Military strategists have always cautioned that an army should avoid fighting a war on two fronts for obvious reasons. With the return of the Fulton County Indictment against Donald Trump on Monday evening, he now is now required to fight a legal death struggle on three fronts – the federal classified documents front, the January 6 indictment by Jack Smith, which will be tried in Washington, D.C., and now the racketeering related charges brought against Donald Trump and 18 separate defendants by Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis.  Trump is personally charged with 13 separate crimes in the scheme to overturn the democratic election in Georgia and replace the legitimate electors with a slate of fraudulent electors. I am not including the New York State indictment, because in my view it does not pose catastrophic legal consequences for Trump.

In many ways, the Georgia case is the most legally dangerous for Donald Trump:

1. It is a state prosecution, and he cannot be pardoned even if he or another republican wins the presidential election.  It is also harder politically to blame the Indictment on the Biden Department of Justice because it was brought by a county prosecutor and many republican state officials were key witnesses.  Of even more importance, because it is a state court prosecution, there will be cameras in the courtroom (unlike federal court) and the public can see for itself evidence of an attempted coop.
2. The lynchpin of the criminal charges is a sweeping racketeering count which includes all 19 defendants, as well as 30 unindicted co-conspirators in the illegal election fraud schemes.  Fani Willis has utilized the broad Georgia RICO statute in 11 prior cases with great success, and she demonstrates a confidence that her theory of prosecution for RICO will survive any legal challenge.  Whether or not the case goes to trial with all 19 defendants is doubtful, but it is clear that she can move forward with a powerful case against the core group of Trump advisors who allegedly concocted the attempted overthrow of the democratic process.  Aside from Trump, they include his legal brain trust Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith, III, Robert Cheeley, as well as his former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.  The inclusion of Meadows in this Indictment was somewhat of a surprise because he appears not to have been mentioned in Jack Smith’s January 6 Indictment, which suggests the strong possibility that Meadows  is cooperating.  If Meadows is cooperating with Smith, there is still time for his attorneys to work out a cooperation agreement with Fani Willis, but at this point we are really in the area of speculation.
3. Not only does the Indictment charge 18 co-conspirators with Donald Trump in the overarching election fraud scheme, but it also charges 30 unindicted co-conspirators (Individual 1 through Individual 30).  That is, people who the prosecution alleged were knowingly involved in the criminal conspiracy, but the prosecution chose not to indict.  This normally means that the unindicted co-conspirators achieved “unindicted status” by cooperating with the prosecution.  There will inevitably be tremendous legal and economic pressure on some of the indicted co-conspirators to “cut a deal” with the prosecution and minimize their losses.  In charges where the defense will rise or fall on whether on or not the prosecution can prove criminal intent, insider testimony can be devastating.  Or as they used to say in Hudson County, “you are indicted by your enemies, but convicted by your friends.”

Given the fast-moving kaleidoscopic pace that events are unfolding in the Trump legal world, the only certainty is that something will happen to change the status quo.  Nonetheless, when you look at these three sets of serious charges, it’s hard to see how Trump could “run the table” if all cases are tried.