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RICO

Cop City Indictment Drags Former RICO Defendants Into New Legal Battle

May 6, 2026 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Cobb County, GA — Attorney General Chris Carr has charged three people for a protest that took place nearly four years ago during the movement to stop Cop City in Atlanta. That’s according to a new grand jury indictment announced on April 23, which accuses the activists of property destruction and arson. The charges are the latest in a years-long saga that has seen the state try, and fail, repeatedly to convict protesters and activists who organized against the city’s now finished $190 million police training complex. All three of the people named in the latest indictment were previously charged as part of a wide-reaching conspiracy case wherein the state attempted to prosecute opponents of the police training facility as a criminal conspiracy.

Trump Targets CODEPINK After Public Confrontation

September 18, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted US President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, DC on September 9. The disruption made national headlines and (evidently) sent the Trump administration into a frenzy. At the restaurant on September 9, peace activists got surprisingly close to Trump and cabinet members including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, shouting “Free DC, free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Trump appeared to react with visible frustration as he gestured for his security to remove the protesters, saying “Get them out of here.”

RICO Charges Dismissed Against 61 Cop City Activists

September 17, 2025 Dianne Mathiowetz, Workers' World. , , , ,
In 2023, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr brought RICO charges against 61 opponents of the “Cop City” training facility, alleging the protest movement was akin to an organized crime syndicate. Under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, prosecutors need merely to show the existence of a criminal enterprise under which any member is liable to be charged as an accessory to the group’s overall crimes.

Judge Finds Attorney General Can’t Bring RICO Charges In Cop City Case

September 10, 2025 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Atlanta, GA — A Fulton County judge found Tuesday that Georgia’s attorney general lacked authority to bring racketeering charges against protesters named in the sprawling Cop City RICO case, calling into question the foundation and future of the massive legal effort to criminalize a movement. While Judge Kevin Farmer has not yet issued an official ruling cementing his decision, his finding that the attorney general’s office doesn’t have the authority to bring Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization, or RICO, charges in this case effectively derails the prosecution’s strategy of connecting protesters to a conspiracy against Cop City and the state itself.

Cop City Rico Trials Begin In Atlanta, First Case Declared A Mistrial

July 20, 2025 Aja Arnold and Sam Barnes, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — The first trial in the ‘Cop City’ RICO case began the morning of July 7 in Fulton County Superior Court, with defendant Ayla King returning to court for the first time since January 2024. However, proceedings quickly came to a halt following Judge Kevin Farmer’s declaration of a mistrial and the defense’s decision to appeal the mistrial. King’s case is being heard separately from the other 60 defendants after filing for a speedy trial on Oct. 30, 2023. King is one of 61 people indicted by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in August 2023 on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges for their protest against “Cop City.”

The Tools Of Repression

April 24, 2025 Hannah Riley and Micah Herskind, Inquest. , , , ,
For people organizing against state violence and carceral expansion, state repression is not just a possibility—it is a certainty. Criminalization of dissenters has been a throughline of recent years. From mass arrests during the George Floyd uprisings to the brutal repression of pro-Palestine student protesters, police have consistently been the state’s go-to response, shielding power from accountability and attempting to crush movements before they can gain momentum. This has always been true in the United States, but as fascism increases its hold on state power, so does the repression’s scale and intensity.

Georgia Drops Money Laundering Charges In Cop City RICO Prosecution

September 20, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — Money laundering charges against three Atlanta Solidarity Fund defendants, who are among the 61 people indicted in a sprawling conspiracy lawsuit against Cop City protesters, have been dropped as of Tuesday. Last year Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were indicted as part of Georgia’s wide-reaching Racketeering Influenced Criminal Organization, or RICO, case that the state filed against opponents of the multi-million dollar police training compound known as Cop City. The three organizers were arrested and charged during a raid on their home by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department in May last year.

Understanding The RICO Indictments Against Stop Cop City Activists

September 29, 2023 National Lawyers Guild International. , , , ,
National Lawyers Guild Atlanta, NLG International Committee and NLG National hosted a discussion on Monday, September 25: “Understanding the RICO Indictments Against Stop Cop City Activists.” Panelists and moderators were Stanley Cohen, Devin Franklin, Mo Meltzer-Cohen, Don Samuel and Azadeh Shahshahani, and the webinar was hosted by Suzanne Adely, Susi Durán and Sarina Larson. 

Georgia’s RICO Law Makes News But Its Use To Silence Protesters Gets A Pass

September 13, 2023 Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , , , ,
Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law, modeled on the federal statute designed to attack mob bosses, has been in the news a lot, ever since  Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis used Georgia’s law to charge former President Donald Trump and his associates with attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. And with the news has come the inevitable hand-wringing about whether the RICO charges against Trump were a good idea. CNN (8/26/23) published an op-ed questioning whether the indictments were too broad, saying, “Casting a wide net can also raise serious First Amendment issues.”

Stop Cop City Activist Facing RICO Charges Speaks Out About Repression

September 13, 2023 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , , ,
For the past two years, calls to “stop Cop City” and “defend the Atlanta forest” have shaken the political and corporate establishment of Georgia’s state capital. Although Atlanta City Council has approved a lease and funding for a massive Public Safety Training Center in the city’s Weelaunee Forest, the sustained, popular #StopCopCity movement has effectively halted its construction. In response, local and state government have used a variety of tactics to move things forward — including police raids (which led to the killing of protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán), domestic terrorism charges against activists and a highly-controversial “signature verification process” that could undermine a proposed referendum.

More Than 60 Atlanta ‘Cop City’ Activists Named In RICO Indictment

September 5, 2023 Jozsef Papp and Shaddi Abusaid, Atlanta Journal Constitution. , , , ,
More than five dozen activists were indicted on RICO charges last week over the ongoing efforts to halt construction of the city of Atlanta’s planned public safety training center in DeKalb County. The sweeping indictment, handed up last Tuesday in Fulton County, is being prosecuted by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. A total of 61 protestors have been charged with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act. Some face additional charges of domestic terrorism and money laundering. Most are not from Georgia.
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