What is “racketeering activity” under Georgia law? “Racketeering is defined as ‚the illegal use of force, violence, or economic or political power to control or extort an enterprise‚. In the context of Georgia law, it is illegal to engage in a pattern of activity that includes at least two acts of racketeering activity within a 10 year period. The activities may include bribery, extortion, fraud, obstructing justice, counterfeiting, and trafficking in stolen property, among others.” Further, “(i)n Georgia, racketeering is a felony charge, and is punishable by significant fines and up to ten years in prison.”
The Georgia RICO statute has been a formidable weapon in Fani Willis’ arsenal. “(I)n 2013, Willis turned heads in one of her first big cases: She helped convene a grand jury that indicted decorated (Atlanta Schools) Superintendent Beverly Hall and nearly three dozen other educators for cheating on state standardized tests…Hall, the Atlanta superintendent, arrived in the district in 1999, eventually leading what she would call a data-driven turnaround… By 2009…the Journal-Constitution published the first of several stories analyzing Atlanta’s results on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. The analysis found that scores had risen at rates that were statistically ‘all but impossible.’ It also found that district officials disregarded internal irregularities and retaliated against whistleblowers.”
As described by Yahoo News, “(c)ritics would soon compare Hall to ‘a Mafia boss who demanded fealty from subordinates while perpetrating a massive, self-serving fraud,’ the city newspaper reported at the time. Willis pursued Hall using the same tools many prosecutors employ against Mafia bosses and drug kingpins. In bringing charges under the state’s RICO Act, Willis alleged that Hall and her colleagues used the ‘legitimate enterprise’ of the school system to carry out an illegitimate act: cheating.”
Was this use of the RICO statute effective? Public opinion on the case was sharply divided, with many Black commentators accusing Willis of overreach. But eventually, 34 of Hall’s subordinates faced criminal charges…. While most of the Atlanta educators eventually pleaded guilty to avoid jail time, 12 went to trial in 2014…The jury convicted 11 of the 12 of racketeering and other charges.”
What of the “Atlanta schools kingpin,” Superintendent Beverly Hall? “Hall retired in 2011 (and) died of breast cancer in 2015, at age 68.”
More recently, “(i)n the spring of 2022, (Young Thug) the rapper – full name Jeffrey Lamar Williams – was charged alongside 27 of his alleged affiliates with 56 violations of Georgia’s (RICO) Act. He’s been cast by prosecutors as the criminal mastermind of Young Slime Life, a gang prosecutors claim was active from 2012. It was a shocking development for fans of Thug, a hugely popular artist and one of the most influential rappers of his generation. He faces up to 40 years in prison.”
One of the more unique features of Willis’ prosecution of Young Thug and his co-defendants is her use of “the Thugger lyrics, ‘I’m prepared to take them down’ and ‘I never killed anybody but I got something to do with that body’…Willis…said she would (also) be leaning on lyrics in another RICO case prosecuting 26 alleged members of the Drug Rich Gang, who are charged with kidnappings, armed robberies, shootings and high-profile home invasions. Among the targeted were singer Mariah Carey, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley and Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan, according to a 220-count indictment. ‘I think if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I’m going to use it,’ she said, deflecting criticism. ‘I’m not targeting anyone, but however, you do not get to commit crimes in my county and then decide to brag on it.’”
These indictments have also received their fair share of criticism. “RICO is most commonly used as a tactic to sweep up entire street gangs,” according to Sidney Madden, the co-host of a podcast for NPR entitled Louder than a Riot. (T)he definition of a street gang gets real spongy when you look at it in Black communities. When prosecutors apply RICO to rap, it’s not just the rappers getting caught up in the system, but it’s their whole crew and their whole entourage. Everyone is being roped in and classified as a gang member. Basically, it allows prosecutors to hold anyone and everyone in an entire group responsible for the worst things someone in their circle has done. So if you’re a rapper and you associate with people engaging in criminal activity — maybe y’all grew up on the same block, maybe you used to run the same streets before you switched into entertainment, maybe you brought them with you out of the streets into entertainment — prosecutors can use all that and use RICO laws to brand y’all as an organized crime syndicate.”
Substitute the word “rapper” for “Trump campaign worker” or “Trump attorney,” and the basis for DA Willis’ RICO charges against Trump and his “entourage” become clear – “everyone is being roped in and classified as a gang member.”
According to Joe Lancaster, writing for Reason, “Willis is unapologetic about her use of the statute, saying in August 2022, ‘I’m a fan of RICO’…(she noted that) her office has pursued 11 RICO cases since she became D.A. in January 2021. She has primarily used it against gangs, bringing RICO charges in 2022 and 2023 over a series of Atlanta shootings and home invasions.”
But is this necessarily a good thing? “RICO statutes allow prosecutors to bring charges using guilt by association. Kerry Martin wrote in the Michigan Journal of Race & Law that RICO ‘is not supposed to criminalize mere membership in a gang, but it comes dangerously close to doing so.'”
Lancaster continues: “The original federal RICO law was drafted for use against the mafia, allowing prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges based on certain predicate acts. It quickly expanded to include all manner of activity that was already illegal but could now be charged more aggressively. As Reason noted all the way back in 1990, ‘Ambitious federal prosecutors have now discovered RICO’s many uses, and this poses a great danger to civil liberty and free enterprise.’ Georgia’s RICO law is even more expansive than its federal counterpart—for example, it does not require multiple defendants or an extended timeline to establish a conspiracy. Former prosecutor Chris Timmons told ABC News, ‘Somebody could go to JC Penney, shoplift a pair of socks, walk next door to Sears and shoplift a second pair of socks, and they can be charged with RICO.’
In other words, Willis routinely takes advantage of a very broad statute to bring conspiracy charges against large groups, and spends years wearing those accused of being members of those groups down, just as she did with the Atlanta school system, and is currently doing with Young Thug and his associates. “Thug has been in Cobb County Jail since May of last year. He spent his first eight months there awaiting the proposed January 9 start date of his court proceedings, and has remained there for the past eight while Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville continues to conduct extensive juror search that’s set to make the YSL trial the longest in Georgia history.”
With the next Presidential election scheduled to be held in less than a year, can there be any doubt that the Fulton County DA wishes to keep Donald Trump and his campaign “organization” tied up in complex litigation for the foreseeable future?
Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in NYC
Illustration: Pixabay