Why has DA Willis invoked Georgia’s version of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is typically applied to mobsters engaged in the familiar rackets of murder, extortion, trafficking in narcotics and stolen goods, gambling, prostitution and so on? Because there’s a giant hole in her case: the lack of a clear crime to which Trump and his co-defendants can plausibly be said to have agreed.McCarthy briefly puts aside RICO and explains in full detail what a conspiracy means. A conspiracy, McCarthy notes, is an agreement to violate a criminal statute. This takes at least two people. Moreover, McCarthy explains that “there must be a meeting of the minds about the crime that is the objective of the conspiracy.” If there does not exist an agreement regarding the crime, a conspiracy does not exist. The constitutional process dictates that Americans cannot be charged with a crime and forced to stand trial unless probable cause exists that a crime has been committed. McCarthy in his article next emphasizes the importance of Americans understanding why defendants have been charged in a particular case. He then points out that Willis is charging Trump with a crime for engaging in a completely legal action (trying to reverse the 2020 election results). McCarthy calls this “strange.”
Even though prosecutors bear the burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt before there can be a conviction, we can easily understand why the defendants have been charged. If they are charged with conspiracy, the indictment will clearly state the crime they allegedly agreed to commit — e.g., drug trafficking, bank robbery, murder, extortion. That is what’s so strange about DA Willis’s indictment. She alleges that the 19 people named in her indictment are guilty of conspiracy because they agreed to try to keep Donald Trump in power as president — specifically, to “change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” Trying to change an election outcome is legal; the end doesn’t become illegal if pursued by illegal means — instead, those illegal means can be charged as crimes. But there is no conspiracy unless the objective itself is clearly a crime. You don’t see prosecutors alleging, say, that defendants were in a “conspiracy to unlawfully” commit murder or robbery. Murder and robbery are crimes. If two or more people agree to commit murder or robbery, that is an agreement to commit a crime — a conspiracy. To the contrary, an agreement to try to reverse the result of an election is not an agreement to commit a crime.McCarthy goes back to the RICO conspiracy charges which Willis laid out against Trump and the 18 other defendants. As he notes, a RICO conspiracy is an agreement to participate in such an enterprise — to belong to the group and sustain the group so that it continues to generate power and profits. There was no organized effort and no crime. The fact is that Trump is getting charged by a partisan prosecutor for exercising his constitutional rights. Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
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