'Single sprawling case': Legal expert explains why Trump allies Chesebro and Powell will be tried together

Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman on Wednesday assessed the arguments presented to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee by ex-President Donald Trump's co-defendants Sidney Powell and Kenney Chesebro in District Attorney Fani Willis' Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case against them for allegedly attempting to steal the 2020 election in Georgia.

Lawyers for Trump's indicted associates told McAfee that their clients should each be tried separately for their suspected participation in the criminal plot.

Litman explained to an MSNBC legal expert panel why McAfee appeared to reject that approach.

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"Basically, the defense tried to re-characterize this single RICO case as multiple conspiracies, only some of which apply to some and others to others. And the state came back and the judge accepted the position, 'No, this is a single sprawling case, and therefore the law and evidence are the same,'" Litman said.

"And if you analyze that according to the three factors that governed severance, it doesn't give Powell or Chesbro — and by the way, John Eastman has said he is also gonna move for a speedy trial — any kind of argument for separating themselves. That's, this happens all the time," Litman continued. "Defendants are together and evidence as to one might hurt the other, but that's not a reason to sever."

Litman added, "As to the seventeen, because there's some question under Georgia law, does that mean if we have that one case, the seventeen follow? And I think he telegraphed pretty strongly he doesn't wanna do that. And the three factors are not exclusive. He has the discretion. He's given the state one more chance to brief why they should all be together. But I think he was making clear that he's very strongly inclined to just have Chesebro and I think Eastman, for now, cleave off in a single trial with the other sixteen to go later. And that will depend in part on the resolution of these removal motions now in federal court. A complicated day, but I think it's clear enough where he stands and where he's going."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

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