M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
Not everybody in Trump's RICO trial in Georgia is going to get a plea deal.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on his YouTube show "Justice Matters" suspects that there is good reason why former President Donald Trump and some of the 14 remaining co-defendants — namely Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and John Eastman are still facing conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election — and aren't getting offered sweet plea deals by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis like four others have.
"So you know what, Donald, Rudy, Mark [Meadows], y'all want a plea offer," said Kirschner. "Well, here's the offer: You go in and plead guilty to the indictment on every charge on which the grand jury indicted you."
"Accept responsibility for what you did. And then you can make your way to sentencing and throw yourself on the mercy of the court. There's your plea offer."
Kirschner relied on a published story in The Guardian laying out how key members accused in leading the alleged conspiracies and kept close in Trump's orbit have yet to be offered a chance to take a plea.
"The lack of offers from the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, in contrast to those deals agreed with the other Trump election lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, has caused some of Trump’s top co-defendants to reconsider their legal strategy and weigh options such as seeking an expedited trial or trying to sever their cases," the story reads.
The article also noted that pressure is mounting on Trump’s closest allies in recent weeks now that four co-defendants took please.
Kirschner admitted Willis essentially shafting some of the major players in the alleged conspiracy to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election is commonplace in these kind of cases where prosecutors consider the players in what he calls a "criminal food chain" made up of small, medium and big fish.
Prosecutors, Kirschner noted, take keen interest in the medium fish.
In this case he pointed to those such as Meadows and Giuliani to be able to get to the "biggest fish" in Trump.
"And it's the big orange fish himself, the mob boss, the former president who tried to bring an end to American democracy by reinstalling himself in the White House for a second term over the expressed will of the American voters."
In fact, Kirschner made it clear that at any time Trump and those that are accused with him can simply "proclaim" their innocence.
"Because if you've done nothing wrong, I'm sure you'll be fully exonerated," he said.
Then he turned as if speaking directly to the 45th president himself.
"But you did plenty wrong," he said. "And you're not gonna be fully exonerated."
"You're gonna be fully convicted by a jury of your peers down in Georgia."
