Donald Trump's co-defendants will start clamoring to cooperate soon enough, according to an attorney who recently defended Oath Keepers members in a Jan. 6 case.
The former president has been indicted along with 18 allies in Georgia on racketeering and other charges related to his scheme to overturn the 2020 election results, but attorney Gene Rossi told CNN that reports showing that special counsel Jack Smith is probing post-election fundraising may pose a real threat to conservative attorney Sidney Powell, in particular.
"If you keep the indictment involving Sidney Powell separate, she'll have, allegedly, her own trial date and possibly others," Rossi said.
"It will not affect Donald Trump's trial date one bit, and that's why I predict if there is an indictment, it is only going to be against Sidney Powell, et al, and think won't touch Trump, because they want to stay with him, mano-a-mano, and focus on him, and his activities Jan. 6 before and after, and that is a brilliant strategy if they take that approach."
Powell raised money through her nonprofit Defending the Republic, which funded post-election legal challenges based on evidence of fraud she already claimed to have uncovered, but court documents and witness testimony suggest that evidence never existed.
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"You raise money based on a fraud, you lie to people to get money -- that is a crime," Rossi said. "Money, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and you take that money, you then further these schemes that are laid out in Donald Trump's indictment. So there is a connection between her alleged fund-raising kerfuffle, if you will, and the scheme and goals of Donald Trump's conspiracy, because there are several goals of the conspiracy that was charged against him, and then you could also go down to Atlanta, and that is seven schemes. So you raise money based on the lie, you get it, then you spend it on things that are illegal. The last time I looked at the law books, that is a crime."
Recent court filings in Fulton County, where district attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump and 18 allies, suggest the former president's co-defendants are willing to turn on him and possibly others, and Rossi agreed that was likely.
"Think of lobsters in a barrel," he said. "They are all trying to climb out, and they are all pulling each other down. I just finished a six-week trial in February and March, Oath Keeper, and he got probation with a great judge, but we had one key cooperator, and in every case of this magnitude hinges on one or two cooperators and the Proud Boys hinged on one main cooperating witness, and so what is going to happen among the 19 is that you will face the prisoner's dilemma.
"Do I take a bullet for the team or do I think about me? Do I think about me, me alone and what my future holds, and so you are going to be seeing two or three people cooperating before that trial starts, and they are going to be very important witnesses. They could decide the case for or against Donald Trump, [Rudy] Giuliani and the others."
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