Some of the defendants in the expansive Georgia election interference case may be desperate to cut a deal if others charged alongside Donald Trump start getting convicted, according to a legal expert.
The former president and 18 other people, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows, have been arrested as part of Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ investigation into alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election, with each defendant charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Willis previously indicated that she intends to bring all 19 defendants to trial at the same time, potentially resulting in mammoth proceedings lasting several months.
However, Georgia judge Scott McAfee has accepted a request from Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who is accused of seven felony counts in Willis’ investigation, for a “speedy trial.” He set an October 23 date for Chesebro’s case to begin.
FULTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Speaking to MSNBC’s The Last Word, former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman suggested that some defendants may want to cooperate with Willis’ investigation if Chesebro ends up being found guilty in his trial, or even preemptively flip before Chesebro’s case begins.
“It scares them to their soul,” Litman replied when asked about whether the other defendants in Trump’s case are thinking about co-operating.
“Remember, all 19 here are charged with the vast RICO enterprise. So that might be one thing in Chesebro’s head, you can’t isolate it just to me, you’re going to have to put on much of your case,” Litman said.
“But of course, if things come back, they’ve seen the sort of shock and awe, they’ll be looking—it may be too late by then—but they’ll be looking very, very much to cut a deal,” he added.
Willis’ office essentially agreed for Chesebro’s trial to begin in two months’ time. Judge McAfee has not named any other trial date for the other 18 defendants in the case, including Trump.
Even if Chesebro is put on trial separately, Litman said that the case against him will still be a “pretty big, sprawling proceeding.”
Melissa Redmon, a law professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, told Reuters that prosecutors will want to try as many of the 19 defendants in the election interference case together as possible, since the “whole point of RICO is to be able to tell the full story of what everyone did and how their actions were interrelated.”
The talk about the defendants in the election interference case comes as former Georgia GOP Finance Chairman Shawn Still, who was charged in connection with being part of the so-called fake elector plot in the state, said that the scheme to falsely declare Trump had beaten President Joe Biden was organized at the behest of the former president.
“Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent president of the United States,” Still’s attorney Thomas Bever wrote in court filings while trying to move the case to federal court. “The president’s attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020.”
Following Chesebro’s speedy trial request, Willis suggested all 19 defendants in her RICO case could be put on trial on October 23, a motion which was rejected by Trump’s legal team.
“President Trump also alerts the Court that he will be filing a timely motion to sever his case from that of co-defendant Chesebro, who has filed a demand for speedy trial, or any other co-defendant who files such a demand,” Trump’s attorney Steven Sadow wrote in response to Willis.
Willis’ office has been contacted for comment via email.