How It Will Work

Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) is far broader than the federal government’s original statute.

In the 1970’s, Congress passed RICO to crack down on organized crime. By general explanation, if criminals engage in burglary in one place and extortion in another place, and they are completely separate crimes, but the crimes are all to advance a common criminal enterprise, RICO can be invoked to tie all the crimes together with common conspirators.

In other words, the Mob Boss has criminals shaking down businesses in Chinatown for protection money and also is using other criminals to pay bribes at the port for security to look the other way while other criminals offload drugs and then uses other criminals hundreds of miles away to launder money — each of those can be tied together to the Mob Boss, though he himself did not participate in any of the crimes. The Mob Boss, all his Lieutenants who carried out the orders, and the criminals and accomplices can all be rounded up.

States adopted state RICO laws after the federal law. Georgia’s is one of the most expansive. Federal RICO identifies 27 federal offenses and eight state crimes as “racketeering activity.” Georgia’s RICO includes many additional offenses. It is one of the broadest in the nation, and out of state crimes can be tied to in-state crimes to show a broad criminal enterprise. But in Georgia, an overarching enterprise is not always necessary, and the elements necessary to prove a RICO violation are actually less burdensome for a prosecutor than at the federal level.

As a lawyer, I used the Georgia RICO statute in a civil case. It is complex but allows lawyers to show common patterns of practice over broad geography and tie them to a single enterprise or activity.

Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney expected to bring a RICO case against Donald Trump, has wielded RICO numerous times as an Assistant District Attorney before getting elected last year as Fulton County’s District Attorney.

The Trump campaign allegedly illegally tapped into voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, to review them and pull data from them. The Trump team, for the record, claims a local elections official gave them permission.

But that is one act. RICO needs two. The Fulton DA believes she has multiple acts in and out of Georgia to tie together.

This week, the State of Georgia expects to criminally indict former President Trump and numerous others under the state RICO statute. They will need to show, based on what is so far alleged, that President Trump was involved — not just his lawyers — and that his lawyers operated with his blessing.

I continue to doubt a jury, even in Fulton County, will convict the former President. Perhaps. I have no doubt a jury could convict a lot of people in the former President’s orbit.

But for the former President, his campaign contributions will pay for his plane, his wife’s hairdresser, and many lawyers. Forget the law. Financially, this is a serious burden for the former President to shoulder with three other indictments. Right now, his donors have chosen to cover those costs. But for how long?

This week, all eyes will be on the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta as the District Attorney presents evidence to the Grand Jury. Most people expect an indictment on Tuesday and an arraignment on Thursday. They expect that timeline to play out because the security protocols in place unless extended, expire Thursday night.

Stay tuned.