Road back to the White House for Trump now passes through four different courtrooms

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Road back to the White House for Trump now passes through four different courtrooms

By Farrah Tomazin
Updated

Washington: It is truly extraordinary that a former US president is now facing a total of 91 charges across four states as he campaigns to return to the White House.

It is equally astonishing that in 17 months, there’s a chance that Donald Trump could be standing on the steps of the Capitol building his supporters attacked, swearing an inauguration day oath to protect the Constitution he now stands accused of plotting to destroy.

But this is where America currently finds itself.

Twice-impeached, four-times criminally indicted: former US president Donald Trump.

Twice-impeached, four-times criminally indicted: former US president Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Having pleaded not guilty in New York over hush money payments (34 counts); followed by Florida over classified documents (40 counts); and then Washington DC for trying to overturn the 2020 election (four counts), Trump was this week charged again - this time in Georgia, the battleground state that helped propel Joe Biden into office at the 2020 election.

The indictment, handed up by a grand jury in Atlanta on Monday night (US time), contains 41 charges in total – 13 against Trump – accusing him, some of his top advisers and a string of state-based Republicans of being part of a “criminal enterprise” designed to keep him in power.

But unlike all the other indictments, this one is different on multiple fronts – and is the one Trump should fear most.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.Credit: AP

Firstly, it’s based on Georgia’s expansive Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations law – otherwise known as RICO – which is used to target mobsters involved in organised crime, such as money laundering, bribery, and drug trafficking.

Not only does RICO carry a penalty of between five and 20 years in prison, it’s also unpardonable under state law.

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That means if Trump is convicted he’s likely going to jail because he won’t have the power to pardon himself, should he be re-elected, as he otherwise could in a federal conviction. The only option he would have would be to apply to Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles – and only after five years after serving his sentence.

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Secondly, the 97-page indictment is arguably the most sweeping he faces yet. It essentially accuses those involved of a wide-ranging conspiracy that reached from the Oval Office to a rural county in Georgia, with more than 160 acts aimed at keeping Trump in power.

The most well-known involves the now-infamous phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, urging him to “find” the 11,780 votes he needed to put him ahead of Biden.

But it also involved, among other things, defendants setting up phony electors to produce fake votes; making false representations to the courts; harassing an election worker; misusing the power of the Justice Department and pressuring other state and federal officials, including former vice president Mike Pence, not to certify Biden’s win.

Thirdly, while Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump in Washington portrayed him as the ringleader of a far-reaching election subversion plot without naming his alleged co-conspirators, the Georgia indictment names 18 co-defendants.

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Among them are former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.

There are also about 30 unnamed co-conspirators drawn up in the charges.

With so many people now facing the possibility of conviction, there’s always a chance that some might cut a deal with prosecutors and flip on the former president.

And finally, Georgia is a state that allows cameras into its courtrooms, which means that if the case makes it to trial, it will be televised for the world to watch – and for the court of public opinion to assess.

The jury pool will also be drawn largely from Atlanta’s heavily Democratic, majority black population, and the trial itself will pit Republican defendants against Republican witnesses– such as Raffensperger and Pence – who had sought to do the right thing.

That said, the charges, overseen by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, are hardly a slam dunk: officials have never used RICO laws in a case such as this before because, let’s face it, there has never been such a precedent.

Trump, meanwhile, insists that he is innocent and has accused Willis of yet another political witch-hunt designed to stop him becoming president.

It’s an accusation that resonates among many Republicans.

After all, Willis, the first black woman to serve as Fulton County district attorney, is also a Democrat whose victory in 2020 came amid a wave of reform-minded progressive prosecutors’ winning seats.

Among them was Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who charged Trump in April for alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

What’s more, she did herself no favours recently when she hosted a fundraiser for the political opponent of one of the so-called fake electors her investigation was targeting. A judge called it a “what-are-you-thinking moment” and disqualified her office from prosecuting the fake elector.

Trump and his co-defendants now have until August 25 to voluntarily surrender to court, and Willis has signalled, somewhat optimistically, that she wants a trial in the next six months.

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But his legal team is likely to try to delay the case and Trump says he will hold a press conference on Monday to release an “irrefutable” report that would somehow prove his false claims of election fraud in Georgia.

Whether the report has any substance is to be seen, particularly as officials and courts have never found any evidence to back up the claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

But what is clear is that America is in uncharted waters yet again, thanks to a twice-impeached, four-times indicted ex-president who is currently the leading Republican candidate for next year’s election. What a time.

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Trump is embroiled in seven cases in several jurisdictions involving:

  1. Charges in Georgia relating to an alleged criminal racketeering attempt to subvert the state’s presidential election results - 41 charges are brought against Trump and his associates
  2. Four counts, including three of conspiracy, relating to an effort to overturn the 2020 election which led to the January 6 Capitol riots; first hearing scheduled for August 28, 2023, Washington
  3. Alleged “persistent and repeated business fraud” at his Trump Organisation, October 2023 trial, New York
  4. Writer E Jean Carroll’s second defamation trial on January 15, 2024, New York (Trump’s counter suit was thrown out on August 8).
  5. A lawsuit by four investors who claim losses from an alleged pyramid scheme involving a phone company promoted by Trump on The Apprentice. The claim is now against Trump alone, as claims against his children were dropped after they gave dispositions. Trial starts on January 29, 2024, New York
  6. 34 counts relating to alleged hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, trial set for March 25, 2024, New York
  7. 40 counts relating to classified documents kept at his residence, May 20, 2024 trial, Florida

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