It’s catching up with him now
Clint Rucker is a former Fulton County prosecutor who is now a judge in the cities of East Point and South Fulton. He sat down with CW69 Atlanta to give his take on what to expect from the RICO case involving former “president” Donald Trump. Rucker worked with DA Fani Willis before he retired, and he knows how she works. In fact, he worked beside her during her prosecution of the APS cheating scandal, which was prosecuted under the RICO Act.
Rucker called Willis “extremely skilled” and a “great communicator.” In the APS case, Willis indicted 35 educators for changing scores on standardized tests. Willis tried all these cases together though, in the end, only 11 were convicted of racketeering. Don’t make the mistake of assuming this means Willis couldn’t handle what she brought. Rucker explained that some of the lesser charged defendants turned state’s evidence on the others, and he expects the trial involving Trump to be no different. Willis has already granted immunity to eight fake electors, which means they’re talking, and of those charged, several are pointing to Donald Trump as the ringleader. The news isn’t getting much better for Trump.
CNN reported Monday afternoon that Judge Tanya Chutkan has set Trump’s trial date in D.C. Declining to side with either the prosecution or the defense and ignoring the utterly ridiculous request of April 2026, Chutkan set the trial for March 4, 2024, the day before “Super Tuesday”. The April 2026 request was nothing more than Trump’s hopes that he will win the White House again and pardon himself. He cannot, however, pardon himself from the charges in Georgia if convicted, and that case is also having some early hearings.
Though District Judge Steve Jones declined to grant Meadows’ request to move his case to federal court prior to Willis’ surrender date, he held a hearing on the issue Monday. According to CNN, Meadows testified for three straight hours. Why is the federal court better for Meadows than the state court? As Rucker said in his interview, the jury pool. If this case is tried in Fulton County, the jury pool will come from predominantly Black and Democratic Fulton County (where President Biden won 73% of the vote). The federal court draws its pool from all of Georgia, with jurors coming predominantly from rural areas, which are more friendly to Trump. Even though the legal system requires that jurors decide based on the evidence, personal feelings will inevitably come into play, and Meadows is banking on that. Of course, his argument centers primarily on his actions being part of his job as chief of staff, but that’s stretching things, as George Conway pointed out on CNN.
In the end, both the federal and state cases hinge on whether Donald Trump made knowingly false statements about the 2020 election and tried to criminally change the outcome. He, of course, claims that he truly believed the election was stolen, which is a crock. Trump knew damned well he lost. He hated it and tried to change the outcome, negating millions of votes in the process, and that is a crime.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years