If Trump ‘Can’t Talk About Corruption,’ Then ‘We’re Doomed as a Country’: Kari Lake

Former Arizona Republican candidate for Governor Kari Lake holds a press conference in Phoenix on May 23, 2023. Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake warned that the First Amendment rights of American citizens are under threat amid Georgia’s indictment of former President Donald Trump.

“Everybody better sit up and take notice because our First Amendment rights are going down the tubes right now,” Ms. Lake said in an Aug. 16 interview with Just The News. “President Trump can’t speak out and can’t talk about corruption. If we the people can’t talk about corruption in our own government, if we can’t point out fraud where there’s fraud and ask questions about the election systems in this great nation, this once great nation, then we’re doomed as a country.”

President Trump and 18 other individuals were indicted Monday night by a grand jury in Georgia for alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“If they can go after him for RICO and all these other people, they'll be coming after me pretty soon, because I’m calling out the fraud in the 2022 election here in Arizona,” Ms. Lake said.

People charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act can face steeper penalties—a leverage prosecutors can use to encourage defendants in the lawsuit to take plea deals and pull co-conspirators to their side.

“Federal RICO is a very big deal. It’s difficult to prove, and it’s used pretty sparingly. Georgia RICO is a different animal. It’s easier to prove,” Kenneth White, a defense attorney familiar with the federal law, told CNN. “The point is, it’s used very aggressively there.”

Ms. Lake has contested the results of the 2020 election in court. She officially lost to Arizona Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs in the race.

However, Ms. Lake insists that thousands of Republican voters got disenfranchised on Election Day. She has also expressed concerns about the signature verification process of mail-in ballots.

In July, Ms. Lake filed an appeal in her election case at the Arizona Supreme Court, alleging that at least 8,000 ballots were unreadable and not “duplicated or counted.”

“They want us to sit down, take it and shut up. But that’s not gonna happen. They’re gonna have to lock each and every one of us up to stop us,” she said.

Republicans Who Question 2020 Election Results

As Ms. Lake suggested, using RICO to go after President Trump and his allies poses a significant risk to several Republicans who have expressed similar concerns about the 2020 election results.

This could become a serious issue if President Trump were to end up losing the case and is found guilty.

A November 2022 analysis by CBS showed that out of the 597 GOP candidates who ran for state or federal office in the midterms last year, 308 individuals raised doubts about the integrity of the 2020 election.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walks to his office after opening the House floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 17, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

This includes 20 Republicans who ran for governor, nine who ran for lieutenant governor, nine who ran for attorney general, and 12 who contested the post of secretary of state. Twenty Republicans who ran for the Senate and 238 who ran for House are also included in the list.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was one of the 147 House Republicans who voted against President Biden’s election victory in January 2021. Steve Scalise (R-La.) signed a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief that attempted to secure a rejection of electoral votes from key swing states.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a lawsuit at the United States Supreme Court to dismiss the electoral college votes in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Scott Perry (R-Pa.) sent a slate of electors to Washington in support of President Trump. Last year, the FBI seized his phone while investigating the alleged fake elector scheme.

Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Ariz.) signed a slate of electors that claimed President Trump won the 2020 race in Arizona. On Jan. 5, 2021, Mr. Hoffman sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, asking that he delay certifying the results of the state’s election results.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen supported a lawsuit brought by Texas against four states which blamed election irregularities for Trump’s defeat.

Trump Prison Time

The Georgia indictment charged President Trump with 13 counts, including violation of the state’s RICO act, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, filing false documents, and solicitation of violation of oath by a public office among others.

Former President Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on August 13, 2023. Mike Stobe/Getty Images

If convicted and slapped with a maximum sentence on all 13 counts, President Trump will be looking at up to 76.5 years in prison.

If the three previous indictments in New York, Miami, and Washington D.C. are also taken into consideration, the former president is facing up to 717.5 years in prison. The indictment in Washington D.C. can also come with the death penalty.

In an interview with Fox News, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz slammed the Georgia indictment. Back in 2000, Mr. Dershowitz was the legal counsel of Al Gore who challenged the presidential election results that year, which had ended in a loss.

The legal expert called President Trump’s actions related to the 2020 elections “very similar” to the strategy Al Gore used in the Bush v. Gore case.

“We challenged the election, and we did much of the things that are being done today and people praised us. I wrote a bestselling book called Supreme Injustice. Now they’re making it a crime,” he said.