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Leubsdorf: Indictment poses problems
Sprawling Georgia case with many defendants difficult to conduct
By Carl P. Leubsdorf
Published: August 19, 2023, 6:01am
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Those eager to see Donald Trump and his allies brought to justice should welcome the Atlanta indictments of the former president and 18 others in what District Attorney Fani Willis called “a criminal racketeering enterprise” to overturn the 2020 Georgia election result.
The sprawling indictment encompasses not only Trump’s direct efforts to pressure Georgia and federal elections officials to reverse the verdict of Georgia’s voters, but such related events as the recruitment of phony electors, a smear campaign against voter registrars and a break-in to steal election equipment at a county voting office.
However, the scope of this week’s indictment, which follows more than two years of investigations, may demonstrate the wisdom of the U.S. Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith, in limiting charges against Trump to a narrowly drawn four-count indictment naming only the former president but including six unnamed co-conspirators.
Both Willis and Smith say they are eager to bring their cases promptly to trial, presumably before voting starts in the Republican primaries in which polls show Trump is leading the GOP field. Smith has sought a Jan. 2 trial date, and Willis said she hoped to bring her case to trial within six months.
But it would seem far easier to bring Smith’s tightly drawn four-count case to trial against a single defendant, the former president, than Willis’ array of 41 counts against 19 defendants (13 against Trump) that are somewhat intertwined. And Willis’ statement that she plans to try all 19 defendants together prompted some skepticism in the legal community.
“There’s no courtroom that can hold that,” CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday, noting that each of the 19 defendants could have several lawyers allowed to cross-examine witnesses. “The trial would take forever.”
Smith’s indictment, which detailed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election while knowing his claims of fraud were false, accused him of conspiracy to defraud the United States by dishonestly impeding the counting and certifying of election results, conspiracy to obstruct the Jan. 6 official proceeding at which the results were certified, and conspiracy against the rights of voters to have their votes counted.
In Georgia, the counts against Trump include two of conspiracy, three each of solicitation of violation of oath and making false statements, and one each of racketeering, forgery and impersonating a public officer.
These counts include 10 other defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer during the election challenges; former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and four other lawyers, who, along with Giuliani, are believed to be among the six not indicted co-conspirators in the Washington indictment.
All 19 defendants are accused of engaging in a criminal enterprise under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corruptions Act, a state counterpart of the federal law often used against crime syndicates. The indictment cites 161 individual acts, of which the best known is Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking to change the Georgia result.
The Georgia indictment is the last of four for which Trump faces trial on 91 federal and state charges in the coming months. Though Smith has asked the federal court that is hearing the Washington indictment to set the trial for Jan. 2, Trump’s attorneys are certain to ask for a delay.
The trial schedule will inevitably overlap with the GOP primary process, which starts with the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, prompting repeated claims from Trump that the Biden administration is trying to affect the GOP’s choice of an opponent for President Joe Biden.
The real impact will come if, and when, the former president actually goes on trial.
In one sense, the Atlanta indictment is important politically as well as legally in that it provides a highly detailed factual account of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, including some after he left office.
But it may actually have complicated matters by producing a legal case that is so complicated and involves so many people that any trial will be difficult to conduct.
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