It was most famously used against a man nicknamed the “Teflon Don,” since the high-profile defendant was believed guilty of a wide array of illegal behavior but found not guilty in three individual trials.
The law was the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The defendant was mobster John Gotti. And in 1992, the TV camera-loving Gotti finally lost his freedom, as prosecutors convicted him under a law that brought in a full menu of crimes, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, obstruction of justice, loan sharking, illegal gambling, tax evasion and extortion.
Monday night, a Georgia grand jury used the state’s RICO law against another publicity-craving Don: former President Donald Trump, accused of 13 felonies, including conspiracy to commit forgery, filing false documents and the Peach State’s own RICO law. The team, the grand jury said, conducted a “criminal enterprise” and “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”