'Significant evidence': RICO expert says Trump racketeering case is almost unsinkable

Former President Donald Trump has little hope of getting the charges against him dismissed, argued Etan Mark, a Miami-based lawyer who focuses on civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) cases, to Law & Crime.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump and 18 co-conspirators in a sweeping RICO case related to the election — and Georgia is a state where RICO laws are extremely sweeping, having previously allowed her to go after other kinds of entities like street gangs and even a teacher test-cheating ring in Atlanta.

“The Georgia indictment reminds me of the saying, ‘When you shoot at the king, you better not miss,'” said Mark. “The charges against Trump will survive dismissal." In particular, he argued, the charges are durable because they are "detailed and particularized, as RICO indictments must be, and their underpinnings are simple: it’s illegal to try to overturn an election, and any actions taken in furtherance of that scheme constitute predicate acts under RICO.”

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Currently, some figures in the indictment like former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, are trying to get their cases dismissed on the grounds that they were acting under federal powers and thus immune. But that doesn't work, said Mark, because in a RICO case, the fact that your actions individually are legal isn't necessarily a defense.

“[I]f a group of people decides to participate in a flash mob because they want to record a TikTok video and become famous, there is nothing illegal about it,” Mark told Law & Crime. However, “if a group of people decides to participate in a flash mob to create a diversion for a getaway car, it is illegal. So motive matters as does the effect of the conduct. Here, the indictment refers to significant evidence suggesting that the purpose of these meetings, phone calls, and communications was to illegally overturn the results of an election, not to schedule a brunch and discuss UGA football.”