Threat of financial 'ruin' could see co-defendants throw Trump under the bus: legal experts

Now that he has been indicted in a sweeping racketeering probe by Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis into efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump faces a unique threat.

He has many co-defendants – many of whom are not wealthy and face financial destruction from their indictments. That gives them huge incentive to flip on him to save themselves, Salon reported.

Legal experts say that the risk to Trump is very real, according to the website's analysis Tuesday.

New York University law professor Melissa Murray wrote on X, "Given the 5-year min for RICO, lots of opportunities for folks to flip and cooperate," referring to the prison sentence that could accompany a guilty verdict.

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Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti agreed, posting, "Unlike Trump, the other defendants aren’t wealthy. They aren’t raising money from donors to pay their legal bills. Most people have their lives turned upside down by an indictment, and plead guilty to avoid ruin.

"Indictments like this will deter future election shenanigans."

This comes as many other unindicted co-conspirators in Trump's four criminal cases are rumored to be cooperating, with some 30 mentioned in the indictments. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was indicted in Willis' case, has been suspected by legal experts to be cooperating in the other election case against Trump that was brought by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.

Trump is not only extremely wealthy, but has leveraged his position as a presidential candidate to raise millions for his own legal defense.

The former president and his allies appear to be aware of the risk that his allies could be financially pressured into cooperating against him; earlier this month, The New York Timesreported that Trump is building a new entity, Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc., that is dedicated to covering the legal bills of witnesses and co-defendants — a move that would potentially not just remove the threat of financial ruination from accused co-conspirators, but allow them to coordinate their defenses.