By Stephen Macaulay

First a bit of a briefing.

A given prosecutor, based on information obtained from various sources, including individuals involved, determines whether to present a case to a grand jury. A grand jury is a group of regular folk, from 16 to 23 of them.

The grand jury hears testimony from witnesses. Sees any physical evidence. Then the prosecutor lays out the potential case against the person or persons in question.

The members of the grand jury vote, in secret, about whether the person or persons should be charged with a crime.

At least 12 jurors must determine there should be an indictment for it to go forward. 

After a 2.5-year investigation, after presenting the case to a grand jury, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani T. Willis charged former president Donald Trump with crimes, and the grand jury issued an arrest warrant.

“Charged with crimes.”

“Arrest warrant.”

Actually there were 18 other people charged with crimes related to trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

In what is somewhat ironic, the group of 19 is being charged with racketeering under Georgia’s version of RICO — Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations — Act, which one of the defendants, Rudy Giuliani, used to great effect when he was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the early 1980s; he used it against members of the Mob.

The indictment opens:

“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”

“Knowingly and willfully.”

Yes, they are charged with being aware of the reality and trying to change it.

Let’s consider the reactions of some people to this, starting with the man who was once revered as “America’s Mayor,” a man who will probably be best remembered for the sweat-caused hair dye running down his face during a November 2020 “press conference” during which he said to a reporter: “You're actually seriously going to want me to take seriously the secretary of state of Michigan when the secretary of state of Michigan never bothered to find out that the votes in her state were being counted in Germany by a Venezuelan company?” Yes, it is stuff like that which came out of his mouth on more than one occasion.

Giuliani posted on X: “It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime. The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly.”

As the former prosecutor knows, “framing” involves made-up evidence or testimony—sort of like “counted in Germany by a Venezuelan company.” 

And one can imagine that if a platform like X existed back in the early 1980s those people Giuliani charged would claim “the real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward.”

Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker, went to X: “Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading opponent to interference in the 2024 election. Now a radical DA in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career.”

Certainly, one can well imagine that McCarthy is making such pronouncements in order to sustain his political career. Wouldn’t Justice be deaf if the phone call made on January 2, 2021, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wasn’t listened to?

And then let’s not leave out Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who took to X and claimed the indictment “is just the latest political attack in the Democrats' WITCH HUNT against President Trump. He did nothing wrong!”

Let’s see. . .Jordan is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Wouldn’t he reserve judgment before a trial is conducted, given his position?

“He did nothing wrong!”

Trump is charged with 91 felonies with the addition of the Georgia indictment.

91.

Nothing wrong?

Not even Venezuelans counting ballots from Wayne County, Michigan, in Germany would be likely to believe that.

Macaulay writes about politics and culture from Metro Detroit.

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