In multi-defendant criminal cases, lower-level defendants may try to avoid blame by implicating higher-ups. As Politico reported Tuesday, this dynamic is taking shape with Donald Trump and his many co-defendants.
But it’s important to remember that, while pointing the finger at Trump could hurt the former president, it wouldn’t necessarily save his co-defendants from conviction.
That’s because when multiple people are charged with the same crime or in the same indictment, it’s not an either/or choice for the jury. Showing that one defendant is more culpable doesn’t mean the less-culpable defendant isn’t culpable.
Take Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff who’s trying to move his Georgia state charges to federal court (we’re still waiting on a ruling whether he can). Politico reported that Meadows has “signaled that his defense is likely to include blaming the former president as the primary driver of the effort.”
It could be the case that Trump is more responsible than Meadows when it comes to the infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes, and in pushing the “fake elector” scheme. At Meadows’ removal hearing last week, he distinguished Trump’s conduct as more severe and said he was worried about the then-president yelling at him.
But even if Meadows could show a jury that Trump was higher up in the alleged racketeering enterprise, Meadows wouldn’t escape conviction simply for being less at fault or weak-willed. But even if Meadows could show a jury that Trump was higher up in the alleged racketeering enterprise, Meadows wouldn’t escape conviction simply for being less at fault or weak-willed. (Meadows and Trump have both pleaded not guilty.) To be sure, there may be an intuitive appeal to a jury that one person shouldn’t take the fall when there’s someone who’s more blameworthy available to convict. But conspiracy indictments like Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ 19-defendant one in Georgia can — and do — accommodate varying levels of participation in alleged criminal schemes. In bringing such a wide-ranging indictment, Georgia prosecutors are no doubt ready to remind jurors of this fact.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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