Trump has already claimed these charges are part of an effort to criminalize political speech and a violation of his First Amendment rights — a regular political rallying cry for the former president.
The indictment identifies much of the conduct as constituting “overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy,” which means they don’t have to be crimes on their own — and are not being described as such in the indictment, said Morgan Cloud, the Charles Howard Candler professor of law at Emory University.
Overt acts “can be anything that is done that’s for the purpose of advancing the goals of the conspiracy,” Cloud said.
It’s an important distinction for the general public to understand in this case, Cloud noted.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The indictment in Georgia against former President Donald Trump relies heavily on the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization law — a statute generally used to prosecute mob bosses and gang members.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis centers her case on the idea that Trump and 18 others worked together “knowingly and willfully” as part of a broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Willis has used the state’s RICO law in cases involving street gangs to public school teachers cheating on standardized tests in Georgia.
“The RICO statute in general will require that the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there’s an ongoing pattern of racketeering activity,” Cloud said. "
For example, Trump and his allies allegedly made false statements to lawmakers in Pennsylvania claiming fraud in the state’s election, according to the indictment.
The acts cited in the indictment range from a speech Trump gave a day after the 2020 election falsely saying he won the election, to a call Rudy Giuliani made alleging fraud in Fulton County, to tweets Trump made on several occasions falsely alleging fraud and ballot stuffing and attacking public figures in the state.
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