This is a Cato Special Podcast. I'm Caleb Brown. Former President Trump has been indicted again. This time in Georgia for alleged crimes in pursuit of an illegitimate overturning of the 2020 presidential election.

There are a few things that will be different about this case. A large number of

co-defendants and likely cameras will be providing live coverage of the proceedings.

Cato's Clark Neely offers his take.

This is, at least for the former president, the fourth indictment.

This one is different, at least for one reason it's in a state

court. Can you talk about just the difference between the fact that these are state charges

versus federal charges?

Yeah, so besides, you know, just the fact that there are different procedures in state court than in federal court,

I think the biggest difference is that there is no presidential pardon power for state conviction.

So if Donald Trump and or some or all of his co-defendants end up being convicted in the Georgia case, there will be no possibility

of a presidential pardon, and that's a game changer potentially.

And among his co-defendants in this case, Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows,

people who worked in or for on behalf of the administration.

Does that make a big difference here?

I think it does, and it's not just those two.

I mean, we've also got Jeff Clark,

who was acting attorney general, General Ellis of Sydney Powell and so you know the more

co-defendants you have the more opportunities there are for some of them to cut a deal

and that's how most white collar cases go down.

Somebody cuts a deal with the prosecutors, turns on a fellow defendant,

and points the finger.

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