Georgia prosecutors' plea agreement with a former Trump lawyer is "like a heat-seeking missile directed at Rudy Giuliani," a former federal prosecutor has said.
Since Jenna Ellis was charged with the same offenses as Giuliani in the Georgia electoral tampering indictments, her agreement will now put pressure on Giuliani to cooperate, said Andrew Weissmann on the Pod Save America podcast.
"She pled to aiding and abetting with two co-defendants, one of whom is Rudy. That is just a direct aim. That is how you do this," he said.
Newsweek reached out to Giuliani's attorney via email for comment.
Weissman was one of the prosecutors who indicted several people during the Trump presidency for obstructing an investigation into alleged links between Trump and the Russian government.
He said on the podcast that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has "a great strategy of indicting big."—"When you indict big, you try to roll up and have this domino effect and this sense of momentum."
Four of the 19 people indicted in the Georgia case have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate, which strengthens the evidence against the remaining defendants.
Giuliani, Trump and the other defendants will be "worried about the proof getting stronger and the [plea] deals getting worse. The idea is: 'Come in now and get the best deal you can,'" Weissman said.
On Wednesday, Giuliani rejected speculation he may be the next member of former President Donald Trump's inner circle to take a plea deal in the Georgia case.
Trump's ex-attorney Ellis pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Willis's case into the former president's alleged attempts at overturning the results of the 2020 election in the state. Ellis' plea deal, which comes after two other former Trump attorneys, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, also pleaded guilty, fueled speculation that Giuliani could be the next to cooperate.
Willis investigated Trump's phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2020, in which he asked him to "find" enough votes to tilt the election in his favor, as well as an alleged plot to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case and accused Willis of targeting him for political purposes.
Giuliani advisor Ted Goodman told The Messenger on Wednesday night that the former New York City mayor would not be making a deal.
"The only deal the mayor is making is to tell the truth and unfortunately, every single prosecutor in this case is a partisan Democrat focused on their own partisan political ambitions and keeping President Donald Trump out of the White House," Goodman said.
He accused prosecutors of targeting Trump and Giuliani for political purposes.
"Most level-headed Americans—including ones who don't agree with President Trump or Mayor Giuliani's politics—understand that the highly partisan prosecutors in Georgia are doing great damage to our country and to the very fabric of this nation by continuing to weaponize our criminal justice system in an effort to keep President Trump out of the White House and to take down the people around him," he said.
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ...Read more
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