Legal experts tonight. Were discussing rico is a powerful charge because it is so broad. It is one of the broadest laws in the nation, the way georgia uses it, as the Washington Post explains, because prosecutors can weave together alleged crimes, violations of state and federal laws, activities in other states, the law as this d. A. Knows well, does not require a defendant to set foot in georgia to be charged. Why . Because rico is that broad, you do need, of course, something to happen in the state, in georgia, but you could be a person who stayed out of state. Maybe youre a busy coconspirator. Maybe youre a coward and send other people to do things for you. Under the Georgia State rico statute, a long as some people have committed these crimes of some kind inside the state, other people can be looped in. Thats one of the ways d. A. Willis came out with this strong, broad set of charges last night rounding up these 19 defendants. Theyre not all Household Names. I want to show you def
facts. i want to go back to you on a final word as well as a response to mark meadows, who your committee dealt with along the whole way, because he now stands indicted today. his lawyers saying nothing mr. meadows is alleged to have done in the indictment is criminal per se, arranging meetings, cathing state officials, visiting a building, setting up a phone call. one would expect the chief of staff to do these sort of things. your response to that as well as any final words tonight. i thought it was interesting to see mark meadows was charged. i think it s appropriate given the statutes he has been charged with here in georgia. i think that the key phrase is criminal per se, and when you take those facts and you apply them to the law, the overt acts and the counts he s charged with are appropriate. that s exactly what the committee did. we followed facts. we did it for a different purpose than the district attorney s office here in