On the Docket: Atlanta v. Trumpworld – The New York Times

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Last year, Ms. Willis told The New York Times that racketeering charges could be in play. Whenever people “hear the word ‘racketeering,’ they think of ‘The Godfather,’” she said, before explaining that charges under Georgia’s version of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act could apply in any number of realms where corrupt enterprises are operating. “If you have various overt acts for an illegal purpose, I think you can — you may — get there,” she said.

Ms. Willis, 51, a first-term Democrat, has long made use of racketeering charges and has hired a leading expert in the state’s racketeering laws. In 2014, as a deputy in the office, she prosecuted public schoolteachers who had taken part in a cheating scandal, and in May, she secured an indictment charging the rapper Young Thug and 27 associates with conspiracy to commit racketeering, identifying them as a criminal street gang.

Observers believe a similar fate awaits some of the myriad Trump loyalists in and out of Georgia who may have had a hand in trying to subvert legitimate election results. She has already informed the head of the Georgia Republican Party that he is a target of the investigation, along with the party’s treasurer and 14 other Georgians who were on the slate of bogus Trump electors, including the car dealer and the economics teacher.

A number of people closer to Mr. Trump have also been drawn into the case. His personal lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, has been ordered by a judge to testify on Aug. 9. Lawyers for Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are fighting his subpoena to testify, as are lawyers for Representative Jody Hice, a stalwart Trump ally who led efforts in the House in January 2021 to stop the certification of votes. Ms. Willis is also seeking to compel testimony from John Eastman, an architect of the legal strategy to keep Mr. Trump in power, as well as other lawyers — Kenneth Chesebro, Jacki Pick Deason, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell — who played critical roles in the effort.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/us/politics/trump-georgia-election-interference.html

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