'Big fish': Legal experts explain why plea deals for Meadows, Giuliani are off the table in GA RICO case

28 November 2023

Some of the attorneys who promoted Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him are now cooperating with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis' office and admitting that the claims they made three years ago were bogus — including Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, three of the co-defendants in Willis' criminal case. The fact that Powell, Chesebro and Ellis have flipped in order to avoid prison begs the question: What other co-defendants will Willis's team offer plea agreements to?

According to The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, plea deals for Trump and co-defendants Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows aren't on the table.

In an article published on November 28, Lowell reports, "Aside from those three, the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has opened plea talks or has left open the possibility of talks with the remaining co-defendants in the hope that they ultimately decide to become cooperating witnesses against the former president, (Guardian sources) said."

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Lowell adds, "The previously unreported decision has not been communicated formally and could still change, for instance, if prosecutors shift strategy. But it signals who prosecutors consider their main targets, and how they want to wield the power of Georgia's racketeering statute to their advantage."

The Guardian reporter notes that it is "unclear why" Willis' office is " opposed to negotiating with Meadows."

X, formerly Twitter, is full of reactions to Lowell's report — including an entire thread by law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

"Interesting that Meadows is a 'big fish' that the Fulton County DA wants to force to trial," Kreis tweeted. "I suspect John Eastman may be in that bucket, but he seems to be feeling the heat…. I suspect had Meadows not traveled to Georgia and meddled in person he might have been able to curry some favor for a deal. Coming down to Cobb County, arranging calls, and actively running interference for Trump may have put him in a different light than someone like Chesebro."

Kreis also posted, "There's no precise rule to this effect, of course, but it is said that in RICO cases the 'big fish' are listed at the top of the indictment. So, nobody should be terribly surprised that Trump and Giuliani were never going to get deals. The real question was where tier two began.

2020 Biden delegate Victor Shi, tweeting Lowell's article, commented, "DA Willis's grand strategy (or so it seems): '[E]xtending offers to lower-level defendants in which they plead guilty to key crimes and incriminate higher-level defendants in the conspiracy pyramid.' Let's hope this is true."

Law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance, a frequent legal analyst on MSNBC, noted that while plea deals for Giuliani, Meadows and Trump are out, Willis' office is still pushing "other defendants to cooperate against Trump in exchange for a deal."

Attorney Richard Signorelli tweeted, " Setting up the case for a 3-person trial; other defendants, including even Eastman, will be given favorable plea deals that will assure that they do not spend any time in prison. These are offers that they will not refuse unless they are insane."

Hugo Lowell's full report for The Guardian is available at this link.

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