Despite an aggressive RICO statute, the Georgia prosecution will face big challenges to convicting Trump

One thing that occurred to me is that the central crime Trump is accused of is conspiring to fraudulently influence an election. Interestingly, that's pretty much what a couple of his prosecutors are doing as well. Sauce for the goose, I dare say, and this is why one ought to avoid using criminal courts, especially with fairly novel charges, in the political process. Levrentiy Beria, shall we say?

"Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen." -Trump

I don't think it's anything at all like what the prosecutors are doing. I find it absolutely incredible that so many people think he's being railroaded.

There are vast differences between the two situations.

In the case of the prosecution

• a not particularly relevant motive
• objective action is use of a legal process to convict someone of a crime
• the prosecution is not seeking its own possession of the presidency
• the prosecution is not attempting to hold on to power it has lost through legal, democratic process

Let’s keep in mind that a grand jury backed the indictment—in conservative Georgia, no less. Do you want to try to prove that all the people of the grand jury are trying to win an election and none of them are simply trying to uphold the law?

Good luck.

In Trump’s case…

• Motive is relevant to the alleged crime
• The objective actions involved were not an attempt to use a legal process
• He was a sitting president trying to retain power
• He acted to overcome the results of a legal, democratic process

So, no. There is no important similarity.

Aaron, you of all people ought to know the old prosecutor's adage that you can indict a ham sandwich, no? So "an indictment was issued" really means no more than "a prosecutor cherry picked the evidence to get a grand jury to more or less rubber stamp the prosecution's theory."

Regarding "conservative" Georgia, Fulton County is one of the most reliably Democratic counties in the country, dating back all the way to Reconstruction. So no, the grand jury likely skewed strongly left, which is also the political bias of the DA in the case. Willis' investigation into Trump started soon after she took office in February 2021, and only now has come to an indictment.

So yes, there is a bit of Inspector Javert in Willis' deportment here, to put it mildly.

It is not just Democrats that want to see him put away, there are plenty of Republicans. We have conflated actions to be politically motivated because they seem to come from a political party. The US has become so divided culturally and we are a 49% - Party 1 and 51%-Party 2, flip flopping back and forth. Both cultural and ideological sides are becoming more and more entrenched and unwilling to compromise on any issue. Parties have just become groups of culture and ideologies. A great example is the special counsel situation with Hunter Biden. Republicans have been calling for quite some time. 90 Republicans asked for a special counsel back in April of last year. Then toward the end of last year 30 Republican leaders asked for Weiss to be named special counsel, a Trump appointed attorney. He gets appointed and the same Republicans who signed the letter claim it is a sham and that Weiss was only named so that a coverup could take place. We are at a point in the US political landscape that one party's stance is just a rebuttal of the other party's stance. Plain and simple. We are at a point where the majority of Republicans support a candidate that has been indicted twice and is now facing more than 90 criminal charges across a range of jurisdictions. And the response is that all of it was politically motivated and that there is not truth to any of it, they are just doing it to cover up a stolen election. And Republicans are supporting this idea of a stolen election, despite any Republican leader providing one shred of proof. They are supporting a president who doesn't care about them, but actually cares about himself only and his interests, but has somehow convinced the population that all they should care about is himself. Despite the fact that people who gravitate to Trumps inner circle end up in jail, people still flock to him to support his crazy idea, just to get to bask in his glory for just a moment.

if it WASN'T to manipulate the Sec of State to overturn the election?

I for the life of me can't understand why so many Republicans are so enamored with Trump, and defend him, coming up with crazy things like trying to get these Georgia charges moved to federal court so Trump can pardon himself.

I voted for Trump in 2016 because the other Republicans had lost the primary, and I voted again in 2020 because he economy was good and Biden was not an option for me. But, then the post-election fiasco happened. How can so many turn a blind eye to the craziness of Trump's actions over the years since he left office? Stacks of boxes of confidential material in the basement of Marilago? The whole Jan 6 thing? The multiple felony cases against him? Why are Christians so rabidly for this guy?

How can so many turn a blind eye to the craziness of Trump's actions over the years since he left office? Stacks of boxes of confidential material in the basement of Marilago? The whole Jan 6 thing? The multiple felony cases against him? Why are Christians so rabidly for this guy?

Second Thessalonians 2:3-12 explains a lot of it. Although, I'm not saying Trump is the antichrist (at least not yet), he sure exhibits a lot of similarities:

• the man of lawlessness (check)

• who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship (check)

• by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders (tbd)

• with all wicked deception for those who are perishing (check)

• God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false (check)

First of all, since 2020, the number of murders in Atlanta, in Fulton County, has increased from about 110 to about 170 per year. Take a look from 2016-2018, and the murder rate has approximately doubled. Other crimes are also going upwards at a sharp rate. Is this the time you want your county DA coming up with clever new theories about how to prosecute a politician of the opposite party? Or would you prefer that she address a skyrocketing rate of violent felonies? I know my answer.

Also worth noting is that there is another politician who lives in Fulton County who has also campaigned for years against the voting system with the help of her political party. So why does Trump get the whole nine yards, but Stacey Abrams does not?

I'm not a fan of Trump, and I dearly want the GOP to move on to other, better candidates, but as I look at the evidence here, it's very clear that Fani Willis has something else on her mind besides justice.

it's very clear that Fani Willis has something else on her mind besides justice.

I guess we'll see.

I don’t worship at the Trump altar. Never have. However, it is ludicrous to think that he would necessarily get a fair trial in Fulton County anymore than Washington, DC. BTW, recent elections have given cause to wonder if Georgia is, in fact, “conservative Georgia, no less” as stated above. But . . . if the state is still “conservative”, you can rest assured that Fulton County is not!

Whether Fulton County is a fair trial or not, he should have thought of that before pulling his stupid stunt. Looking at crime in Fulton county is just a deflection to try to discredit the prosecution. The fact is, especially if you listen to his call with Brad, is that he was clearly in the wrong, and the ramifications are huge. We have never had a president who has put together such a machine to try to overturn a valid election. This is not Gore vs. Bush. They both had legitimate concerns and ran them through the courts and after the courts ruled, they abided by them. Trump did none of this. Remember he wasn't trying to overturn the election to do the right thing for the country. He was trying to overturn the election because he is a textbook narcissist (which is a true disorder, not just something you call someone). He could not stand to loose to someone he called a looser, because he is only a winner. That has been Trump 101 for the last 40 years. He could care less about the nation and he could care less about his followers, he only leverages them to feed his ego. That is it.

Aaron, you of all people ought to know the old prosecutor’s adage that you can indict a ham sandwich, no?

I don’t accept this as truth.

But it doesn’t really matter how we feel about how easy or difficult it is to get an indictment. Imperfect though the legal process may be, it is the legal process until the people or their elected representatives change it.

You’re right about Fulton county, though. Not a conservative county. The point remains that a grand jury has done what grand juries exist to do. “Fraud” does not in any sense apply. We could certainly argue for “unfair,” but “I disagree with them” isn’t really evidence of that.

I am a conservative who lives in Fulton County, GA. I'm proud of the GA Republicans who stood up to him and did not go along with his attempts to overthrow the election. What he did in GA was unconscionable and I hope he gets convicted.

We Republicans need to move on from Trump. He will never win a general election again.

David, the way I see things, with a ~ 60%-100% rise in murders, is that for this little prosecution, the prosecutor is leaving a lot of murderers and the like on the streets, and people are quite literally dying. That's not a deflection, that's a clear statement that the DA's priorities are plain and simple lethal.

This is not Gore vs. Bush. They both had legitimate concerns and ran them through the courts and after the courts ruled, they abided by them. Trump did none of this. Remember he wasn't trying to overturn the election to do the right thing for the country. He was trying to overturn the election because he is a textbook narcissist (which is a true disorder, not just something you call someone). He could not stand to loose to someone he called a looser, because he is only a winner. That has been Trump 101 for the last 40 years. He could care less about the nation and he could care less about his followers, he only leverages them to feed his ego. That is it.

Your view on who is seeking the good of the country I reject as ludicrous, especially considering his opponent, Joe Biden.

As to whether Trump has a personality disorder or personality trait of narcissism, I don’t think that proves guilt.

As to “this is not Gore vs Bush,” Alan Dershowitz, who was one of Gore’s attorneys at the time, says you’re wrong.