If they’re truly superfluous then they waste the time of both sides, but it’s the prosecution who get to decide whether or not to include a charge. The prosecution might not be holding out real hope of a conviction on the highest charges, but by including them they could include additional witnesses and evidence that will be heard by a jury and change their perception even on the more realistic charges, which the defense would have to react to.

Again, all hypothetical. For all I know theyre confident in the terrorism charge

But realistically criminal trials are a negotiation, and most of the work happens outside the courtroom

It’s pretty standard to charge with the most serious things they can and potentially drop/lower the charges before trial. Maybe theyre trying to get a plea deal or disposition and avoid the trial - ‘we’ll drop terrorism and the death penalty if you plead to first degree murder and life without’ or something like that

Or at least they have his legal team spending time knocking down the more superfluous charges instead of dealing with the meat of it all

Obviously I don’t know enough about the situation here to know exactly what’s up, but yeah

I think you mean Henry Kissinger