#racketeering

[reasonsforhope]

Donald Trump charged in Georgia for efforts to overturn the 2020 election

Link here, because WaPo's security measures stop Tumblr previews. Non-paywall link here.

"Former president Donald Trump and 18 others were criminally charged in Georgia on Monday in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an indictment made public late Monday night [on August 14, 2023].

Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.

The Recap

The historic indictment, the fourth to implicate the former president, follows a 2½-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D). The probe was launched after audio leaked from a January 2021 phone call during which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to question the validity of thousands of ballots, especially in the heavily Democratic Atlanta area, and said he wanted to “find” the votes to erase his 2020 loss in the state.

Willis’s investigation quickly expanded to other alleged efforts by Trumpor his supporters, including trying to thwart the electoral college process, harassing election workers, spreading false information about the voting process in Georgia and compromising election equipment in a rural county. Trump has long decried the Georgia investigation as a “political witch hunt,” defending his calls to Raffensperger and others as “perfect.”

The Details

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” the indictment states.

A total of 41 charges are brought against 19 defendants in the 98-page indictment. Not all face the same counts, but all have been charged with violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Willis said she has given those charged until Aug. 25 to surrender.

Among those charged are Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who served as Trump’s personal attorney after the election; Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and several Trump advisers, including attorneys John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro...

Prosecutors brought charges around five subject areas: false statements by Trump allies, including Giuliani, to the Georgia legislature; the breach of voting data in Coffee County; calls Trump made to state officials, including Raffensperger, seeking to overturn Biden’s victory; the harassment of election workers; and the creation of a slate of alternate electors to undermine the legitimate vote. Those charged in the case were implicated in certain parts of what prosecutors presented as a larger enterprise to undermine the election."

-via The Washington Post, August 14, 2023

#trump #donald trump #trump indictment #fani willis #district attorney #united states #us politics #good news #2020 election #january 6 #georgia #fulton county #criminal justice #racketeering #rudy giuliani #sidney powell #john eastman #fuck trump

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Joseph Ferguson & Thomas A. Durkin, Loyola University Chicago

After three indictments of former President Donald Trump, the fourth one in Georgia came not as a surprise but as a powerful exposition of the scope of Trump’s efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 presidential election.

New conservative legal scholarship spells out how and why those actions – which were observed by the public over many months – disqualify Trump from serving in the presidency ever again. And our read of the Georgia indictment, as longtime lawyers ourselves, shows why and how that disqualification can be put into effect.

The key to all of this is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “No person shall … hold any office, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Trump took that oath at his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

Both Trump’s Georgia indictment, and his federal indictment in Washington, D.C., cite largely public information – and some newly unearthed material – to spell out exactly how he engaged in efforts to rebel against the Constitution, and sought and gave aid and comfort to others who also did so.

Legal scholars William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, conservatives themselves and members of the conservative Federalist Society, have recently published a paper declaring that under the 14th Amendment, Trump’s actions render him ineligible to hold office.

We believe the Georgia indictment provides even more detail than the earlier federal one about how Trump’s actions have already disqualified him from office, and shows a way to keep him off the ballot in 2024.

DISQUALIFICATION IS AUTOMATIC

Trump’s supporters might argue that disqualifying him would be unfair without a trial and conviction on the Jan. 6 indictment, and perhaps the Georgia charges.

But Baude and Paulsen, using originalist interpretation – the interpretive theory of choice of the powerful Federalist Society and Trump’s conservative court appointees, which gives full meaning to the actual, original text of the Constitution – demonstrate that no legal proceeding is required. They say disqualification is automatic, or what’s known in the legal world as “self-executing.”

Recent public comments from liberal constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe and conservative jurist and former federal Judge Michael Luttig – who has characterized the events before, during and since Jan. 6 as Trump’s “declared war on American democracy” – suggest an emerging bipartisan consensus supporting Baude and Paulsen.

BACKED BY HISTORY

This is not a theoretical bit of technical law. This provision of the 14th Amendment was, in fact, extensively used after the Civil War to keep former Confederate leaders from serving in the federal government, without being tried or convicted of any crime.

Few former Confederates were charged with crimes associated with secession, rebellion and open war against the United States. And most were pardoned by sweeping orders issued by President Andrew Johnson.

But even though they had no relevant convictions, former Confederates were in fact barred from office in the U.S.

In December 1865, several who had neither been convicted nor been pardoned tried to claim seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But the House clerk refused to swear them in. It took an act of Congress – the 1872 Amnesty Act – to later restore their office-holding rights.

There is no requirement in the Constitution that the disqualification be imposed by any specific process – only that it applies to people who take certain actions against the Constitution.

A PATH THROUGH THE STATES

For the U.S. in 2023, we believe the most realistic avenue to enforce the 14th Amendment’s ban on a second Trump presidency is through state election authorities. That’s where the Georgia indictment comes in.

State election officials could themselves, or in response to a petition of a citizen of that state, refuse Trump a place on the 2024 ballot because of the automatic 14th Amendment disqualification.

Trump would certainly challenge the move in federal court. But the recent disqualification proceedings against former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn provides a road map and binding legal precedent affirming the 14th Amendment as a valid legal ground for disqualification of a candidate for federal office.

The Georgia indictment against Trump and allies exhaustively details extensive acts of lying, manipulation and threats against Georgia officials, as well as a fraudulent fake elector scheme to illegally subvert the legitimate 2020 Georgia presidential vote tally and resulting elector certification.

Trump’s failure to accomplish what is tantamount to a coup in Georgia and other swing states set the stage for the violent insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, that sought to achieve the same result – Trump’s fraudulent installation to a second term.

In fact, the Georgia scheme is included in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment as one of the methods and means in “aid” of the larger Jan. 6 federal conspiracy against the United States.

Baude and Paulsen acknowledge that “insurrection and rebellion” are traditionally associated with forced or violent opposition. But we see the broader set of actions by Trump and his allies to subvert the Constitution – the Georgia vote count and fake elector scheme included – as part of a political coup d'etat. It was a rebellion.

GEORGIA AS A BELLWETHER

So what makes the Georgia scheme and indictment compelling for purposes of disqualifying Trump from the 2024 Georgia ballot?

There are minimally six aspects revealed in the latest indictment that we believe justify Georgia – under Section 3 of the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment – keeping Trump off the ballot:

1. The racketeering scheme was a multifaceted attempt to subvert Georgia’s own part of the 2020 electoral process;

2. The officials on the receiving end of the unsuccessful racketeering scheme were elected and appointed Georgia officials. …

3. … whose actions to reject election subversion vindicated their own oaths to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States as well as Georgia’s;

4. Most of these officials were and are Republicans – including Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, Governor Brian Kemp and former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan;

5. These officials will, in 2024 as in 2020, collectively determine who is qualified to be on Georgia’s presidential ballot; and

6. These officials’ testimony, and related evidence, is at the heart of the proof of the Georgia racketeering case against Trump.

In other words, the evidence to convict Trump in the Georgia racketeering case is the same evidence, coming from the same Georgia officials, who will be involved in determining whether, under the 14th Amendment, Trump is qualified to be on the 2024 presidential ballot – or not.

Little if any additional evidence or proceedings are needed. The Georgia officials already hold that evidence, because much of it comes from them. They don’t need a trial to establish what they already know.

How could Trump avoid this happening? A quick trial date in Atlanta with an acquittal on all counts might do it, but this runs counter to his strategy to delay all the pending criminal cases until after the 2024 election.

With no preelection trial, there will likely be no Trump on the 2024 Georgia ballot, and no chance for him to win Georgia’s 2024 electoral college votes.

Once Georgia bars him, other states may follow. That would leave Trump with no way to credibly appear on the ballot in all 50 states, giving him no chance to win the electoral votes required to claim the White House.

#us politics #news #the conversation #Joseph Ferguson #Thomas A. Durkin #op eds #republicans #donald trump #conservatives #trump administration #georgia #Georgia election probe #Georgia racketeering case #racketeering #rico charges #conspiracy #false slate of electors #14th amendment #us constitution #William Baude #Michael Stokes Paulsen #federalist society #disqualification from holding public office #us history #1872 Amnesty Act #confederate states of america #us civil war #us Congress #Madison Cawthorn #jan 6 insurrection

[nik-nefarious]

Peaky Blinders razor gang. Birmingham, England circa 1900.

#peaky blinders #flat cap #newsboy hat #birmingham #racketeering #bookmaking #extortion #fraud #smuggling #hooliganism #murder #highjacking #street gang #razor gang #Spotify #dropkick murphys #boston #brummie

[sbrown82]

Chile, not Fani throwing out them RICO charges! 🤣

#politics #donald trump #republicans #gop #racketeering #fraud #corruption #organized crime #4th indictment #georgia #2020 election #rico law #ap news #article

[memenewsdotcom]

Some charges thrown out in Trump Georgia case

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#2020 #Donald Trump #election #Georgia #meme #memes #news #politics #racketeering #ricoh #trump

[commiepinkofag]

Georgia is intensifying its crackdown against opponents of Cop City, with the state’s Republican attorney general announcing sweeping indictments of 61 people on racketeering charges over protests and other activism related to the $90 million police training facility planned to be built in Atlanta. The RICO charges were approved by the same grand jury that indicted former President Trump and 18 others on RICO charges in the same county by the Democratic district attorney, and come after many of the same people were earlier charged with domestic terrorism and money laundering as part of the Stop Cop City movement, which is still seeking to block construction of the new police complex. “They are choosing to use the legal process in an essentially violent way to target protesters,” says attorney Devin Franklin with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is organizing legal representation for the defendants in the case. We also speak with Keyanna Jones, a Stop Cop City organizer with Community Movement Builders, who notes the indictments are dated from May 25, 2020, the day Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. “Since that date, this country has been upended by governments across the nation trying to build Cop Cities in order to quell protest,” says Jones. “The government is simply upset that people seek to … use their First Amendment right to protest when we see injustice coming from those in authority.”

#fascism #capitalism #terrorism #stop cop city #defend the atlanta forest #antifa #acab #police state #policing #george floyd #racism #georgia #atlanta #atl #rico act #racketeering #democracy now #2023 #2020s #human rights #community movement builders #southern center for human rights

[thepowerisyouth]

Pro tip:

https://federalappealslawfirm.com/rico-convictions

Capitalism is racketeering. It didnt used to be in every possible way, but it is by now. End state capitalism

"Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may also sometimes offer an ostensibly effectual service outside of the law to solve an actual existing problem."

US RICO laws can, and have been, used to presecute corporations and political groups for committing racketeering.

Idk I feel like if more people talked about racketeering we could just help the libs realize literally every CEO and every politician belongs in front of a jury

Going to edit in examples with little to no explanation over time:

1) https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/01/health/yogurt-type-2-diabetes-fda-limited-claim-wellness/index.html

#anti capitalism #racketeering #fraud #corporate accounting

[gravityroom]

#Instagram #thanks terryo #root phase mechanic #blebs #QT #℟ #search the landfill #aylor #7:4 error ype #ttt #cultural misappropriation #truth and reconciliation #fraud #racketeering #dhs #beep #beeeeeeep #specific heights #oh ick #para⦞ite #grand theft audience

[muddypolitics]

(via Trump's racketeering indictment uses his own tweets against him)

#trump crime family #racketeering #RICO law

[omg-whathaveidone]

How they gonna spin this when their king of the trash heap was recorded asking Georgia to commit fraud!?

💣

#lock him up! #trump crime family #trump is a threat to democracy #democracy is on life support #american idiots #i stand with trump #as I watch him get handcuffed #trump indictment #georgia #election fraud #racketeering #donald trump #king of the losers #magats #maga tears #maga #they all gonna burn

[reasonsforhope]

Article Date: 7 June 2023

Climate litigation in the US could be entering a “game changing” new phase, experts believe, with a spate of lawsuits around the country set to advance after a recent supreme court decision, and with legal teams preparing for a trailblazing trial in a youth-led court case beginning next week.

The first constitutional climate lawsuit in the US goes to trial on Monday next week (12 June) in Helena, Montana, based on a legal challenge by 16 young plaintiffs, ranging in age from five to 22, against the state’s pro-fossil fuel policies.

A federal judge ruled last week that a federal constitutional climate lawsuit, also brought by youth, can go to trial.

More than two dozen US cities and states are suing big oil alleging the fossil fuel industry knew for decades about the dangers of burning coal, oil and gas, and actively hid that information from consumers and investors.

The supreme court cleared the way for these cases to advance with rulings in April and May that denied oil companies’ bids to move the venue of such lawsuits from state courts to federal courts.

Hoboken, New Jersey, last month added racketeering charges against oil majors to its 2020 climate lawsuit, becoming the first case to employ the approach in a state court and following a federal lawsuit filed by Puerto Rico last November.

the new forms of climate litigation are different, as they grapple not with particular projects’ emissions, but on responsibility for the climate crisis itself. Sokol, who dubbed these new suits “climate accountability litigation”, says though they will not alone lower emissions, they could help reshape climate plans.

In the US, this litigation has taken a variety of forms; perhaps the best known cases are based on constitutional rights and brought by youth.

One of those cases, Held v Montana, is based on the state’s constitutional guarantees to a clean and healthy environment, which were enshrined in the 1970s and which the plaintiffs say the state has violated by supporting fossil fuels. It will next week become the first-ever constitutional climate lawsuit to go to trial in the US.

Held v Montana followed the highly publicized 2015 Juliana v United States in which 21 young people from Oregon sued the US government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by enacting policies that drove and exacerbated the climate crisis. The case, which like the Montana suit was filed by the non-profit law firm Our Children’s Trust, calls on federal officials to phase out fossil fuels.

Last week, a US district court ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs, allowing that their claims can be decided at trial in open court.

Litigation based on state constitutional rights, also filed by Our Children’s Trust, is currently pending in four other states. One of those cases brought by Hawaii youth is set to go to trial, possibly as soon as this fall.

Another set of lawsuits in the US allege that the fossil fuel industry has for decades known about the dangers of burning coal, oil and gas, and actively hid that information from consumers and investors. Since 2017, seven states, 35 municipalities, the District of Columbia, and one industry trade association have sued major fossil fuel corporations and lobbying groups on these grounds.

In late April, lawyers for the city of Hoboken amended a 2020 complaint to allege that the defendants violated New Jersey’s racketeering laws by conspiring to sow doubt about climate change.

It marked the first-ever state-level lawsuit of its kind, following one last year in which 16 Puerto Rico cities brought federal racketeering charges, originally used to bring down criminal enterprises like the mafia, against big oil.

Unlike some previous cases, Hoboken’s amended lawsuit focuses not only on past misinformation, but also on contemporary greenwashing – something that could feature prominently in future cases.

A study last month examined litigation against fossil fuel majors and found that the filing of a new case or a court decision against a corporation took a slight toll on their finances. Novel developments – including a groundbreaking 2021 Netherlands court ruling ordering Shell to substantially slash its carbon emissions, and an unprecedented transnational claim filed in 2012 by a Peruvian farmer against a German energy company – yielded bigger blows.

Sankar, of Earthjustice, said he expects to see new forms of climate litigation in future years. “As the impact on states and localities increases, they are increasingly going to be looking for ways in which their state and local laws protect them,” he said.

(shinigami red links in this post go to The Guardian)

Article Date: 7 June 2023

Article Source: Dharna Noor for The Guardian

--

Thanks so much to @queerce for submitting!

#queerce #climate justice #greenwashing #climate litigation #lawsuits #hoboken #new jersey #puerto rico #united states #netherlands #peru #germany #earthjustice #racketeering #climate change #oregon #montana #constitutional law #supreme court #scotus #good news #hope

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Fulton County jail in Georgia could make history in the weeks ahead as the first institution to ever take a U.S. president's mugshot.

Driving The News: The local sheriff's office says it expects to book all 19 of those indicted this week on election-related charges — including former President Trump — at the notorious detention center, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The Big Picture: Trump has thus far avoided having his mugshot taken in his three other cases.

• He now faces a historic four indictments and 91 criminal charges — while also running for the GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

• The newest indictment, which relies on state-level racketeering charges, said Trump and 18 other defendants "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."

Why It Matters: Trump and other powerful figures included in the indictment now face the prospect of being processed at a rough and overcrowded jail in Atlanta.

• Those figures include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani — who as a federal prosecutor went after mobsters under the same type of racketeering law.

Context: The Fulton County jail, known among locals as "Rice Street," has been plagued with reports of dangerous conditions and detainee deaths.

• In July, the U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation into conditions at the jail following the death of Lashawn Thompson, who was found covered in bugs and filth.

• "It's miserable. It's cold. It smells. It's just generally unpleasant," longtime defense attorney Robert G. Rubin said of the jail, per the New York Times.

• Officers are being prosecuted for using excessive force at the jail as well, the DOJ said.

Between The Lines: Trump's Georgia trial is also the first one that could be televised, as Georgia law requires cameras be allowed during judicial proceedings with a judge's approval.

• A judge would have to be presented with a compelling reason to bar cameras.

Reality Check: An official mugshot could also be a boon to Trump's reelection campaign.

• After his first arrest in April, his campaign fundraised with fake mugshot merch.

What's Next: District Attorney Fani Willis proposed a Mar. 4 start date for the Georgia trial, meaning it would start one day before Super Tuesday, when many U.S. states hold primary elections.

• The arraignment should take place the week of Sept. 5, Willis said in the court filing.

#us politics #news #Axios #2023 #Georgia #Fulton County jail #fani willis #donald trump #republicans #conservatives #gop #Atlanta Journal-Constitution #racketeering #Mark Meadows #rudy giuliani #Georgia election probe #Lashawn Thompson #department of justice

[sbrown82]

These yt folks are losing their minds!

#politics #grand jury #violence #republicans #gop #donald trump #georgia #article #nbc news #2020 election #fraud #racketeering

[memenewsdotcom]

Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Trump Georgia election case

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#2020 #America #Donald Trump #election #Georgia #meddling #meme #memes #news #politics #president #racketeering #republican #Sidney Powell #trump #united states

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“EMPLOYMENT RACKET 6-MONTH BRINGS TERM,” Winnipeg Tribune. December 6, 1932. Page 1. --- Steve Shandruk Condemned by Court in Passing Sentence --- Steve Shandruk, who worked an employment racket, was given the maximum of six months In jail when convicted in city police court today of theft of $10 from Steve Tymoshek. Shandruk told Tymoshek he had jobs for him and three others in a mine at Sudbury. The money was given him as part payment for tickets to Sudbury, which he said he would buy. Once in possession of the cash he disappeared.

“This is a particularly despicable type of theft,” said Magistrate Graham, when passing sentence. “You victimized these who were out of work, in a most heartless manner.”

Tymoshek told the court that the $10 was money he had borrowed in the hopes of getting a much-coveted job in the mine.

Police state the job racket is being constantly worked in Winnipeg, and victims in nearly all cases are foreigners who are almost destitute and can ill afford the money they lose. Not long ago scores of men around the city were talked into parting with amounts varying from one to ten dollars for jobs which they were supposed to get at Churchill.

#wnnipeg #police court #luring #fake jobs #fake companies #employment racket #sudbury #ukrainian canadians #theft #great depression in canada #racketeering #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #sentenced to prison #headingley jail

[truegeorge]

Fani Willis Affair: Verdict

The verdict is in, whether Fani Willis and her office can remain on the racketeering case persecuting allegations against former President Donald Trump. The verdict was that Fani Willis can stay as long as the Special Persecutor Nathan Wade steps down. Or, if Nathan Wade remains on the case Fani Willis and her entire office will be dismissed. So, who are the winners? It all depends on how you…

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#Donald Trump #Fani willis #Nathan wade #racketeering