JUSTIN WEBB: With Donald Trump’s latest charges, brought by the state of Georgia, the former President faces the only case he can’t stop or avoid… his only option is to win

Donald Trump used to tell a story at his rallies about how to force journalists to reveal their sources. His suggestion was to put them in prison where they could become another prisoner’s “bride.” The audience would cheer and he would laugh. He doesn’t tell this prison rape joke anymore, maybe because he doesn’t find it funny anymore.

The ex-president faces four major trials next year, where he will answer four sets of charges, comprising 91 separate charges. The scope of the legal peril he faces is enormous.

And the latest charges – filed by the state of Georgia, not the Justice Department in Washington DC – have the potential to be more damaging than the others.

For starters, this is the only televised court case. Depending on when it is scheduled to be heard, it will become the most important story in America just as the presidential campaign gets underway.

All defendants — including Trump himself — face a minimum five-year prison sentence if convicted.

Donald Trump enters the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on April 4

That’s because Trump and his team are being charged under Georgia’s racketeering law. This was originally used to take down organized crime gangs, and to be successful the prosecution does not have to prove that the boss of an organization himself hit someone on the head, or tied them to a chair and pulled out their fingernails, or tried to play with the result of an election.

They don’t even have to prove that the alleged crime was ordered by the boss. All they have to prove to the satisfaction of a jury is that the boss, the figure of Tony Soprano, seems to be at the top of a group of people who break the law.

That is why the indictment against Georgia is important. It’s hard to defend and inevitably involves jail time in a way that none of the other charges do.

But it also matters because the high road to a successful defense is blocked for the Trump team. That road is not legal, but political.

With each new indictment, Donald Trump has increased his support among Republicans. He will most likely become the party’s 2024 presidential candidate. And as president, he can have the charges dropped or pardon himself. That is not an option with the Georgia case. He has no power over state prosecution and sentencing, it is something he cannot stop. Even Georgia’s Republican governor can only grant a pardon after a sentence has been served. True, it would be difficult to prosecute a sitting president, but they could wait. It wouldn’t go away.

Folks, it looks like there’s only one way Donald Trump can avoid going to Atlanta jail. He has to win the case.

The sun sets at the Fulton County Courthouse Monday, August 14, in Atlanta, Georgia, as Atlanta court officials released a list of criminal charges against former President Donald Trump

And of course that can happen. Georgia’s charge, unlike the other three, is very complicated and involves a large group of defendants, including some of its closest allies. It could fall apart. The jury might find that this is really all about politics – that the law has been stretched to accommodate a political ambition to bring down the former president.

But it could also be that those “allies” are starting to feel a little sweaty under the collar as they contemplate their own future. Not only the prison, but also the huge legal costs of staying out of it. Money that could have been spent on school fees for their children.

Donald Trump recently promised, “If you go after me, I’ll come after you.” They’re all going after him now. In New York, in Miami, in Washington DC and now in Atlanta. He will need all his strength, all his energy and all his luck to keep his enemies at bay.

Justin Webb hosts the Americast podcast on BBC Sounds