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The Georgia indictment of Donald Trump is completely unnecessary and only adds to claims of a Democratic Party "pile on", a former prosecutor and legal analyst has said.
Elie Honig was reacting to the indictment of Trump by Fani Willis, a Democrat and the elected District Attorney for Fulton County, Atlanta.
Honig said that Trump has already faced a federal indictment for allegedly attempting to steal the 2020 election and that the indictment covers seven states, including Georgia.
In August, Willis issued a 98-page indictment listing Trump and 18 other defendants with 41 criminal counts in total. All of the defendants were charged with racketeering, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Trump pleaded not guilty in late August after having his mugshot taken at an Atlanta jail.
Honig is the author of Hatchet Man, a ferocious attack on Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, and has been a frequent critic of the former president.
Speaking on the legal podcast, "Cafe", Honig said the Georgia charges are "unnecessary and, if anything, lend fuel to Trump's claims...that this is just a Democratic Party pile on."
Honig said that Department of Justice federal attorney Jack Smith has already charged Trump with an "effort to steal the election nationwide and in seven states in particular, including Georgia.
"So why is [the Atlanta indictment] in the greater good and why is it promoting public confidence in the fairness of this [process] to have one of those seven state prosecutors pile on with a charge of her own? I don't think it serves any greater good," he said.
He claimed it was a partisan indictment by Willis.
"I disagree with the exercise of prosecutorial discretion by an elected county prosecutor, a partisan, with a D [for Democrat] next to her name," he added.
He said there were some differences between the federal and Georgia charges, but they were essentially the same.
"I think it makes Trump's chances of being convicted and punished higher if that's the only goal here. If that's the only goal, all seven states: Michigan, New Mexico, and on down the line, should be charging him too but that would be ludicrous," he said.
Newsweek has sought comment from Willis' office about Honig's claims.
She previously denied to MSNBC that the charges are politically motivated and said that nobody should be above the law.
The indictment led Georgia State Senator Colton Moore to urge Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to seek Willis' impeachment.
Governor Kemp said he had yet to see evidence that would lead to an impeachment of Willis for the Trump indictment.
"As long as I am governor, we're going to follow the law and the Constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically," the governor said at a press conference in late August.
All Georgia state proceedings against Trump and the 18 co-defendants will be televised and broadcast on YouTube, a Fulton County judge ruled the same week.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more