INDICTED (INDICATED) #4 - Quadfecta! Perfecta? - Judge Scott McAfee - Georgia v. Trump ET AL - P01135809- Fani Willis
Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2023 7:13 pm
When has that stopped him before?
Falsehoods Unchallenged Only Fester and Grow
https://thefogbow.com/forum/
When has that stopped him before?
Perhaps. But Hall played an instrumental role in the election office break-in, as well as committing other felonious acts. He should have gotten some time behind bars, imho. I don’t like to see these people—corrupt to the core, even if considered foot soldiers—getting away with mere probation, community service, etc. They committed numerous crimes in trying to steal the election from Biden. They should go to prison, even if it’s just for a short time.
It particularly bothers me that Hall was involved in the horrifying pressure campaign against Ruby Freeman. Hall is SCUM.p0rtia wrote: ↑Fri Sep 29, 2023 7:57 pm I hear ya, NM Girl!
But for myself, I think he is the perfect first flipper. That phone call he had with J Clark means that GA leapfrogs right into the Oval Office. That's gotta scare the shit out of every single remaining defendant. Hall implicates Clark; Clark implicates Eastman; Eastman implicates Rudy; Rudy implicates Meadows and there you are in the Oval.
I have no problem with Hall getting no jail time--as long as the rest on that list do.
That’s my take. He’s never going to feel safe.Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Fri Sep 29, 2023 10:48 pm I don't like the probation deal, but I'll pick my battles. If he makes it easier to take down the big guns, so be it. (He'll probably be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, anyhoo. Now he'll know how Ms Freeman and her daughter felt.)
Yeah. I trust Fani Willis to do what’s best overall for her case and the people of Georgia. Having even one indicted co-conspirator flip greatly increases the odds that (a) others will want to flip in order to decrease their punitive exposure, and (b) the ones who go to trial will actually get convicted.Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Fri Sep 29, 2023 10:48 pm I don't like the probation deal, but I'll pick my battles. If he makes it easier to take down the big guns, so be it. (He'll probably be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, anyhoo. Now he'll know how Ms Freeman and her daughter felt.)
She is that. She also has a history of backing the wrong horse - R. Kelly, Kanye West, and Angela Stanton-King.
Jenna Ellis is a good bet. She's already backing someone else for 2024, and also seems a little miffed that Trump didn't pay for her lawyer. I bet her lawyer has already been working on a plea deal.
I knew I was doing something wrong.
The Fulton County district attorney’s office has issued a subpoena to former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik to testify in the first trial later this month in the case stemming from election subversion plots in Georgia, according to his lawyer.
But Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, is demanding that his client be granted immunity in exchange for testifying, pointing out that prosecutors indicated in the indictment that Kerik was a “co-conspirator” in the case. While not named in the indictment, CNN previously reported that Kerik is co-conspirator No. 5.
With the Kerik subpoena, the Fulton County district attorney’s office is trying to secure potentially crucial trial testimony from a witness who can shed light on various efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to upend the 2020 election results in Georgia. Two of the 19 defendants – pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell – are set to go on trial on October 23.
The pushback from Kerik underscores the difficulties prosecutors face in a complex case where Trump and his allies face possible legal jeopardy in multiple jurisdictions, as prosecutions alleging election interference are being brought in the Peach State and against Trump in Washington, DC.
In a fiery letter to the Fulton County DA’s office Monday, Parlatore wrote: “[N]o competent criminal attorney would allow Mr. Kerik to testify absent a grant of immunity.” Parlatore says Kerik will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer questions unless he receives written assurance that he will not be prosecuted.
In his letter, Parlatore claims that when he previously expressed this demand to the district attorney’s office, they told him: “If we wanted to indict Mr. Kerik, we would have already done so,” but refused to put assurances in writing.
“To be clear, Mr. Kerik has done nothing wrong and rejects your claim that he is a co-conspirator in any alleged criminal conduct,” Parlatore wrote in his letter. “You made the public accusation, so now you must live with the consequences of Mr. Kerik (and presumably all other alleged unindicted co-conspirators) invoking their 5th Amendment rights and refusing to testify.”
ORDER ON DEFENDANT CHESEBRO’S MOTION TO DISMISS INDICTMENT FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY
Defendant Chesebro now seeks dismissal of the indictment because the District Attorney Office’s neglected to file the oath of Special Assistant District Attorney (“ADA”) Nathan Wade in alleged violation of O.C.G.A. § 45-3-7 (“Before proceeding to act, all deputies shall take the same oaths as their principals take and the oaths shall be filed and entered on the minutes of the same office with the same endorsement thereon”).1 See also Nave v. State, 171 Ga. App. 165, 166 (1984) (holding that Assistant District Attorneys are considered “deputies” requiring the same oath as the District Attorney).
First, the motion fails to establish that this code section is even relevant to Special ADA Wade. Explicitly, the requirements “shall not apply to any deputy who may be employed in particular cases only.” O.C.G.A. § 45-3-7; Middleton v. State, 316 Ga. 808, 809 (2023) (recognizing that deputies sworn in for a “more limited role” are “exempted” from having to file and enter the record of their oath). As the motion itself proffers, the District Attorney’s Office hired Special ADA Wade for the purpose of assisting the Special Purpose Grand Jury and prosecuting the matter that led to the indictment in this case. He does not appear to have been given a general assignment of any kind. Defendant’s motion recognizes this exception, but then blithely moves on without adequately explaining why it should not apply, or why this exception would not prevail as the more specific statute over any other statutory provisions referencing a deputies’ oath. See Smallwood v. State, 310 Ga. 445, 452 (2020) (“the canon of construction that a more specific statute prevails over a general statute resolves any ambiguity between the two statutes”).
Even assuming Special ADA Wade has not been employed to handle “particular cases only,” O.C.G.A. § 45-3-10 provides that “[t] he official acts of an officer shall be valid regardless of his omission to take and file the oath, except in cases where so specially declared.” One might think distinguishing this safe harbor provision would be central to the Defendant’s argument. One would be wrong. The Defendant’s citation is tucked away in a footnote with only the unsupported assertion that “prosecuting a criminal case is one such specially declared situation.” The Court has not been provided, nor located, any authority to support this claim. And O.C.G.A. § 45-3-10 echoes the “de facto” officer theory recognized early in our Supreme Court’s existence. See Hinton v. Lindsay, 20 Ga. 746, 749 (1856) (“An officer de facto is said to be one who exercises the duties of an office under color of an appointment or election to that office.”); Beck v. State, 286 Ga. App. 553, 556 (2007) (“The validity of a de facto officer’s acts is so well settled that it is embodied in the Code as part of OCGA § 45-2-1 (the acts of a person ineligible to hold public office ‘shall be valid as the acts of an officer de facto’)”); State v. Giangregorio, 181 Ga. App. 324, 325 (1986) (Beasley, J. concurring specially) (“It is without dispute that Toles was acting as a deputy sheriff at least de facto when he made the arrest. That being the case, the arrest was legal insofar as its effect on defendant is concerned.”). Despite the lack of filing, Special ADA Wade’s acts while in office would nevertheless be valid as a de facto officer. Keith v. State, 279 Ga. App. 819, 828 (2006).
And if this parrot of a motion is somehow not yet dead, the Defendant has failed to establish how Special ADA Wade’s actions resulted in prejudice, i.e., how his assignment singlehandedly changed any specific actions taken during the investigation or resulted in the true bill of indictment. See Martin v. State, 195 Ga. App. 548, 551 (1990) (requiring prejudice before remedying a purported officer disqualification). Nor has Defendant established a constitutional violation or structural defect in the grand jury process sufficient to justify outright dismissal. See State v. Lampl, 296 Ga. 892, 897 (2015) (“Unless expressly authorized by statute, [dismissal of an indictment] generally cannot be imposed absent a violation of a constitutional right” or when the structural protections of the grand jury have been compromised); Olsen v. State, 302 Ga. 288, 294 (2017) (“Dismissal of an indictment is an extreme sanction”). The motion is DENIED. SO ORDERED, this 6th day of October, 2023.
Judge Scott McAfee Superior Court of Fulton County Atlanta Judicial Circuit