Tuesday, at 3pm, Donald Trump will drag his sorry butt to a courtroom in Miami.
A seven-count indictment has been filed in federal court naming the former president as a criminal defendant, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a case that has yet to be unsealed. The charges include willful retention of national defense secrets, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, which carry the potential of years in prison if Trump is found guilty.
Don’t get too excited. The cartoon above is from 2019. He’s been here before.
The smoke’s moved on
The Sun has risen
And as for Don
He’s goin’ to prison
And in Florida, Ron DeSantis is doing a happy dance at this announcement.
Federal indictments don’t count : either the Supreme Court will find a way to cancel any judgement, or he will pardon himself, or DeSantis will…
And he appointed so many federal judges he could well have a trial with one of them presiding and or on the appeal panel anyway.
With a lot of cases still to go I expect he’ll be here again too..
Yeah, excitement might not be the word – so very much damage already done – but cautiously, tentatively hopeful and grimly looking forward to the yowling of the hypocritical reich. Whatever did happen to their old “Do the crime, do the time” slogan?
Yeah I know, IOKIYAR.. Except it ain’t and never really was. But their ethics vs , well, ethics ethics.
Since he tends to implicate himself by talking, a TV host said if he is a fascist he is a Hogan’s Heroes guards kind of dumb fascist.
I don’t have high expectations, but it is fun to see his sycophants simultaneously melt down and rush to his defense, comparing it to the JFK assassination in one ludicrous example. Also, complaining about the “political climate” that it creates, as if Trumples wasn’t leading chants of “lock her up” a short time ago.
They’re doing all this without even waiting to hear the charges, much less looking at the evidence.
I’m appropriately excited. I don’t expect to ever see him in cuffs or prison, but politically ruined and less wealthy. Of course, he has resources to deal with that…his fans who will still flood him with money (he immediately started the beg), and the Kuchner’s couple of billion from the “Crown Prince” can afford to keep daddy comfortable.
It’s difficult not to get a little excited after yesterday, though. Robertson died, Watt died, and the indictment. Also, in Chris Christie’s announcement for his run next year, he openly attacked Chump calling him and his family grifters. Christie specifically referred to the “investment” the Crown Prince made in Jared as a pay off.
And Bin Salman gets his own corner of the news this morning with a leak about his threat to “to sever ties and retaliate economically” to exact economic pain on the US…basically torpedo Biden. He’s such a friend to the US.
And then there’s the Supreme Court decision that Alabama Republican’s attempt at gerrymandering violates the Voting Rights Act. There are a bunch of other states with similar efforts about to head to court. As one article pointed out the Supreme Court delayed considering this suit last year until after the elections which put Republicans in charge of the House by a slim majority. They might not have won those seats had the districts been more fairly drawn.
And speaking of House Republicans…the hardliners are having a cow over the budget deal and threatening McCarthy’s position while demanding that he pass an abortion bill, which won’t go very far…the Senate, Biden’s veto. Meanwhile, some Republicans in Congress are feeling the pressure that an abortion bill will hurt their political fortunes because the vast majority of Americans support the right to abortion. So the oligarch’s GOP machine is at least a little shaken up and showing some cracks.
Not here, don’t confuse the low number of charges with the severity of those charges. One area Uncle Sam never screwed around with was penalties for mishandling classified information.
One feature of that system is the attitude of, “If we can’t trust you to keep our secrets, we can’t trust you in general population, so have fun in solitary confinement”.
Still, he might get lucky and get Manning’s old cell. Where he can shiver, as he’d be disallowed clothing or a blanket, out of concern for suicide.
And they’ll not allow this to be softballed, as doing so would literally put at risk every bit of our intelligence and even nuclear secrets.
It would be entertaining though if he does his usual and ends up on the sharpest end of the stick for contempt of court by getting locked up.
euclide @ #3 — The judge assigned to the case initially is a Chump appointee. Judge Aileen M. Cannon has ruled in his favor in the past.
Hah! His lawyers ducked out after the indictment was announced. He’s hired a new law firm and “another, to be announced at a later time”.
‘In their own statement, Trusty and Rowley said they will no longer represent Trump on either the federal indictment case or the January 6 investigation.
“Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion,” the attorneys said.’
wzrd1 @ #10 — Sounds like the proverbial rats abandoning a sinking ship.
We still need better info than provided by the Main Slime News reports. It seems that any rational person would convict him of all counts based on the carefully crafted indictments and evidence so far. But, rational people are not running this shithhole country. From whst I read so far, I fear the just result may be blown-up by that tRUMP appointed Floridum judge that bailed him out last time. She is in charge again. WTF! These repugnantcant judges make tRUMP as slippery as the greased pig he is.
tRUMP and his syncophants: LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP! throw away the key!
Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) reported a total of 38 indictments.
It’s scary how often America’s elections can be changed by a small percentage of votes, from a few specific counties. The smaller MAGA donors might be conned into upping their pledges, but each of these indictments will make at least some people think twice about voting Trump back into the presidency. It will also cause Trump’s shrinking number of bigger donors to pull their support.
What’s entertaining though will be watching the Blunderdome of the Republican debates. Chris Christie has no shot at winning it IMO, but will gleefully be pointing out Trump’s myriad of faults and crimes, and would welcome the chance to make Trump seem even more unhinged. And unlike 2016, Trump won’t be campaigning on his vague promises, but his repeated failures at carrying them out. I’d guess that Trump stands a better chance of getting a coronary before the elections than the candidacy.
Please, please let him stay in the primaries long enough to fuck up the presidential race for the Republicans!
OT
More news about the other great English-speaking narcissist asshole.
Boris Johnson has resigned as a member of parliament. This will trigger a local election that the conservative candidate will probably lose, undermining the position of the prime minister.
Bojo has no loyality whatsoever with the party, it was just a machine for him to fulfil his ambitions. After dragging Britain through hell for years, this is his final “fuck you “.
https://youtu.be/Q_bfS1GMyCs
For those interested, here’s a link to the indictment documents.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23839690/read-trump-indictment-related-to-mishandling-of-classified-documents.pdf
He’s doubly screwed, as there is recorded audio of him discussing openly a classified document to uncleared persons that had absolutely no need to know that he was showing them and admitting that it was classified still.
Then, he did it again with a member of his PAC, who was also uncleared, with a still classified map of a classified military operation. Both occasions, at Bedminster, so he’s also traveling with classified documents to show off to anyone he wishes to brag to.
The news is saying 37 counts now. But, I see that the above PDF does say 38. Can anyone explain the discrepancy?
@16: Not every count in the indictment is against Teh Donald. I recall 31 naming him as a defendant, with the others naming Nauta. This is entirely normal in this type of prosecution, especially when for factual-overlap reasons the prosecutors really do want to try the defendants together. And it’s even more common in drug-trafficking prosecutions when the prosecutors are trying to encourage one defendant to cooperate at the very last moment.
@10: This is entirely expected. The lawyers he had concentrate on keeping their clients from ever being indicted; as one of them presents exactly the kind of demeanor to nonlawyer jurors that one expects from an old-school consigliere, there was always going to be at least one change once an indictment issued. Remember, these attorneys did not appears before the grand jury — their job was to find a way to avoid any indictments, or shift blame so that only others would be indicted. It’s a different skill set (being extremely euphemistic there).
If it had been a big firm to start with, I still would have expected different lawyers to take over for the post-indictment stages.
General note: There’s another shoe to drop. There’s a creature called a “superseding indictment” — the criminal-law equivalent of a civil-side “amended complaint” — that remains more than possible. It’s worth remembering that even this indictment indicates that they still don’t know details about some of the classified documents, nor can they rule out that there were others, nor can they rule out oral communication of classified material for which they don’t yet have adequate verification.
Hopefully, another shoe will meet Mr Ant-Sized Intellect rather firmly on the pavement.
Shoe vs ant? More like nuke vs ant.
Some of those redacted classification labels were part of the Holy of Holies. And better, with audio and apparently, video of his sharing is caring with uncleared individuals in an essentially public venue.
But, you’re right on the superseding indictment, saw a few of those myself from the sidelines.
And attorney #3 is just screwed, blued and tattooed.
Had I not actually met him in person, I’d almost feel sorry for him for what’s coming.
Nah, that’s just a bridge too far.
Oh well, hope he enjoys month old sunlight.
Oh, forgot the video…
https://youtu.be/hR4oc1us1aU?t=100
Hmm…
Maybe…
https://youtu.be/hR4oc1us1aU?t=100
Then blather?
Oh well, so much for being lazy with embedding.
Seems to me like Trump’s only plausible defence here is to plead insanity but I can’t see him willingly doing that knowing it ends his political and business career. Surely that would end his current presidential run – or would it?
@16. Nemo & 17 jaws :Mano Singham has a good clear breakdown of all the charges here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2023/06/09/what-the-trump-indictment-contains/
Seems Trump’s valet is facing one of those charges too. Turns out what the Butler saw is ..top secret documents.
If someone essentially wins the popularity contest from the votes of the US public, in the form of a federal election, does that alone grant them access to (and freedom with) essentially all classified material? The idea of inmate #54780 suddenly having the power to pardon themself of all their crimes, and prosecute everyone in the justice system that they didn’t like, seems like something that should have been addressed at some point in the past 246 years.
@24, yes, being elected to POTUS or Congress automagically grants access to classified information. Hard to command that which one has no knowledge of.
That said, inmate #54780, being (I assume) a convicted felon, is ineligible for high office in the US. The self-pardon thing was also covered when Trump was in office, basically, it wouldn’t stick. The POTUS also cannot prosecute anyone, that’s what the federal prosecutor does as an officer of the court. He can order it and he’d be told that the order is unlawful and is rejected.
Although, there was some large degree of breakage present in the J. Edgar Hoover era… But, to give an example of insane orders being ignored, Nixon, toward the end of his presidency, was drinking very heavily. One night, in a drunken rage, he ordered a North Korean air base struck by a thermonuclear weapon. His chief of staff intercepted the order and left it on his desk, giving instructions that any other such orders were to go directly to him and he’d check to see if Nixon still wanted to order a nuclear attack in the morning, after he had sobered up.
OT: The Unibomber was found dead.
At least the possibility of conviction can remove that threat. That being said though, Trump would likely be much more aggressive in seeking out “yes men”, so he doesn’t end up with minders having to babysit his presidency. It would also mean the appointment of another William Barr, who has a history of ignoring crimes while allowing the prosecution of those not found to have committed them. Kari Lake, Marj Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Lauren Boubert would all love to be part of Trump’s inner circle, and would likely be among Trump’s top choices if he got re-elected for America’s final presidential election.
Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but a felony conviction does not prevent someone from running for or holding federal office. Not even a federal felony conviction.
• While actually incarcerated? Probably and in almost all states. But that’s a matter of state law as to state offenses/convictions (the vast majority), and somewhat unclear under federal law for federal offenses (federal law defers to state treatment in the state of incarceration for state offenses, and that’s what would be the actual, practical barrier).
• After release? Again, that’s a matter of state law as to state offenses (the vast majority/convictions), and federal law is actually silent.
The real keep-out-of-office-forever provision is U.S. Const. Amd. XIV § 3:
But that would require, in this instance, interpreting The Orange One’s actions as having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US. On these charges,† that’s a stretch, as absent a demonstration of intentional display of national security information to someone with the capability and stated intent of abusing it the conduct charged in this indictment probably doesn’t reach “insurrection.” (This was an issue in the 1960s and 1970s that generated lots of memoranda and remarkably few public documents.) Ask again, however, after a few more convictions for violations of federal law, whether the entire course of conduct constituted an insurrection; my opinion may change depending upon the facts proven.
† I think on his entire course of conduct The Orange One has at minimum betrayed his oath of office sufficiently to open the question regarding particulars. But then, we don’t — and can’t — know a lot of the particulars.
Jaws, at a federal level, yes. But, many, many states have provisions to keep convicted felons off of the ballot for life. While, there is some legal wiggle room to try to litigate, running the gauntlet of courts to the SCOTUS would moot the point entirely for this upcoming election and support by then to run would most certainly have evaporated.
Remember, while the Constitution allows anyone to potentially run for office, it also guarantees the states regulate said right. That somewhat loosely follows the disenfranchisement map, but not entirely.
Now, if he got convicted for seditious conspiracy for Jan 6, that’d bar him under the 14th amendment, section 3.
But, the GOP itself, considering worshiping their god-king and losing all support vs not rolling obviously poorly loaded dice on a candidate that’s already flagging, there’s one of three chances for even half-hearted support.
Slim chance, fat chance and no chance.
It’d be legal honeydew trap land, full of digestive juice laden tanglefoot.
In the unlikely court victory for Trump under those conditions, it’d be entirely Pyrrhic in nature, incapable of proceeding to success further, due to all resources expended over at least 1/3 of the states cases.
Although now, it’s not rats abandoning a sinking ship with Trump, it’s rats abandoning a burning ship. It’s literally a case that, were the government to magically lose, the government would essentially lose all authority over its most closely guarded things and impart imperial powers to former presidents. Something that would also endanger the courts authority on multiple levels, which the Trump appointed jurist should well recognize.
And as a hint, without the specific laws invoked, the world would’ve long ago had leaked the full plans for fourth generation thermonuclear warhead designs.
And every human intelligence source exposed, to be executed.
And every crypto code the government has escrowed.
And ever so descending into hell much more.
Upside, we’d not have to release Hanssen from prison – he’s dead. Hope he died having the worst nightmare ever.
Citation needed. Snopes says:
Assuming the journalists accurately reported what the psychotherapist said, how did the latter come by this information? From Nixon? From someone involved in stalling the attack until Nixon sobered up?
Well, there’s this one:
https://www.npr.org/2010/07/06/128337461/nixon-considered-nuclear-option-against-n-korea
From another site, “If the president had his way,” Kissinger was known to say, “there would be a nuclear war each week!” and given conversations within the DoD with those on duty in those days and soon to retire, I give them credence.
https://outrider.org/nuclear-weapons/articles/nixons-drunken-run-ins-bomb