 4: Robert Sinners

The rest in the link above.

DOJ pushes back on April 2026 trial date in Trump Jan. 6 case

The Justice Department took aim Monday at former President Trump’s request for an April 2026 trial in his 2020 election interference case, saying his attorneys are exaggerating the amount of discovery they need to review in the case.

“In cases such as this one, the burden of reviewing discovery cannot be measured by page count alone, and comparisons to the height of the Washington Monument and the length of a Tolstoy novel are neither helpful nor insightful; in fact, comparisons such as those are a distraction,” prosecutors wrote in a brief, arguing the time needed to review such documents depends more on “relevance, organization, accessibility, searchability, and reviewability.”

The filing notes on other discovery in the case includes transcripts from conversations with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack which have been publicly available for months.

________

Trump's bail set at $200,000 in Georgia 2020 election case

Former President Trump's bail has been set at $200,000 in the Fulton County prosecution over his alleged efforts to subvert 2020 election results in Georgia.

Driving the news: The Monday court filing, signed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Trump's lawyers, also includes strict conditions on witness intimidation.

• "The defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice," per the court filing.
• "The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media," the order adds.

The big picture: Trump and 18 of his c0-defendants in the case are due to surrender to authorities at the Fulton County Courthouse by 12 pm ET on Friday.

________

Attorney John Eastman, one of former President Trump’s 18 co-defendants in his recent Georgia indictment, has agreed to a $100,000 bond, court filings show.

A judge on Monday morning signed off on pretrial release conditions for Eastman and a second co-defendant, Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who is charged in connection with a local elections office breach.

________

Meadows told DOJ he can't recall Trump declassifying documents: Report

Why it matters: Meadows' account contradicts Trump's biggest defense in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

• Trump has insisted he "declassified everything" before leaving office.
• A statement from Trump's office last year said he had "a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them."
• "Meadows recalled to investigators only one instance in his time serving as Trump's chief of staff where he claimed to see Trump declassifying documents," ABC says. That was "a binder with materials from the FBI's 'Crossfire Hurricane' investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign's ties with Russia."
• Sources also told ABC that Meadows — who was indicted this week in the Fulton County, Ga., case — also told investigators for special counsel Jack Smith he's "unaware of any 'standing order' from Trump authorizing the automatic declassification of materials taken out of the Oval Office.

________

Pence says he wasn't "made aware" of Trump's efforts to declassify documents

What they're saying: "Well first off, the handling of classified materials is enormously serious in the life of the nation ... but in my case, I was never made aware of any broad-based effort to declassify documents," Pence told ABC News' Jon Karl during an interview on "This Week".

• "There is a process that the White House goes through to declassify materials. I'm aware of that occurring on several occasions over the course of our four years, but I don't have any knowledge of any broad-based directive from the president," Pence said.
• "That doesn't mean it didn't occur. It's just not something that I never heard about," he added.
• When asked whether Meadows, as Trump's chief of staff, would've known about declassification efforts, Pence said, "I would expect so," but did not go into further detail.

Trump plans to turn himself in Thursday at the Fulton County jail, sources say

Former President Donald Trump plans to turn himself in and be processed at the Fulton County jail on Thursday, two sources familiar with the plan tell CNN.


That date was set during negotiations with the district attorney’s office today over his consent bond and release conditions.


The first GOP debate is set for Wednesday night. Trump has said he doesn’t plan to attend.

Live updates: Trump indictment news in the Georgia election interference case

^His mugshot will be on billboards by the end of the day

• Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers

A Trump employee who monitored security cameras at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate abruptly retracted his earlier grand jury testimony and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice just after switching from an attorney paid for by a Trump political action committee to a lawyer from the federal defender’s office in Washington, prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.

The aide — described as “Trump Employee 4” in public court filings but identified elsewhere as Yuscil Taveras — held the title of director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago. He initially testified to a grand jury in Washington, D.C., that he was unaware of any effort to erase the videos, but after getting the new attorney “immediately … retracted his prior false testimony” and detailed the alleged effort to tamper with evidence related to the investigation of the handling of classified information stored at Trump’s Florida home, the new submission said.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team revealed the details of the employee’s about-face as part of a filing demanded by Florida-based U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the classified records case against the former president.

She had questioned why prosecutors continued to collect evidence from a grand jury empaneled in Washington, D.C., even after Smith obtained a grand jury indictment in Florida in June charging Trump with more than 30 counts of retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Trump and longtime aides Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira are also charged in the case with taking steps to obstruct investigators seeking to recover the government documents.

Taveras’ reversal led directly to new charges against Trump that Smith’s prosecutors included in a superseding indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Miami last month, detailing alleged efforts to erase the security camera recordings, prosecutors said. Nauta had been charged in the initial indictment, but de Oliveira was added as a defendant only in the revised indictment.

In an apparent bid to assuage any continuing concerns by Cannon about a grand jury hundred of miles away working on matters related to the case she is handling, Smith’s team informed her that the D.C. grand jury officially completed its work Aug. 17.

Prosecutors said Taveras’ turnaround would put Woodward in an awkward position if he continues with representation of Nauta, since Woodward could have to press his former client about why he changed his story.

“The Government anticipates calling Trump Employee 4 as a trial witness and expects that he will testify to conduct alleged in the superseding indictment regarding efforts to delete security footage,” prosecutors wrote. “Trump Employee 4 will very likely face cross-examination about his prior inconsistent statements in his grand jury testimony, which occurred while Mr. Woodward represented him, and which he disavowed immediately after obtaining new counsel.”

_______

• Trump’s bond prohibits intimidating witnesses - will he abide by it?

Trump’s Georgia arraignment expected to be televised, Fulton County judge says

A key witness in the Trump classified docs case changed his testimony after switching lawyers, special counsel says

A key witness against former President Donald Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case recanted previous false testimony and provided new information implicating the defendants after he switched lawyers, special counsel Jack Smith’s office said in a new court filing.


Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's club in Palm Beach, Florida, changed his testimony last month about efforts to delete security camera video at the club after he changed from a lawyer paid for by Trump’s Save America PAC to a public defender, Tuesday's filing says.


The revised testimony led to last month's superseding indictment against Trump and his two co-defendants.


Taveras decided to change lawyers after he learned he was being investigated on suspicion of having made false statements in his previous grand jury testimony in Washington, D.C., the court filing says.


“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, [Carlos] De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the filing says.


The filing identifies Taveras as “Trump Employee 4.” NBC News previously reported that Taveras is Employee No. 4.


Taveras’ former lawyer is Stanley Woodward, who also represents Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta and a variety of other Trump world figures.


Woodward declined to comment Tuesday on the special counsel's new filing. Taveras did not immediately reply to a request for comment.


Prosecutors outlined the change in testimony in a motion on their request for a hearing about Woodward's possible conflicts.


They said they obtained "evidence that Trump employee Carlos De Oliveira tried to enlist the director of information technology for Mar-a-Lago (identified in the superseding indictment as Trump Employee 4) to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage after the grand jury in the District of Columbia had issued a subpoena for the footage."

"When Trump Employee 4 testified before the grand jury in the District of Columbia in March 2023, he repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago," the filing says.


By late June, prosecutors had "advised Trump Employee 4 (through Mr. Woodward) that he was the target of a grand jury investigation in the District of Columbia into whether he committed perjury."


The target letter "crystallized a conflict of interest arising from Mr. Woodward’s concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta. Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward’s other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4’s false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury," the filing says.


Prosecutors asked for a hearing on the representation issue before James Boasberg, the chief U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., who oversaw the grand jury investigation. Boasberg had a federal defender available to advise Taveras about how to proceed.


"On July 5, 2023, Trump Employee 4 informed Chief Judge Boasberg that he no longer wished to be represented by Mr. Woodward and that, going forward, he wished to be represented by the First Assistant Federal Defender," the filing said. "Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage."


Shelli Peterson — the first assistant federal public defender in Washington, whom the special counsel's filing refers to — declined to comment Tuesday night.


Peterson, who has represented numerous defendants in high-profile cases, initially represented another Woodward client: former Trump State Department employee Federico Klein, who was convicted on multiple felony counts last month in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Woodward one day was late for a hearing in the Klein case because he was representing Trump aide William Russell in his testimony before the grand jury that indicted Trump in the election interference case.


Taveras is at least the second person to have offered new testimony after having switched from an attorney with ties to Trump. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave investigators from the House Jan. 6 committee more damaging testimony about Trump's and Meadows' conduct in the lead-up to the Capitol riot after she parted ways with her first Trump-allied lawyer.

Witness in Trump docs case changed testimony after switching lawyers, special counsel says

Edit: Change "legal charges" to "stitch up".

Trump's co-defendants start surrendering for arrest in Georgia

John Eastman mug shot released by Fulton County Sheriff's Office

Fulton County Sheriff's Office releases Scott Hall's mug shot

• Willis opposing attempts by Meadows, Clark to block Georgia arrests

Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis (D) on Wednesday urged a judge to reject two of former President Trump’s co-defendants’ attempts to block their arrests.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark have mounted efforts to prevent Willis from arresting them if they don’t voluntarily surrender by her Friday deadline.

Both men are seeking a pause as they attempt to move their charges from state court to federal court, with the hopes of asserting constitutional immunity and other defenses to get their counts dismissed.

“The defendant has failed to demonstrate he has suffered irreparable harm warranting federal intervention in his case and has cited no authority authorizing this Court to prevent his lawful arrest,” Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney F. McDonald Wakeford responded in court filings to Meadows on Wednesday.

“The hardship facing the defendant is no different than any other criminal defendant charged with a crime, including his co-defendants who have either already surrendered to Fulton County Authorities or have agreed to so surrender in the time allotted by the District Attorney,” Wakeford continued.

Responding to Clark’s request, Willis’s office called it an “apparent misread of the applicable statutes, a misapprehension of the binding caselaw, and a fundamental misunderstanding of criminal procedure—both state and federal.”

DocumentCloud

_________

• F you both

Judge denies Meadows, Clark attempts to block arrest in Georgia

A federal judge Wednesday rejected requests by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s to block their arrest in the Fulton County, Ga., election case.

Both Meadows and Clark sought to block their arrest ahead of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) Friday deadline for defendants in the case to surrender.

___________

• Giuliani bond set at $150K in Georgia election case

________

• Rudy Giuliani surrenders in Georgia 2020 election case

More Mugshots

Jenna Ellis

KENNETH CHESEBORO

RAY SMITH

CATHY LATHAM

SIDNEY POWELL

David James Shafer

Wonder when the USA will invade itself to put an end to this banana republic kleptocracy?

july 15th

St Swithin’s day. How apt.

how about july 14th?

Quatorze juillet. Even more apt.

If you know, you know.

better yet july 13th

You don't really want to use 13th July.

thanks for playing along