SC’s McMaster says he doesn’t see how racketeering law used to charge Donald Trump applies
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he doesn’t see how a racketeering law would apply to former President Donald Trump in light of Trump’s latest indictment, this time in Georgia.
In the new indictment, Georgia state prosecutors used a law typically cited when going after organized crime and accused Trump of being part of a criminal enterprise to hold onto the presidency.
A Georgia grand jury Monday indicted Trump and 18 other people for alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
McMaster, a longtime Trump supporter who is backing Trump’s 2024 White House bid, said Tuesday he had not read the latest indictment but doesn’t see how a racketeering charge would work in a case against Trump.
Those types of law are designed to go after “a group of people conspiring and working together as an enterprise over a period of time to violate various laws. Usually it’s used for the mafia and used sometimes gangs,” McMaster, a former federal and state prosecutor and former S.C. attorney aeneral, said. “I don’t see how that applies to this at all. I think these all of these indictments, I’ve read a couple of them, I have not read this one. I just don’t see any substance to it.”
Part of the case against Trump in Georgia is a recorded phone call with the state’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where Trump said, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”
McMaster said that statement needs to be considered within its context of a close election.
“I think you have to look at statements like that in the context of what’s going on on election night or shortly thereafter,” McMaster said. “People are trying to see if there are outstanding ballots, if there were ballots that weren’t counted. I’ve heard things like that many times over the years when you have close elections.”
Trump attorneys John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump administration Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark were among those also indicted Monday.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has called attorneys working for Trump to overturn the election, a “gaggle of crackpot lawyers.”
McMaster said it is difficult to get the same advice when a person has several lawyers, especially in a highly charged situation.
“Well, lawyers’ advice differs,” McMaster said. “I don’t know those lawyers. I’ve known Mr. Giuliani for a number of years. Typically, lawyers are like doctors — you go talk to one, and you want to go get a second opinion. He might have three or four lawyers all saying something, and you have to decide, as a client, what do you think is is the right advice.”
Trump also has been indicted in New York for alleged payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, along with two federal indictments related to classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate and efforts to change the 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
McMaster has been long supporter of Trump. In 2016, the then-lieutenant governor was the first statewide official in the country to endorse Trump. Trump later appointed then-Gov. Nikki Haley to be ambassador the United Nations, allowing McMaster to ascend to the South Carolina governor’s office.
This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 1:41 PM.
