TRAPPED LIKE MICE — The Weekly Opine

These four crooks are benefitting from District Attorney Fani Willis’ strategic catch and release “mousetrap,” a.k.a. plea bargains. (Photos credit Fulton Co. Sheriff, Denver Post, Fulton Co. Sheriff, AP, The Weekly Opine)

Systematic destruction

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s torching of Atlanta’s industry and infrastructure in October 1864 has been called “systematic destruction.” There may not be a better description for what Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney Fani Willis is doing to defendants in her Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations trial against Trump and his 18 co-defendants.

When DA Willis announced her RICO indictments and outlined her intention to try all 19 defendants together (in a single trial!), the reaction from legal minds, pundits and laypeople ranged from “you go girl!” to incredulous mockery.

But now, with near-daily plea bargain admissions of guilt from former Trump lawyers, who are dropping like Union cannon balls on the Confederacy, DA Willis marches relentlessly toward her bullseye – Trump – as she channels General Sherman’s dogged pursuit of his port of Savannah destination.

With the past week’s torrent of guilty plea activity, which trapped shamed attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis, along with a prior guilty plea by Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall, four defendants in Georgia are ensnared without a single juror seated and without a single “I do” from courtroom witnesses.

Nineteen defendants have morphed into 15 with more plea bargains a near certainty. CNN reports DA Willis has discussed plea deals with at least 6 more defendants. If enough of the racketeers (sounds like a band, “The Racketeers”) agree to plea bargains, DA Willis would be faced with just 7 to 9 remaining defendants, a number legal eagles say is manageable, in terms of a single trial with all defendants at the same time.

As they say in Vegas, Fani Willis is on a roll and seems destined to bring Trump to trial sooner than anyone expected, realistically by late-spring/early-summer. And Willis’ plea bargain strategy prevents Trump from filing endless motions designed to impede her prosecutorial locomotive.

Although popular sentiment says the pecking order is state trials give way to federal trials, DA Willis’ prodigious progress brings into question whether the federal cases prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith should give Willis the right of way. While equally important to what’s happening in Georgia, Smith’s prosecutions of Trump in Washington, D.C., and South Florida should not cramp Willis’ pace.

The flurry of activity in Atlanta has temporarily moved Trump’s felony legal jeopardy in other locales, such as Washington, D.C., to the backburner. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Double-quick

Several months ago, I chastised DA Willis for not briskly following up on her January 24 announcement, when she said charging “decisions are imminent” in the Georgia election interference case. Many of us wondered out loud if Willis understood the meaning of imminent. Clearly, announcing RICO indictments seven months later, on August 14, did not meet the “imminent” standard.

However, regardless of how maddening it was to watch months drag on without Trump and his co-conspirators indicted in Georgia, DA Willis is now, to use a term made famous during the Civil War, operating on the double-quick as she homes in on the big prize, the most sordid human in our nation’s history.

That is not hyperbole. Trump displayed criminal negligence paving the way for hundreds of thousands of Americans to die needlessly, due to his cavalier politicization of the covid pandemic. His seditious conspiracy attempt to overthrow American democracy – resulting in the deaths of police officers – is worthy of facing a firing squad. While more stupid than criminal, Trump’s endeavor to rupture relationships with our allies made the world more dangerous. His labeling our military “losers” and “suckers” reflects a deranged, unpatriotic fool without precedent.

Trump’s intentional stealing and sharing classified documents is another high crime. His catering to sinister autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un leaves us to wonder what “goods” Putin and Kim Jong have on Trump. Oh, and two dozen women have credibly accused Trump of sexual assault, which he gladly admitted to on video. Remind me again why faux patriots and fake-Christian evangelicals excuse Trump’s behavior?

It’s true; Trump is the worst American of all time.

No mercy, no plea bargain

During January 6 House Select Committee testimony, we were introduced to Fulton County, Georgia, election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. Freeman and Moss were unsuspecting pawns in a sick game perpetrated by Trump, his perverted henchman Rudy Giuliani and others, including RICO indicted Trevian Kutti, Stephen Lee and Harrison Floyd.

Trevian Kutti, supposedly a publicist for crazy Kanye West, was dumb enough to meet Ruby Freeman at a police station where a cop videotaped her pressuring/threatening Freeman to admit to wrongdoing (Freeman refused to do so). Fake Christian Stephen Lee, somehow an ordained minister, drove from suburban Chicago to the Atlanta area and stalked Freeman at her home. Harrison Floyd, seemingly an Uncle Tom and leader of a group called Black Voices for Trump, contacted Freeman to set up the meeting between Kutti and Freeman. Fox Lies went all in promoting blatant lies against Freeman and Shaye Moss.

Stalking an election worker should disqualify Stephen Lee (shown here sitting outside Ruby Freeman’s house) and others like him from getting plea deals. (Photo credit Sojourners Magazine)

The result of Trump, Giuliani, Kutti, Lee, Floyd and Fox Lies conspiring against Freeman and Moss is the two innocent election worker’s lives have been ruined forever, buried under racist attacks and death threats from MAGA goons.

Certainly, DA Willis does not need my advice. Still, Willis should not offer plea deals to Giuliani, Kutti, Lee or Floyd. Those losers should spend maximum time in prison for what they’ve done to honorable Americans Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

As we’ve witnessed from indictments and prison sentences handed to “everyday” folks who chose to participate in the unprecedented insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, prison is a deterrent.

When Trump called for aggressive protests during his appearance in a New York courthouse, to face indictment from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, his MAGA Klan stayed home fearing they’d be arrested and imprisoned like so many January 6 rioters. When Trump begged his followers to show up in Florida, for his court appearance to be indicted in the classified documents case, his minions ignored him. The same thing happened when Trump was indicted in Washington D.C., and Fulton County, Georgia. MAGAs were no-shows, unwilling to fall on Trump’s sword.

While MAGAs tend to be overwhelmingly ignorant and complaisant, some of them have (barely) enough sense not to want to end up in prison. DA Willis sending so-called smaller fish RICO defendants like Kutti, Lee and Floyd to the Big House will surely give pause to unsavory MAGA hoodlums who might consider carrying out Trump’s desperate pleadings for rioting and violence.

Anyhow, prosecutors Fani, Jack, Alvin, Letitia and judges Engoron and Chutkan; we’ve got your back.