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.
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Trump Attorney Cites YSL Trial
“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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