Controlled by the people at the top in the form of a criminal enterprise. in this case, a ruling body body with a mob boss from every family, a ruling body called the they are said to run the most powerful crime families in new york. in fact, in the nation. and according to the government, they make up the commission. the ruling body of a potent criminal enterprise dealing in drugs and extortion, loan sharking, labor racketeering and murder. and mafia hitters were rounded up in an overnight to sweep. and today u.s. attorney rudolph giuliani announced the indictments. this is a great day for law enforcement. but this is a bad day probably the worst for the mafia. the commission has existed in new york for more than 50 years at that point, without anyone being able to touch it. what gave giuliani the ability to go after the commission itself, rather than just the commissions footsoldiers, like whack whack, was giuliani s pioneering use of a relatively new law, the racketeer
Rico cases, any conspiracy case, is messy. you have got if you ve got ten defendants, you ve got ten people making opening statements and cross examining witnesses and jumping up and saying, your honor, i object. so, it is a little bit different than the normal trial. but it s nothing that a prosecutor, and particularly one like willis, who has a number of these rico cases under her belt, isn t well equipped to handle. joyce, let me ask a follow-up on that. in terms of the penalties these folks are actually facing, there s a lot of back and forth around whether rico charges in georgia have a mandatory five year sentence or whether a convicted person can serve probation. also, whether it is five years in jail or a fine, or both i mean, how real is the legal peril here? right. so, anyone who is confused by georges statutory scheme is doing a really good job of reading the lot. because it is, in fact, really confusing. the statute the rico statute itself says that people who a
Cheating scam on grading exams, she actually indicted 35 defendants. by the time she got to trial, there were only 12 of them left. and that is this sort of winnowing procedure that you are hinting at, alex, where some of these folks will decide to plead guilty, maybe without a deal. others will want to deal and they may plead and cooperate and strengthen her case. but it is likely that, by the time that williscroft trial, she would no longer have all 19 of these defendants on her hands. rico cases, and the big conspiracy case, is messy. you have got if you ve got ten defendants, you ve got ten people making opening statements and cross examining witnesses and jumping up and saying, your honor, i object. so, it is a little bit different than the normal trial. but it s nothing that a prosecutor, and particularly when like will, as you has a number of these rico cases under her belt, isn t well equipped to handle. joyce, let me ask a follow-up on that. in terms of the penalties these
it s back in 1983, i think ron, when ron came to visit me to talk about putting together a rico case. at that point, we all thought that there was a possibility of putting together a case on the commission of the mafia. but it was on the drawing board at the time. and there were an awful lot of people, including people within law enforcement that thought that that was totally unrealistic, ridiculous, could not be done. rudy giuliani did it. the top bosses in new york s most powerful mafias were given 100-year prison sentences. and the case may giuliani famous. and he used that fame to ultimately run for mayor of new york and, well, you know the rest of the story. but now a version of the same law georgia s rico statute a version of that law could be rudy giuliani s downfall. of all the indictments former president trump faces, one of the things that makes yesterday yesterday s unique is how many
The mafia leaders were rounded up in an overnight sweep. and today u.s. attorney rudolph giuliani announced the indictments. this is a great day for law enforcement. but this is a bad day probably the worst for the mafia. the commission has existed in new york for more than 50 years at that point, without anyone being able to touch it. what gave giuliani the ability to go after the commission itself, rather than just the commissions footsoldiers, like whack whack, was giuliani s pioneering use of a relatively new law, the racketeer influenced and corrupt organization act of 1970. you might know it more as rico. before 1970, prosecutors were limited to seeking indictments for specific acts, such as the commission of a crime to or to finding witnesses who would testify about a criminal conspiracy. rico changed that. if you could prove that there was an enterprise or an organized group of some kind, conspiring together to commit multiple crimes, then you could charge for that co