GA - Former President Donald Trump indicted, 10 counts in 2020 election interference, violation of RICO Act, 14 Aug 2023

[Inthedetails]

I'm reading the indictment and bringing you along with me.

Count 1: Violation of the Georgia RICO Act.
All 19 defendants are charged with this count as they formed "the enterprise."

Manner and Methods of the Enterprise:

* Appeared before Georgia General Assembly (3 times in Dec 2020), made false statements regarding the election to persuade legislators to reject lawful electoral votes, corruptly solicited legislators to appoint fake electors. Did the same in other states.

* Solicited high-ranking officials to violate their oaths by changing the election outcome. Did the same in other states.

* Created false Electoral College documents, recruited individuals to meet and cast false Electoral College votes at GA State Capitol on Dec 14, 2020. Sent false votes to POTUS, Archivist of US, GA Secretary of State, Chief Judge of US District Court in Northern District of GA. The purpose was to delay Congress on Jan 6, 2021 to unlawfully change presidential election results. People from other states also did this.

* Falsely accused election worker Ruby Freeman of election fraud and repeated the false accusations to GA legislators and other officials to persuade them to unlawfully change the outcome of the election. Traveled out of state to harass and intimidate Ruby Freeman and to solicit her to falsely confess to election crimes she did not commit.

* Corruptly solicited high-ranking U.S. DOJ officials to make false statements to government officials in Fulton County. Trump stated to Acting U.S. Attorney General, "Just say that the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."

* Corruptly solicited the VP to violate the Constitution and federal law by unlawfully rejecting Electoral College votes cast in Fulton County. Solicited VP to reject electors from other states.

* Conspired to unlawfully access voting equipment and voter data. Stole the data and distributed data to other defendants, including in other states.

* Filed false documents, made false statements to government investigators, committed perjury in furtherance of conspiracy and to cover it up.

Source: The GA indictment, pages 16-19 DocumentCloud

To be continued....after dinner!

 

[vls12345]

Mark Meadows seeks to move Fulton County election case to federal court

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows officially filed Tuesday to move the election interference case brought against him in Fulton County into federal court.

abcnews.go.com

Such an upstanding guy. Not.

Top White House aide hosted lavish Atlanta wedding in May despite virus restrictions

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows threw a lavish wedding for his daughter in May, despite state and local restrictions.

www.ajc.com

And, more about the idea of trying to move to a federal court:

Will Georgia case against Trump end up in federal court?

Former President Donald Trump now stands indicted in Fulton County Superior Court, but that does not necessarily mean he will be tried there.

www.ajc.com

 

[Stunned]

Trump's court and campaign schedule is looking chaotic​

View attachment 441088

Trump faces 4 March 2024 trial just a day before Super Tuesday

His trial for alleged election interference is set for 4 March, 2024 - a day ahead of Super Tuesday.

www.bbc.co.uk

He still has plenty of time to golf, so that’s good! IMO

 

[Leilei]

Trump didn't ask anyone to commit a crime. He truly believed election fraud had been committed in multiple states and members of my own family who voted for him believed it.

Georgia has charged Trump and other defendants for tweets and phone calls asking for phone numbers and for tweets that encouraged his supporters to watch election hearings being televised. Last I checked, Freedom of Speech is still a protected right.

The GA Indictment is one of the most laughably absurd documents I've ever read. The fact that Trump's indictment was published prior to the Grand Jury even voting just proves how low the DA is willing to go.

JMO

CRIMINAL INDICTMENT

www.documentcloud.org

None of us have seen the actual evidence that the DA has - unless someone here was a member of the SGJ or GJ, which I doubt.
Nobody WILL see the evidence until it goes to trial (sooner rather than later, hopefully).
Every single lawsuit regarding election fraud hit dead ends with the courts because fraud didn't exist.
This isn't about the first amendment, as so many others here have said and have provided links to support their statements.
They conspired, they thought they were above the law, they got cocky, they got careless, and they got caught.
And for what? For a guy who might throw them a roll of paper towels if they're trying to survive after a major hurricane?
He's not going to pay their attorney fees - he doesn't even pay his own.
He will always look out for himself first and screw everyone else - friends, family, employees, students at his "University", charities, and more. He's done it all of his life and learned it from his father. He can't and won't change.
Ridiculous.
Now it's time to face the music.
Meantime, I'm of the opinion that if you have four active cases against you, in four different states, with 91 total indictments, there might just be a good reason for it.
IMO.

 

[JennieM]

The Fulton county court clerk released a statement acknowledging that it had published on its website a document about Donald Trump being criminally charged.

At about midday on Monday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.

The court clerk has now said it had been testing its system before the grand jury voted later in the day on whether to indict Trump.

Trump co-defendant Mark Meadows files to move Fulton county election case to federal court – as it happened

Ex-White House chief of staff under Trump – and one of 18 people indicted alongside his former boss – also planning motion to dismiss state case

www.theguardian.com

 

[Arkay]

ETA: And why does her implied age and previous occupation matter, anyway? It's kinda manipulative - like a retired schoolteacher is somehow impervious to wrongdoing or more of a 'victim' in this debacle. There's enough probable cause that she committed crimes that she's been indicted. I just don't get why some people keep referring to her as a retired schoolteacher instead of the former Coffee County GOP chair which was her role at the time of the allegations against her.

JMO

I agree, @BritsKate, and I find this line of thinking to be extremely irritating.

I am a retired teacher. Taught for 25 years in NYC and have been retired for five years.

In these five years, I have enjoyed as many activities as I could, except for when Covid precautions prevented me.

Some things I have NOT done, however, are falsifying my identity to pretend I am an elector, perjuring myself, and trespassing where I do not belong.


This TROPE, “but she’s just a little-bitty retired schoolteacher,” plays into the paragon of virtue represented by “schoolteacher,” and the insinuation of innocence of the elderly with “retired.”

It’s actually infantilizing. Latham, as you said, was the GOP chair of her county. She was criminally misbehaving in that capacity. She wasn’t knitting in her rocking chair and now being woefully mistreated by the big bad prosecutor.


IMO

 

[branmuffin]

Yes, Freedom of Speech does give the President--and anyone else, btw--the right to make a phone call. Trump did not threaten anyone.

JMO

Trump doesn't threaten people the way mobsters don't threaten people. "You've got beautiful kids, Rocco, it would be a shame if they met with an accident."

If you read the complete transcript of the conversation between Trump, Raffensperger, Meadows, German et al. Trump makes such subtle threats to Raffensperger. It's astonishing to me that people can listen to that whole diatribe and not think that Trump isn't one of the vilest human beings to ever walk the earth. He throws out subtle threats, interspersed with sly comments, casually commits character assassinations of individuals he's never even met and uses grandiose language about himself and exaggerates to a level that is bonkers and equates rally size to vote counts. He forgot about the Silent Majority who wants him gone.

Read the full transcript of President Trump's call with Georgia's Sec. of State

Now you can read the full text of President Donald Trump's 62-minute phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State.

www.11alive.com

 

[MyBelle]

Trump doesn't threaten people the way mobsters don't threaten people. "You've got beautiful kids, Rocco, it would be a shame if they met with an accident."

If you read the complete transcript of the conversation between Trump, Raffensperger, Meadows, German et al. Trump makes such subtle threats to Raffensperger. It's astonishing to me that people can listen to that whole diatribe and not think that Trump isn't one of the vilest human beings to ever walk the earth. He throws out subtle threats, interspersed with sly comments, casually commits character assassinations of individuals he's never even met and uses grandiose language about himself and exaggerates to a level that is bonkers and equates rally size to vote counts. He forgot about the Silent Majority who wants him gone.

Read the full transcript of President Trump's call with Georgia's Sec. of State

Now you can read the full text of President Donald Trump's 62-minute phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State.

www.11alive.com

I've read the complete transcript and Trump didn't threaten anyone.

Comparing Trump to a mobster is as ridiculous as the Georgia indictment for Tweets and phone calls.

JMO

 

[branmuffin]

I've read the complete transcript and Trump didn't threaten anyone.

Comparing Trump to a mobster is as ridiculous as the Georgia indictment for Tweets and phone calls.

JMO

Well, I respectfully disagree. I've read the transcript and I've listened to the recording. It's very obvious to me that Trump is an expert in making non sequiturs to throw off his combatants and he really does think of them as combatants, imo,. They either gradually succumb to his style of threat whether it's personal or monetary or hold the line. I'm happy to see that Raffensperger didn't succumb and here we are.

 

[Inthedetails]

"Find me votes" is not a friendly or legal request.

jmo

 

[vls12345]

As a reminder, here is who the previous President is.

(Article from approx. 2016. The number would be higher now of course.)

USA TODAY Network: Dive into Donald Trump's thousands of lawsuits

A deep dive by USA TODAY shows how Trump amassed thousands of lawsuits over three decades, unprecedented for a presidential nominee.

www.usatoday.com

How USA TODAY NETWORK is tracking Trump court files

Journalists searched courts nationwide for records about cases involving Trump enterprises.

www.usatoday.com

Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee

USA TODAY analysis finds 3,500 legal actions by and against Trump, fighting everyone from the government to the vodka makers.

www.usatoday.com

So, he should feel nice and cozy in a courtroom.

 

[MyBelle]

I agree, @BritsKate, and I find this line of thinking to be extremely irritating.

I am a retired teacher. Taught for 25 years in NYC and have been retired for five years.

In these five years, I have enjoyed as many activities as I could, except for when Covid precautions prevented me.

Some things I have NOT done, however, are falsifying my identity to pretend I am an elector, perjuring myself, and trespassing where I do not belong.


This TROPE, “but she’s just a little-bitty retired schoolteacher,” plays into the paragon of virtue represented by “schoolteacher,” and the insinuation of innocence of the elderly with “retired.”

It’s actually infantilizing. Latham, as you said, was the GOP chair of her county. She was criminally misbehaving in that capacity. She wasn’t knitting in her rocking chair and now being woefully mistreated by the big bad prosecutor.


IMO

BBM. Who falsified their identity to be an elector?

I can't leap to concluding someone is guilty of a felony crime for no reason other than their political party affiliation.

JMO

2022 Georgia Code :: Title 21 - Elections :: Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally :: Article 6 - Registration of Voters :: § 21-2-216. Qualifications of Electors Generally; Reregistration of Electors Purged From List; Eligibility of Nonresid

Justia Free Databases of U.S. Laws, Codes & Statutes

law.justia.com

 

[vls12345]

As a general statement, I wish headlines in media would quit saying "election meddling in GA" now that the indictments have come down. Headlines need to refer to "election crimes".

IMO.

 

[BritsKate]

I'll happily label myself ridiculous because I think using a mob boss descriptor for Trump is pretty apt, actually. I'm not alone - anyone remember Michael Cohen?

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen spoke at length Wednesday about his life in the president’s inner circle, but the most vivid descriptor came in just six words. Trump ran his operation “much like a mobster would do,” Cohen said.

In Cohen’s scathing testimony at a House committee hearing, he repeatedly described Trump, the onetime head of a family business, like a mob boss minus the body count: quick to bully and expecting others to do his dirty work. Cohen described himself as a consigliere, telling lawmakers he did Trump’s bidding for years, intimidating maybe 500 people and lying to scores, including the first lady. But Trump never directly told him to do it, he said.

“He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders,” Cohen said. “He speaks in a code, and I understand the code because I’ve been around him for a decade.”

Cohen says Trump behaved 'much like a mobster would do'

WASHINGTON (AP) — He carried out the boss' wishes. He understood "the code." He was blindly loyal — but now he's considered a rat.

apnews.com

 

[Inthedetails]

I send my husband to get chocolate chips. I ask my neighbor for a cup of sugar. I tell my kid to turn the oven on. I put a mixing bowl on the table.

You could shout that sending my husband to the store does not mean that cookies were made. A hot oven and empty mixing bowl are not cookies. My neighbor might not know why I asked for sugar.

But by all those acts orchestrated by me furthered the goal to make cookies, even if one at a time they did not result in cookies.

If you're reading the indictment, you know what I mean.

jmo

 

[vls12345]

I'll happily label myself ridiculous because I think using a mob boss descriptor for Trump is pretty apt, actually. I'm not alone - anyone remember Michael Cohen?

Cohen says Trump behaved 'much like a mobster would do'

WASHINGTON (AP) — He carried out the boss' wishes. He understood "the code." He was blindly loyal — but now he's considered a rat.

apnews.com

Dt learned from the best, the mob themselves. Imo.

(Article from 2016.)

Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?

I've spent years investigating, and here's what's known.

www.politico.com

No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks. Professor Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the closest historical example would be President Warren G. Harding and Teapot Dome, a bribery and bid-rigging scandal in which the interior secretary went to prison. But even that has a key difference: Harding’s associates were corrupt but otherwise legitimate businessmen, not mobsters and drug dealers.

[snip]


From the public record and published accounts like that one, it’s possible to assemble a clear picture of what we do know. The picture shows that Trump’s career has benefited from a decades-long and largely successful effort to limit and deflect law enforcement investigations into his dealings with top mobsters, organized crime associates, labor fixers, corrupt union leaders, con artists and even a one-time drug trafficker whom Trump retained as the head of his personal helicopter service.

Now that he’s running for president, I pulled together what’s known – piecing together the long history of federal filings, court records, biographical anecdotes, and research from my and Barrett’s files. What emerges is a pattern of business dealings with mob figures—not only local figures, but even the son of a reputed Russian mob boss whom Trump had at his side at a gala Trump hotel opening, but has since claimed under oath he barely knows.

 

[ilovewings]

Interesting. We really need to start our own support group.

My husband is a normal person, not a raving lunatic, well educated, definitely not a white supremacist. And he is very religious, which is why I don't understand his support of Donald Trump. He does admit that Donald Trump has some major issues, narcissism, and a lack of empathy for others. (Huge understatement).

I wish someone would tell him to leave the presidential race. I can almost see this as another "Ross Perot" debacle.

You describe my husband, well educated, not a white supremacist and a really
Nice guy --- in my wildest dreams I could not imagine him to be an enthusiastic
Supporter of Trump, and he believes the election was stolen

 

[Stunned]

As a reminder, here is who the previous President is.

(Article from approx. 2016. The number would be higher now of course.)

USA TODAY Network: Dive into Donald Trump's thousands of lawsuits

A deep dive by USA TODAY shows how Trump amassed thousands of lawsuits over three decades, unprecedented for a presidential nominee.

www.usatoday.com

How USA TODAY NETWORK is tracking Trump court files

Journalists searched courts nationwide for records about cases involving Trump enterprises.

www.usatoday.com

Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee

USA TODAY analysis finds 3,500 legal actions by and against Trump, fighting everyone from the government to the vodka makers.

www.usatoday.com

So, he should feel nice and cozy in a courtroom.

Does he ever actually sit through any of his many, many trials? I hope he has to sit through these.

 

[Vaderman]

Former hard core Republican here. Was a member of my university's College Republicans. Campaigned for Republican candidates all four years. I stopped being a Republican the day Trump won the 2016 nomination because the GOP stopped being my father's GOP. I like to call it "Political Hypocrisy 101". Suddenly everything Republican politicians would blast their Democratic counterparts for they defended in Trump.

In 2008, Republicans (rightfully, in my opinion), slammed the cult-like following voters had regarding Obama. What's occurred with the slavish adoration of Trump has far surpassed that.

The "First Amendment defense" on his crimes is a joke. It's been well established he knew the truth.

And, for the record, if Biden is found guilty of committing any crimes, I fully support his indictment because my loyalty remains with the republic (if we can keep it) and not a man.

 

[Leilei]

BBM. Who falsified their identity to be an elector?

I can't leap to concluding someone is guilty of a felony crime for no reason other than their political party affiliation.

JMO

2022 Georgia Code :: Title 21 - Elections :: Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally :: Article 6 - Registration of Voters :: § 21-2-216. Qualifications of Electors Generally; Reregistration of Electors Purged From List; Eligibility of Nonresid

Justia Free Databases of U.S. Laws, Codes & Statutes

law.justia.com

You can leap whichever way you want to, but the fact remains that her and the other's fates will be in the hands of a jury of their peers. Voir Dire is going to be crazy detailed, I'm sure, from both sides.

As far as Ms. Latham goes...
(snipped from article below)
"She was one of the so-called false electors who met to cast their votes for then-President Donald Trump, something the Jan. 6 Committee insisted was part of a larger failed conspiracy to replace the lawful Democratic electors in several key states, including Georgia, and replace them with Trump electors.

She stood up and signed her name to the document declaring her vote for Trump even as the legal Democratic electors were one floor up casting their ballots for Joe Biden."

Who is Cathy Latham? Former Coffee County GOP chair indicted in election interference case

While flying under the radar for most people, Latham was a player within the Georgia Republican Party, particularly in South Georgia.

www.wsbtv.com