Donald Trump and the 18

It's the co-conspirators that get me.

(Rudy Giuliani was one of 18 conspirators named in the Georgia indictment)

To the surprise of absolutely no one, former president Donald Trump was indicted late Monday night for his role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

It’s his fourth indictment this year, a staggering level of alleged criminality for a man who is not just a former president but also the increasingly-clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Again, amazing but not surprising. The charges against Trump in the Georgia case had been percolating for months.

Here’s what was surprising — at least to me: In addition to Trump, 18 co-conspirators were also charged with wrongdoing in relation to the attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Georgia election.

That list includes but is not limited to:

• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

• Trump attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis

• Trump chief of staff (and former Member of Congress) Mark Meadows

• “Kraken” originator Sidney Powell

(The Washington Post has a really good — and comprehensive — list of all 18 co-conspirators, and their ties to Trump and the Georgia election scheme.)

Which is striking! A dozen and a half people other than Trump charged in a broad and deep conspiracy aimed at overturning a free and fair election!

Which gets me to something I am continually amazed by: The willingness of people — occasionally serious people — to put their reputations on the line for Trump.

See, Trump has always, effectively, been like this. He’s a bully. He pushes boundaries. He sues and is sued. (Trump was involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits in the three decades before he ran for president.)

But, plenty of the people around him — both his co-conspirators in this indictment as well as a much longer list — seemed to be living their merry lives until Trump came along. Once wrapped up in his orbit, however, they stay there — and usually suffer the consequences.

As the Washington Post noted, as of the fall of 2022, 11 allies and advisors to Trump during his time in office had either been found guilty or pleaded guilty to charges that amounted to a total of 30 years of jail time.

That includes Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman for Trump’s 2016 bid, one-time Trump fixer Michael Cohen, national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump political adviser Steve Bannon and longtime political gadfly Roger Stone.

Now, there’s a bit of a chicken and the egg thing going on here. Did Trump get all of these people in trouble or were all of these people in various stages of legal trouble before they found themselves affiliated with Trump?

Because there are SO many people in his orbit who have found themselves in deep political doo doo (technical term), it’s hard to generalize or draw one hard and fast conclusion on that question.

I do think you can say two basic things about all of these people:

1. They were not the best and brightest — which is one of the reasons they were available to advise Trump who, at the start of his political life, looked like the longest of long shots

2. The level of attention and scrutiny that being near Trump brought to these people was decidedly deleterious to their legal fortunes.

Take Manafort, for example. He had been kicking around the Washington lobbying circuit for years — and for just as many years had been the focus of whispers that he walked right up to the line of impropriety. (Plenty of people quietly alleged that he went over that line.)

But, Manafort was relatively low profile — and always seemed to skate by. Until, that is, he got himself aligned with Trump. Suddenly the spotlight was a LOT brighter — and Manafort’s legal problems increased exponentially.

In 2019, he was sentenced to four years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges. Trump pardoned Manafort on his way out of office in late 2020.

Take a step back and there is a Pied Piper-like feel to Trump and the many minions he has accrued over the years who appear entirely comfortable following him off a cliff.

It’s as though these people have no short term memory — and can’t see what’s happened to the many, many folks who have followed Trump before them.

And what happens, usually, is this: Trump, by dint of his position as a former president and current presidential candidate, manages to wrangle his way out of serious trouble (or at least jail time) while those lesser lights around him bear the brunt of the legal system. All for their unceasing loyalty to a man who has shown he won’t show the same loyalty to them,

Is that the same scenario that will play out this time in Georgia? It’s too early to tell. But what we can say is that 18 people woke up this morning in more legal peril than they were yesterday — and they have Donald Trump to “thank” for that.