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Napolitano to Newsmax: 'Courtroom Not Big Enough' For Georgia Trump Case

By    |   Saturday, 19 August 2023 02:22 PM EDT

Former New Jersey Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax Saturday that with 19 total defendants, Fulton County, Georgia courtrooms are "not big enough" for the anticipated criminal trial of former President Donald Trump and his 18 lawyers and allies indicted on Monday.

"Now you talk about spectacle with 19 defendants in the courtroom, and each of them having two or three lawyers, they're going to have to try this in a high school gymnasium," Napolitano said during "America Right Now" Saturday.

"Almost literally, it would be hard to find a courtroom with enough room for everybody if they're all tried at once."

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and a grand jury issued the state indictment Monday night charging Trump and his associates with Racketeering Influenced Corruption Organization violations, usually applied to organized crime and mob bosses, the Associated Press reported.

"It's a very creative and imaginative use of the statute," he said.

"The statute was written to bankrupt the mob or any criminal organization that was extorting money from people. It was written to give the government the opportunity to take three times the amount of money extorted. So, if the mob had extorted a million bucks from a legitimate businessman, and the government could catch these guys, it would prosecute them. And if the government prevailed, if there was a guilty verdict, the jury would award to the government three times the amount of money that was extorted."

Napolitano said that the government does not care about the financial remedies of the law in this case, but rather wants to "tarnish" Trump and his associates with the stigma of a RICO conviction that also provides longer prison sentences.

"Fani Willis is using this statute not to seek financial penalties from the defendants but to tarnish them with the brush of racketeering, and to expand the potential jail time beyond what it would normally be in an ordinary conspiracy case," he said.

He said that it is very likely Willis will offer Trump’s associates and other unindicted "co-conspirators" plea deals so that they will end up testifying against Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who are the main targets for the Democrats.

"The government will approach each of those 18 and offer them deals to get them to testify against the two people that the government is really after here, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the former president," he said. "So, the government wants to narrow this. If they can't narrow it, and there is this spectacle, and it will be a spectacle, it will surely try the patience of the judge. It will surely be on television."

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Charles Kim

Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Former New Jersey Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax Saturday that with 19 total defendants, Fulton County, Georgia courtrooms are "not big enough" for the anticipated criminal trial of former President Donald Trump and his 18 lawyers and allies indicted on Monday.
napolitano, trump, willis, georgia, crime
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2023-22-19
Saturday, 19 August 2023 02:22 PM
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