The Atlanta prosecutor’s case is far from a political decision: A former state attorney’s counsel in the high-stakes prosecution of a former president
He says that if she takes a single case and says it’s going to dominate the judicial system, it’s just a political decision. “Is it worth it?”
Don Samuel, an Atlanta defense attorney representing the Georgia legislature in the proceedings, told NPR in an interview last July that convictions are far from a sure bet, and meanwhile the case is sponging resources from a district attorney’s office already backlogged with violent crime cases.
Eisen thinks that the crimes she’s charged him with are similar to Georgian laws, and he thinks that she may be more free than the Department of Justice.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as special counsel during Trump’s first impeachment, says Willis may be better positioned than most to prosecute the former president.
“She’s learning to be more comfortable in that driver’s seat,” Rucker says. “Every now and then, you know, you may get a little close to the edge, and hopefully you’ve got an alarm that goes beep, beep, beep, beep, beep to tell you to bring it back to the center. And I think she will.”
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Still, Willis has made some mistakes. She hosted a political fundraiser last year for the opponent of one of the so-called fake electors. The judge called it a “what are you thinking moment” and disqualified the office from prosecuting him.
Six Asian women were allegedly killed in the Atlanta-area spas by the shooter who was later sentenced to death.
As she took office, she pledged to “do what’s right” despite the political pressure. If you commit a crime in the community, no matter where you are in the state, you will be held accountable.
He says if you’ve had one shot, you know what it feels like to take a shot. “So if you have to take two or three more, you can handle it.”
Georgia’s tough laws around RICO, which are related to corruption, has become known for being used to prosecute large cases like the cheating scandal. Right now, she’s also in the middle of a RICO gang case involving the rapper Young Thug.
Donald Trump is among 19 people charged in Fulton County with trying to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Another section of the indictment deals with the effort to unlawfully copy election data in rural Coffee County, where Trump allies gained access to a voting machine and hired an IT firm to search for widespread voter fraud, which did not exist.
Several individuals who allegedly participated in that plan are also facing charges, including former Coffee County Election Supervisor Misty Hampton and Cathy Latham, a former Republican Party official in Coffee County.
Under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, prosecutors simply need to prove that the defendants were associated “in fact” as opposed to involved in a formal enterprise, says Fred Smith Jr., a professor at Emory University School of Law.
What can Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis say about a possible separation of all 19 defendants in a high-spin criminal case?
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she wants to try all 19 defendants together, which could pose significant logistical challenges to an already-complicated case.
The defendants can argue that they won’t get a fair trial as a group and ask for their cases to be separated, NBC News reported.
They could also try to have the case moved from state to federal court, says Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at the New York University School of Law.
Gillers says that a change in venue would probably benefit the defendants since a jury from a more conservative area would be more likely to find them guilty. The case could be delayed for several months.
“Ultimately the federal court might send it back to state court, or federal court might keep it if the court concludes that the conduct alleged was under color of federal law,” he adds, predicting “a real fight over that … in the next two months.”
At that point they would be arraigned, a process that involves hearing the charges, entering a plea and taking fingerprints and mugshots (which would be a first for Trump, despite this being his fourth indictment). The defendants could be arraigned individually or together.