donald trump indictment Archives

Ray Smith is one of the 18 people charged by the state of Georgia in their election interference case against former President Donald Trump. He has now requested a severing of his trial, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Smith, an Atlanta-based attorney, is accused of meeting with alternate GOP electors at the state capitol to have them cast their electoral votes for Trump. He is also accused of having those electors sign false statements declaring Trump the winner of the 2020 election. Furthermore, Smith is accused of submitting falsified documents to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger. These documents reportedly declared Trump the winner of the election. Smith was charged with 12 crimes after voluntarily surrendering on August 23.

However, Smith has now requested that his trial be severed from that of the other defendant. “This solution will also reduce the amount of time any jury will be required to be empaneled,” Smith’s legal team wrote. “The experience learned by this Court in the YSL gang trial. Jury selection that lasted (and is still in progress) over eight months, and a trial that is expected to last another eight months (at least) – is a lesson learned that should inform any Court about the dangers of pursuing a joint trial for over a dozen defendants.” As noted in this statement, Smith’s precedent for this is the ongoing YSL RICO trial against Young Thug and other members of the Atlanta organization.

Trump Attorney Cites YSL Trial

Attorney Ray Smith just filed a motion to sever his case from the others in Fulton Co. Smith argues that there are two many defendants in the 2020 Georgia Election RICO case for a jury to keep straight and fairly assess. Smith already entered a NOT GUILTY plea. @11AliveNews

— Erin Peterson (@ErinKPeterson) August 31, 2023

“The prosecution, no doubt, will protest that the defendants were part of a nationwide enterprise. The defense will vigorously contest this at trial, but the argument is irrelevant to the issue of severance. The prosecution cannot dictate the length of trial, and the prejudice suffered by the defendants (and the judge, and the jury, and the judicial system in general) simply by overcharging a case and exaggerating the scope of its enterprise,” the statement continued. As previously mentioned, a jury has yet to be seated in the YSL trial. That sprawling case has seen multiple severings, with the number of defendants currently reduced to nine.

Furthermore, there is another notable link between the two cases. Don Samuel, who is serving as Smith’s lead attorney, previously represented Gunna in the YSL case. Infamously, Gunna accepted a plea deal and no longer faces charges, unlike Young Thug and others. However, this has led Gunna to be labeled as a rat by many members of the rap community. At the time of writing, no date has been set to hear the motion on severing Smith’s charges.

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Video Evidence Appears To Disprove Consequence

The problem is that the prosecution appears to have evidence of Kutti committing some crimes. A video from a police body cam appears to show Kutti attempting to coerce a Georgia election worker, Ruby Freeman, into (falsely) admitting to helping rig the election against Donald Trump. It’s unknown when Kutti began working for the Trump campaign and in what specific capacity. Kutti went low-key viral for her smiling mugshot. Consequence told TMZ this wasn’t a surprise as she was “always pleasant to be around”. It’s unknown when Kutti, or any of the defendants, will be seen in court.

Consequence also spoke on Kanye 2024. He appeared to acknowledge that he would be helping the effort if Kanye does decide to make a “serious” run at the White House. Furthermore, the rapper is currently pushing his new track, “Who Shot Jamal?”. The track is part of a wider campaign to make mental health reasons more accessible to the victims of gun violence.