Why the Georgia "racketeering" RICO case against Trump is absurd
(Trump Versus the Hive, Part 25)
Never mind that the indictment was posted on the court’s website before the jury even returned their decision to indict. According to NPR, “Fulton County courts clerk office later released a statement that seemed to only raise more questions, calling the posted document “fictitious,” but failing to explain how it got on the court’s website.”[1]
I want to give you a sense of RICO. Under Georgia statute, Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses Chapter 14 - Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) § 16-14-3, “Racketeering activity” is defined as follows: “Racketeering activity” means to commit, to attempt to commit, or to solicit, coerce, or intimidate another person to commit any crime….” Then, the statute lists over 40 separate categories, titles, sections, and articles of laws, encompassing much of the entire penal code. And any two acts can be a “Pattern of racketeering activity”.
In essence, “racketeering activity” means attempting to commit, or soliciting…or even discussing committing… virtually anything illegal.
In other words, by waking up in the morning, getting dressed and going to the bank with your friend to deposit a check, the prosecution can say that is an “attempted” bank robbery. The prosecution does this by alleging you had the “intent” to rob the bank, even if you never rob the bank, and never intended to. You getting dressed and walking to the bank are prerequisite acts “in furtherance” of the “crime.” All the prosecutor needs to do is convince a (biased) jury you had mal intent.
Waking up and driving to work is a crime, if the prosecution can convince the jury that you intended to commit a crime at work, even if you never commit a crime at work.
Writing someone a legitimate check can be a crime, if the prosecutor can convince a jury that you thought you didn’t have enough money in your account, even if you had enough money.
Calling your credit card company and disputing a transaction can be a crime, if the prosecutor convinces the jury that you knew the charge was legitimate, even if you didn’t.
Thus, virtually anything; a phone call, an email, filing of paperwork, can be an alleged crime, if the prosecution alleges you did it in furtherance of another crime or intending to commit a crime or with bad intent, even if you never commit any other crime and have no bad intent.
That’s why when judges see RICO actions, they usually roll their eyes. They know that the prosecutors couldn’t find a single specific crime, not a larceny, not an extortion, not a fraud, not a fraudulent check, not even filling out a form incorrectly and mailing it, and are thus prosecuting saying defendants were part of a group intending to commit crimes, even if no crime was committed.
That’s why the Georgia D.A.’s office has admittedly done 12,000 indictments in their criminal career, but only 11 RICO cases, as they stated in their press conference announcing the indictment. Fishy?
And that’s what we see with Trump. For example, per Trump’s indictment, alleged “overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy”, Act #22:
“On or about the 3rd day of December 2020, DONALD JOHN TRUMP caused to be tweeted from the Twitter account @RealDonaldTrump, "Georgia hearings now on @OANN. Amazing!" This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Thus, Trump Tweeting that there is a hearing in Georgia being televised on the news is supposedly magically turned into a crime. Yes, sending a tweet about what’s on T.V. is magically a crime. …IF the jury believes it was done to further a fraudulent scheme. And the scheme is only fraudulent, if Trump didn’t believe he had won, which the prosecutor will try to convince a jury of.
The prosecutor knows that if the jury hates Trump, they’ll believe that he is a liar, and convict him.
Essentially, non-crimes like tweets and phone calls and discussions and casual lunch discussions about election procedures and recount processes, become crimes if the prosecutor can convince a jury that Trump had bad intent in doing those innocent acts.
In other words, Trump asking for someone’s phone number, can be turned into a scheme to commit a crime on that phone call, even if Trump never made the phone call.
Thus, the DA’s office alleged up to 96 pages of acts that are not crimes themselves, which they hope they turn into crimes. Lunches, tweets, phone calls, all magically become crimes if the jury believes Trump knew he lost. Of course, why then would he be asking for recounts?
Normal political processes, meetings, and calls with other state, local, and federal officials; innocent political activities like asking for recounts that are protected by the Constitution, are turned into crimes by saying the politician was lying when he said he believed he won the election.
Do you even have to “know” or “believe” you won to ask for vote recounts? How could that ever be enforced!
If this overbroad definition applied, not only could every recount request for an election be fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering, but every political act, running for office, filing forms, announcing your candidacy…could become crimes.
Are we going to turn phone calls into crimes?
Imagine saying, “I want to be candidate because I want to improve our schools”, and being prosecuted because the opposing party says you secretly knew you couldn’t fix our schools.
Utter nonsense. It makes every politician guilty for everything they say and every part of the political process they partake in. It’s not rational, because they know a system under these rules cannot function. They just don’t care, because they’re possessed.
By the way, how could Trump have known he didn’t win? Legally, nobody has what is referred to as “personal knowledge” of the 2020 election result, unless they themselves had counted over 100 million votes. The idea that Trump “knew” he didn’t win is a legal impossibility.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/georgia-court-website-publishes-then-removes-list-of-criminal-charges-against-trump