‘Guilty’ Witnesses Don’t Need to Testify
Some might think that the prosecutors could present the fact that these defendants plead guilty to the jury at later trials as proof of the guilt of defendants who go to trial. However, Supreme Court precedent forbids the direct use of the guilty pleas of witnesses to prove that other defendants who go to trial are also guilty. The prosecutors will not tell the jury something like, “Ms. Ellis plead guilty to helping Mr. Guiliani make a false statement and that is evidence that he did make a false statement.” Nor can prosecutors simply introduce the fact of the guilty pleas or documents about the guilty pleas as exhibits in the trials of other defendants.
These practices violate the rights of the defendants going to trial to confront their accusers under the 5th Amendment, but they also do not constitute relevant evidence of the guilt of the person on trial. The fact that one person agrees that their conduct is illegal in a plea deal doesn’t prove that another person is guilty, even in conspiracy or aiding and abetting scenarios, and thus the courts don’t permit prosecutors to prove their cases this way.
So, in short, there is no legal reason for Willis to have entered into these kinds of super-sweet pleas with these defendants in this case. But she did so. And the reason Willis did so is that in practical reality, if/when Trump or Guiliani or Eastman come to trial in this case, she will do covertly what the law doesn’t permit her to do overtly.
The prosecutors won’t argue to the jury that Trump, Guiliani, or Eastman are guilty because Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis, (and potentially others by then) plead guilty. They won’t have to argue that. They will simply parade a line of witnesses who have all pleaded guilty to something in this case before the jury. The jury will get the message.
And thus, the true purpose of these nothing burger pleas is revealed: not to acquire evidence to present, but to create a guilty parade, now, and in the show trial to come.
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