Breakdown

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act has been on the books for more than half a century, and Georgia’s version was enacted in 1980.

The 13th episode of Season Nine of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast — “The Trump Grand Jury” — takes a deep look at RICO. The episode traces its origin as a prosecutorial weapon to take Mafia dons off the streets. It also looks at how RICO has been used in recent years against schoolteachers, a metro Atlanta sheriff and street gangs.

Legal experts following the Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigation into what happened here after the 2020 presidential election say that racketeering charges could ultimately be brought in this case.

Episode 13 — “Who’s Rico?” — also looks at a key member of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s legal team: Don McGahn. McGahn is one of three lawyers hired by Graham who contends the U.S. Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause protects him from having to honor his out-of-state material witness subpoena and testify before the special grand jury.

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The latest episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast focuses on new out-of-state material witness subpoenas issued by the Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The most notable to receive them are former national security advisor Michael Flynn and former Georgia congressman and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Also on the list are one of Trump’s former senior advisors, a cyber investigations consultant and a police chaplain from Illinois.

The special purpose grand jury, which convened in May, is investigating alleged interference with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Gingrich has been an election denier since shortly after the 2020 election as evidenced by an interview he gave to Fox News.

Democrats stole “five or six states,” Gingrich said. “In Fulton County, Georgia, we believe these people are thieves. We believe the machines are corrupt.”

Gingrich’s subpoena says he was involved with the Trump campaign in a plan to air TV ads that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and which encouraged viewers “to contact their state officials and pressure them to challenge and overturn the results of the election.”

In November 2020, Trump pardoned Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to giving false statements to the FBI during an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Just weeks later, Flynn appeared on Newsmax and said Trump won the 2020 election. Flynn also said Trump “could take military capabilities and he could place them in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.”

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The phone call from the White House came in at about 3 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2021. Then President Donald Trump, his chief of staff and his lawyers were on the line talking to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and members of his staff.

During the recorded phone call, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” which would give him one more vote than he needed to flip the outcome of Georgia’s presidential election.

On Monday, a special purpose grand jury will convene in Fulton County to investigate what transpired during this phone call and others the former president made to officials in Georgia in the weeks following the 2020 election. The extraordinary proceeding will be the focus of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s award-winning podcast “Breakdown”.

Episodes of the podcast’s ninth season — The Trump Grand Jury — will be released in the coming weeks. It will be hosted by Bill Rankin, the AJC’s legal affairs reporter, and Tamar Hallerman, a senior reporter who covered the Trump administration when she was the AJC’s Washington correspondent.

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For more information on this case and the other eight series of the podcast, go to ajcbreakdown.com.

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The fourth episode of “The Trump Grand Jury,” the ninth season of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast, focuses on criminal intent as part of the podcast’s continuing coverage of the Fulton County special purpose grand jury that is investigating what Donald Trump and his allies did in Georgia following the 2020 president election.

If a criminal indictment is ultimately brought, prosecutors must show criminal intent – that Trump and others knew what they were doing was illegal and that they meant to break Georgia law.

During a phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump said he needed to “find 11,780 votes.” That was exactly how many he needed to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia.

Trump also told Raffensperger “there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated” the vote totals.

But Raffensperger held firm, saying he believed in the official vote count, which showed Trump had lost in Georgia.

This phone call is at the heart of the special purpose grand jury’s investigation and legal experts are divided on whether it shows Trump had criminal intent. And, somewhat surprisingly, it is not a matter that falls neatly along party lines – even some of Trump’s harshest critics say they don’t see a crime.

Breakdown’s fourth episode also looks at the possible defenses the president could raise if an indictment is returned. No president or former president has ever been indicted. So if this happens the prosecution, the defense and the courts will be breaking new ground.

“There are all kinds of hurdles the prosecution would have to overcome with prosecuting an ex-president,” Atlanta criminal defense attorney Don Samuel says on the podcast. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that ends up in the U.S. Supreme Court before it ever ends up in a courtroom.”

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform. You can also stream it on your computer from ajc.com.

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has legal, practical and political considerations to consider as she investigates former President Donald Trump and his allies for alleged meddling with the 2020 election.

To explore the latter consideration, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Breakdown podcast turned to Greg Bluestein, the newspaper's politics reporter who broke many of the stories that have become central parts of the special purpose grand jury investigation.

In a far-reaching interview, Bluestein weighs in on the probe in light of Trump's recent announcement to run again for president, the possible impact of the investigation on the Georgia Republican party and the potential fate of the 16 Republicans who cast fake Electoral College votes for Trump when the official slate of 16 Democrats voted for President Joe Biden.

Episode 20 - 'It's All Politics' - of Breakdown's ninth season - 'The Trump Grand Jury - also provides updates on attempts by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to avoid testifying before the special grand jury.

You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting platform.

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