Let’s Just Nip This In the Bud

1. The Governor of the State of Georgia does not have the power of pardoning and commuting of sentences under Georgia law. The Board of Pardons and Parole is an independent executive branch that is unelected and largely unaccountable. Its members are appointed by the Governor, but due to the terms of office, the present Governor has had limited appointments to it. This is the same Board that released from prison after seven years a man sentenced to 1000 years in prison for child pornography. The judge in the case called that man “the world’s most prolific collector of child pornography.” Donald Trump, however, is not charged with sex crimes in Georgia, so the Board will not be so lenient.

2. To give the Governor of Georgia the power to pardon would require a constitutional amendment. That would require two-thirds of both houses of the legislature and a majority vote of the state. That won’t happen.

3. The Governor of the State of Georgia cannot remove a District Attorney from office unless the District Attorney is indicted for a felony and even then it is a suspension pending the trial with automatic reinstatement if the District Attorney is found not guilty.

4. Governor Kemp has signed a law this year that allows for a District Attorney to be removed from office for failure to perform their duties. The law requires a panel of prosecutors investigate the District Attorney and take action. The Governor has no power to unilaterally remove a District Attorney under this new law. But that law is being challenged in court and is not operative at this time. Even were it operative, under its rubric, it is highly doubtful a District Attorney could be removed for prosecuting someone.

5. The Georgia indictment against Donald Trump is less serious than the documents case in Florida and far more serious than both the Alvin Bragg case and the January 6th case in Washington. Why? Because Georgia requires less proof to establish a RICO case and has far broader statutory coverage to prosecute a RICO case, as I explained yesterday. The documents case in Florida remains the most serious case because, based on the evidence presented so far, President Trump did not comply with a grand jury subpoena and sought to hide documents. If actually proven, that is a crime.

6. When you hear again about the 2000 Mules and the evidence in Georgia of ballot harvesting, etc., please keep in mind that the Secretary of State has filed suit against True The Vote because the organization never actually provided its evidence to the Secretary of States despite requests for proof of the claims.

7. On the upside for the Trump team and many of you, the District Attorney in Fulton County is charging as crimes all the statements made in public hearings about the stolen election in Georgia. So, for those of you who are convinced the evidence is there to show the election was stolen, here’s your chance to finally prove me wrong. But, on the downside, the Fulton County District Attorney claims one or more people in the indictment privately admitted many of the claims were false.

8. I am starting to believe these indictments have a half-life in polling given how little anyone cares at this point. It’s a day ending in “Y” so Donald Trump expects to be indicted by a Democrat. Yawn. Also, he keeps stepping on rakes and is his own worst enemy.

9. While everyone is distracted by this, President Biden wants to give victims of the Hawaii fire a check for $700, which is $9 less than the monthly cost of living increase for American families. When companies began paying employees $1000 bonuses after the 2018 tax cuts, Democrats referred to $1000.00 as “crumbs.” In other words, Joe Biden is offering less than crumbs that equate to less than the monthly increase in the cost of living under Bidenomics.

Now About the Indictment

I’ve read all 96 pages.

As I mentioned, the burden in Georgia for a RICO case is far less than in the federal government and the crimes are more expansive. This is why this case is a problem for the Trump team.

Ironically, the Fulton County DA is charging, basically, a conspiracy to steal the election or, more precisely, to alter the results of the election. She alleges that before Election Day, President Trump already planned to give an Election Day speech claiming victory and blaming his apparent loss on voter fraud.

That is the precipitating event. Everything thereafter went into the conspiracy.

So, for example, all the statements made in state legislative meetings that claimed vote fraud, i.e. the ballot boxes at Star Farm Arena, ballot harvesters, the “mules,” etc. were all lies made under oath. So making false statements is a crime and that is part of the conspiracy.

The alternate electors who signed their names as if they were the real Electoral College members, are alleged to have forged state documents and to have made false statements asserting that they were the real electors. Those too are crimes under RICO.

Perhaps, however, the worst part for Trump is the behaviors outside his control. Remember, the individual crimes are all tied together to one overarching enterprise to steal the election. So the crimes others committed even without Trump’s direct knowledge, but in furtherance of the conspiracy to steal the election, can be tied to the overall conspiracy.

It appears one or more people tried to harass and intimidate Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman and one or more people tried to induce her into making false statements. Though Trump may have had nothing to do with that and no knowledge of it, because it was in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy, it draws Trump in.

Then there was the access of voting machines and ballots in South Georgia. The details in the indictment are pretty specific that people without authorization got access to ballots, machines, and computer code. This gets tied back to the conspiracy too.

But wait, there’s more.

After the election and into 2022, the Fulton County DA claims individuals lied in depositions and in Grand Jury testimony. Those lies to retroactively downplay past actions get wrapped into the conspiracy as well.

Basically, the Fulton County DA has taken together the actions the Trump campaign took in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, tied them all to similar behavior in Georgia, then tied in the efforts to pressure Mike Pence to embrace the alternate electors. All these incidents are presented as part of a comprehensive and complete conspiracy to illegally alter the outcome of the election.

Since election laws are state laws and the Fulton County DA alleges the Trump team tried to alter the outcome of Georgia’s election with false statements, witness harassment, fake documents, forgeries, etc. they have turned this into a racketeering case.

For President Trump, there are many defenses, including that he was relying on the advice of others, and, particularly, lawyers. However, for Giuliani and several others who made statements in the state legislature or in Georgia courts, they are going to have a hard time. As one example, the Fulton DA claims John Eastman submitted claims in court alleging improprieties, but noted in writing privately that he did not really think all the claims were sound.

This is going to be a very interesting case. I continue to have a hard time believing a jury of twelve, even in Fulton County, Georgia, is going to find a former President of the United States guilty of a conspiracy to steal the election when so much of what he believed came from his personal lawyers.

Additionally, all those charged are innocent until proven guilty.

On a personal note, after the 2020 election, I tried very hard to tell people the truth, including some very unpopular truths, about what had and had not happened in the State of Georgia. There were so many distortions, lies, and misrepresentations about what really happened in the election. I had a lot of people bully, badger, and pressure me to either change my tune or just shut up. Now, not only are several of the liars indicted for making those statements, the Fulton County DA claims to have evidence that, in more than one instance, those people knew they were not telling the truth. So many people believed and still believe those people. The truth will have its day in court now.