The people who might sit on the jury to deliberate former President Donald Trump’s racketeering trial—the residents of Georgia’s Fulton County—have expressed deep divisions in their outlook.
Some of those interviewed believe the treatment the former president has received has been a travesty. Others expressed, in the words of one, “it was a long time coming.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis handed up a 98-page grand jury indictment on Aug. 14, charging President Trump with 13 counts of racketeering in his efforts to challenge Georgia’s 2020 vote count that had gone to Joe Biden. Eighteen co-defendants have also been indicted in a case totaling 41 counts.
The Epoch Times interviewed people in shopping areas near I-285, the beltway with Atlanta on the inside and its suburbs on the outside. Most interviewed were Fulton County residents and are registered to vote, making them eligible for the jury pool.
Skyler Christian, a celebrity barber whose customers include athletes, entertainers, and politicians and who does house calls, said of Trump’s indictment, “I think it’s hilarious. I’m a Republican and I strongly disagree with the way they’re treating him.”
Trump’s indictment by a grand jury was led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and uses RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws written with the aim of targeting gangsters and drug lords.
Lawmakers years ago deliberately named the law to recall Edward G. Robinson’s iconic gangster character Rico Bandello in the 1931 Prohibition-Era movie “Little Caesar.”
“This ain’t no organized gang,” said Christian, who moved to the area from Memphis, Tennessee, where he still owns rental properties and a food truck. “They’re trying to make it seem like it’s organized.”
Helena Hunt, the mental health counselor who thought it “a long time coming,” said, “I’m glad to hear it, though.”
She said she hoped “it would restore honor to our voting system. I mean, everything that happened in the last election was so absurd. With all the claims of tampering with votes and all that stuff. So, yeah, I just hope it all gets sorted out and that people can have or at least restore some sense of faith in our government and voting process.”
Jeff Rosengarten was examining kosher apple turnovers in a Kroger bakery when approached by The Epoch Times.
“I think it’s all political,” said Rosengarten, semi-retired and owner of Ali’s Cookies, a cookie store chain based in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. He wore a shirt bearing the company logo.
“I’m not privy to all the evidence, obviously. I don’t see it much different than when candidates ask for a recount. So, given the situation, he was looking for more votes.
“As a former New Yorker, I understand where he’s coming from. Sometimes, what he says, you have to take with a little filter on it to pull the New Yorker out of him—the street fighter out of him.”
“But I think it’s stupid. I think we’re all fed up with it. And I think, come the election, all he’s got to do is say, ‘Hey, you know, I need your vote to pardon myself.’”
He noted that President Trump probably couldn’t pardon himself from the state charges laid by Georgia if he is convicted, although he could for federal convictions.
Of using RICO charges against President Trump, Rosengarten said, “It’s all a stretch. And it just depends which side of the aisle you’re sitting on. Do I like his big mouth? No. Do I like my other (presidential candidate) choices? Not really.”
“I think what Hunter Biden did, it was worse. And I'd be curious how a U.S. senator and vice president was able to amass a fortune of $10 million.
Georgia’s Reputation on the Line
“I’m glad the state’s taking a stand,” said Diane Barton, but what it will mean will hinge on how the trial is conducted.“I'd really rather not see us end up with a black eye across the country again. It seems like the South always gets kicked around; just that we end up embarrassing ourselves somehow. This can go down in a way that would make you proud to be an American and proud to be a citizen of the state of Georgia.”
Meanwhile, Erricken Carr, a contractor who builds kitchens and bathrooms, told The Epoch Times, “I just feel this is a waste of taxpayers’ money in Fulton County, which has got all these crimes and this other stuff that’s going on. I think this is the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen.”
RICO laws, Mr. Carr said as he shopped for lettuce, “are for indicting gangsters.”
And he’s dubious of going after government officials this way.
“I think that we, as Americans, as citizens here, should have a certain level of respect,” he said, which means not going after presidents after they’re out of office. “All this criminal stuff makes us look bad to other countries.”
“You can beat him on 40 counts. I think it’s all bogus, a way of keeping him out of office.”
“I’m a Trump supporter,” Mr. Carr, a father of three school-age children, shared. “I don’t really agree with a lot of how he did a lot of things, but I understand. He was a businessman, not a politician. At the time when he came into office, we were in great need of businessmen,” rather than the lawyers who dominate in public office.
“I’m an entrepreneur,” he added. Trump making good on pro-business policies “kind of won me over.”
Sadie Gennert, shopping at a Target store just inside of I-285 in Sandy Springs, said she wasn’t in the potential jury pool because she lived in Cobb County, which begins only a mile or two away. Of the indictment, she said, “I was shocked actually because I felt like they just weren’t ... that he was going to get away with whatever. I don’t get that deep into politics because I don’t understand a lot of it.
“I don’t really know exactly everything he did or what he did, but it sounds to me like he’s in trouble.”
If she were on such a jury, though, “I'd listen to both sides of it to form an opinion—an honest opinion.”
Emilio Moreno is an assistant director in Atlanta’s burgeoning TV and film industry. He’s working on a lifetime movie called “My Two Husbands,” he said.
An American citizen who immigrated from Argentina, he cheered the process of holding even the wealthy and powerful accountable.
“I come from a country where the politics and the judicial system are pretty much a joke,” he said. “I understand both ends of the spectrum here. The fact that this is actually happening, and that people are being held accountable, as an immigrant I say, okay, this is not the banana republic that we come from.”
He said the corruption there was high, “like all of South America.” Corruption is so bad in Argentina, he said, that politicians will steal all the money meant for a public project and then hold a grand opening or ribbon cutting for something that was never built. “There’s been a hospital that’s been opened, like, 14 times, but it never opened.”
“There’s corruption here but at least, in the long term, justice catches up with you.”
“My bottom line,” said Virginia Gorman of Sandy Springs, interviewed at Kroger, “is that short of murder, Donald Trump is in the White House. I think he’s going to be our next president.”
Alex, who is finishing a graduate degree in financial technology at Kennesaw State University, said he preferred not to give his last name. An immigrant from Gambia, West Africa, he’s a naturalized citizen and registered to vote.
Alex, who was shopping for mangoes at Kroger, was cautious in expressing his opinion about Trump. “He has his rights” and is innocent until proven guilty. “It’s a process we all have to follow. So, follow the process, and then we'll see what the outcome is.”
If he sat on the jury, he said, he'd listen to the facts and then make his determination.
“What did you think about it?” Jada Norris, shopping at the Target store, was asked.
“Yay!” responded the recent college graduate. Ms. Norris is looking for work in book publishing “with Simon and Schuster, like a big publishing house.”
“He definitely deserved it,” she said of President Trump. “Maybe not all of it, but some of it. I’m just waiting to see what happens. I trust the judicial system to do their job.”
“It’s a long time coming,” said her mother, Kim Harris, a housewife. “With a list of many, many charges. Certainly he’s guilty of something.”
“The district attorney, she’s a pip,” Ms. Harris said of Fani Willis. “I don’t think she would have brought up something if she can’t make something stick. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and resources. I don’t want him to get charged with anything if they can’t make it stick.”
