Subject: Re: Ouch. 13 Counts including RICO
In reverse order:
Reserving a conference room isn't illegal. Neither is buying a car, by way of example. But if you have a gang of people that conspire to rob a bank, and one of those people's role in the conspiracy is to buy a cheap and quick getaway car, then buying the getaway car is an overt act in favor of the conspiracy. Even if the gang gets busted before they actually do the bank job, the crime lies in conspiring to rob the bank, and buying the car is an overt act that advances the conspiracy even though that act in most other contexts would be completely innocent.

Under this logic, I could order 4 sandwiches from Subway and the way this has been charged, that's part of the conspiracy. This stuff is all circumstantial.

But...

But you still need to be able to prove up your case in order to get a criminal conviction, particularly since defendants have the right to appeal those convictions.

They will seat an adequately left-winged enough jury and place the case in front of a reliable judge. All they're going to have is the above circumstantial stuff but with that setup it'll more than enough to secure multiple felony convictions and jail time.