A noted legal scholar has taken Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis to task over what he described as the haphazard manner of her indictment against former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen other people once in his orbit.
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
“The charges include violating the Georgia RICO Act — the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act; Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer,” Fox News reported.
In addition to Trump — who is leading the GOP presidential field substantially — others formerly in his orbit were also charged: “Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeff Clark, John Eastman, and others,” Fox News noted.
In remarks following the indictment, Georgetown Law School Prof. Jonathan Turley shredded Willis, calling her prosecution “excessive” and “dangerous,” and said “it criminalizes challenges to elections.”
“What’s concerning, particularly about this, is that Willis didn’t really show any semblance of restraint. She indicted everyone for everything she could think of,” he told Fox News, per Mediaite.
“It is sort of the Jackson Pollock School of Prosecution. She threw it all against the canvas. And I think she is hoping that some of these other co-defendants will flip,” he added.
Regarding the RICO charges, Turley added: “I think partially she went with the RICO charge is because she’s quite familiar with it. This is a prosecutor who made her name bringing RICO state, RICO cases. Also, it allows for this type of overarching conspiracy. I mean, she is listing over 160 acts.
“There often phone calls, meetings, tweets. She just calls them all criminal,” he went on.
“She says that they all were knowingly false. And with that broad brush, she’s able to indict everyone and bring in 19 people into that courtroom,” he added.
“That’s the benefit of using a racketeering approach. But it also increases the danger for the country in terms of how we will handle contested elections in the future,” he added.