Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county Georgia, has released the indictments issued by a grand jury against serial sexual abuser Donald Trump (SSAT). While the indictments had been long expected, I was startled by how wide and sweeping they were. In addition to SSAT, 18 others were indicted on 41 felony counts and Willis said that they would be tried together and were expected to voluntarily turn themselves in by Friday, August 25th at noon. She would like to hold the trial within six months. You can read the indictment here.
The named defendants are: SSAT, Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael a. Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Harrison Floyd, Trevian c. Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall, and Misty Hampton.
While eight of the names (SSAT, Giuliani, Eastman, Meadows, Chesebro, Clark, Ellis, Powell) are familiar to me, the rest are not. I suspect that they are members of the Georgia GOP. [UPDATE: This article has more on the people indicted.]
Every one of the defendants will be charged with one count of violating Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act that is usually used to go after organizied crime.
The act essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.
Prosecutors have long used the federal Rico act to go after the mafia. But Georgia’s version is even more expansive than the federal statute. It allows prosecutors in the state to bring racketeering charges if a defendant attempts or solicits a crime, even if they don’t bring charges for those crimes itself.
I expect that SSAT will be seething that he will be tried together with all the rest, including people who are relatively unknown, since he likely sees himself as special even when being charged with crimes. You can expect SSAT to go on a major rant in the coming days.
UPDATE:
This article has more on the people indicted as well as the others who are somehow involved.
Excellent stuff. I do hope they listed those being charged in alphabetical order, that’ll have enraged him even more because (a) he will think that as President he should be first and (b) he won’t have recognised alphabetical order as a thing.
Let’s see how that pans out. So many defendants, so many lawyers, soooo much possibility for delay. Unless the indictment is incredibly clear and concise like
Jordan Peterson’sJack Smith’s I don’t see it happening that soon. Again, I really hope I’m wrong…“since he likely sees himself as special”.
What, the champion of the commoner, the protector of the blue-collar MAGA voters would look down on the rubes ?
(sarcasm)
@ birgerjohansson: you say that with sarcasm, but that’s been obvious since 2015, and the MAGA and blue-collar voters choose not to see it. Moreover, the American evangelicals are now praying to him.
I’m on a list of folks who occasionally get an e-mail from former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich; and there was one in my in box this morning that, among other things, reminded us that one of the conditions of Trump’s release pending trial was refraining from intimidating witnesses and jurors. Trump shutting up would surprise pretty much everyone.
I don’t think it’s time to pop the popcorn just yet, but we can hope… 😎
The storm took a while to develop, but I am enjoying his empty rage as it envelops him.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/15/donald-trump-republican-talisman-america-nato
Interesting article.
” the most serious threat to the security of the world right now [is] the United States.”
” What happens if Trump cripples, perhaps even works deliberately to destroy, Nato and the UN, begins a trade war with the EU, executes accommodations with Putin and Russia over Ukraine, surrenders Taiwan to China and withdraws troops and naval forces from the Asia Pacific region?”
I mean -- what if your arm burst? (For those not familiar with Alan Partridge, I’m lightly ridiculing the extremity of these “what if?” scenarios. It goes on:
“What if President Trump declares martial law, if the military is deployed to cities across the country to put down protests and restore law and order? What if Trump disobeys court orders, including from the supreme court, to cease and desist his executive actions? What if he ignores laws passed by Congress, orders the detention and imprisonment of his political enemies, has journalists arrested and jailed, and shuts down certain media outlets? What if he interferes with elections held in states across the country and for Congress?”
What if he gives Putin a blowjob on live TV and drops a nuclear bomb on Mecca?
I mean -- a second term of Trump would, one assumes, be obviously undesirable, but seriously, other than stacking the Supreme Court with wackjobs (an act that will echo down decades) what actually happened in his first term that was existentially threatening in the way these scenarios sound? I happen to think that a trade-war-provoking, isolationist USA would probably be pretty good for the rest of the world. It would be absolutely shit for the people living in the US, of course, but since by definition they’d allowed Trump to be their president then boo fucking hoo.
Can the judge order SSAT to do community service if he violates the terms?
The only thing that might make him shut up is the fear of having pick garbage along a roadside, shoulder to shoulder with poor people and stepping in poop left by hobos.
birgerjohansson @7: this would certainly be all over TV news with plenty of shots of his supporters chanting a bunch of silly slogans. My guess is that Trump would love it.
Farron Cousins comments:
“Trump freaks out after learning what evidence Georgia prosecutors have in him”.
https://youtu.be/4_WiKHMBPAs
“have on him” …spell check is having fun.
PZ has posted who the others who were indicted are. A sterling collection of lawyers and others who promoted the fraud, GA officials who contrived to breach one county’s election, and fake electors. Wow, this was a big effort, so many people involved.
Finally after all the deaths Dolt45 caused with his lies and the destruction those other people caused .
Giuliani how low can you go . Every time I see him doing something stupid lately I keep thinking about Limbo Rock which if I recall correctly is by Chubby Checker ( too lazy to check )
Tiny typo: “that is usually used to go after organizied crime.”
Would have been felicitous had it been ‘organazied crime’.