Trump, co-defendants facing 'very significant prison time' under RICO law: GA lawmaker
Georgia State Representative Tanya Miller (D-62nd District) explained to MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Tuesday evening's edition of All In why Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970 to prosecute former President Donald Trump and eighteen of his associates for trying to steal the Peach State's sixteen Electoral College votes after Trump lost the 2020 election.
"What is your experience with the Georgia RICO law, and I guess my other question is like, do juries go along with it as a general matter?" Hayes asked.
The Georgia RICO law is "a very broad and powerful statute. It is like a freight train for the prosecution running through the courtroom. It is one of the most difficult cases to defend and here's why," Miller replied. "You don't have to be an enterprise in the traditional sense of the word. You don't have to be a business. You don't have to be a corporation. It doesn't have to be all that organized In Georgia; the enterprise can be formed just like that."
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Miller continued, "This indictment spends a few months, essentially, so that is what makes it so powerful. In addition to the enterprise being so loose, there isn't the same need to show a continuity between the crimes. All you have to show is that these crimes were all done in furtherance of a common purpose to advance the purpose of the enterprise. In this case, the purpose of the enterprise, which is this loosely formed group of Trump supporters, was to keep Donald Trump in power, was to steal the Georgia election. That's enough to get you indicted in Georgia under our RICO statute. All you have to show is that these individuals committed a series of crimes."
Miller stressed that "they don't have to be a particular type of crime. In this case, the crimes are, you know, trying to interfere with an election, soliciting a public official to not do their public duty," and "forgery and fraud."
Miller added that "all of these sort of small crimes, when you string them together and they're done in furtherance of a common purpose for an enterprise can be a RICO with very significant prison time in Georgia."
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