‘They’re coming for everyone’: Looming Georgia indictments send Trump allies running for cover

As Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis nears her decision on whether to indict Donald Trump over allegations that he tried to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election, the former president’s allies are growing increasingly nervous that they could be ensnared in the sprawling probe, Rolling Stone reports.

Willis is likely to indict a number of Trump’s associates in addition to the former president, according to the report, which cites three sources who have spoken with prosecutors.

“It really seems like they’re coming for everyone,” a lawyer who has spoken with prosecutors in connection with the investigation told Rolling Stone.

“Based on what I know, Willis and her team do not seem to be stopping at Donald Trump. The scope for this [likely coming indictment] is probably going to be a hell of a lot wider than that… and round up a significant number of people.”

Rolling Stone’s Adam Rawnsley writes that, “Some of Trump’s own lawyers, as well as other attorneys retained by his election-denying allies, are already preparing for the very real possibility that Trump will have plenty of company in an upcoming indictment. Lawyers have already outlined legal strategies, memos, and other material that factor in their expectation that an array of these Trump subordinates will face charges alongside him, according to two people familiar with the situation.”

According to the report, Trump’s allies are basing their speculation on several factors, including the subject matters of witness interviews and the DA’s requests, which include “granular details of what certain Trump allies were doing in the weeks following Election Day 2020.”

Willis is considering using Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, which would extend her authority to charge others in connection with a criminal conspiracy, according to the report.

Rawnsley writes that a RICO prosecution offers “broader authority to define and charge criminal conspiracies than in other states, potentially spelling trouble for Trump campaign alumni involved in the attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election.”

One of the main benefits a RICO prosecution offers is the ability to bring in evidentiary statements that would otherwise be considered “hearsay,” former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Rolling Stone.

“One of the most important things under any conspiracy statute is that any statement made by any conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy is admissible evidence against all conspirators. In other words, it’s not hearsay,” Epner said.

“In this instance, every defendant could be confronted by the stupidest things that Rudy Giuliani said.”

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