Indictment

I have been meaning to weigh in on [cue scary music] Special Counsel David Weiss’s sham indictment of Hunter Biden on felony gun charges for a few days. I am glad I waited.  It’s not that I have changed my mind about the indictments, or company man Weiss. Everyone knows he is on the job as an interior decorator, whose primary task is to produce window dressing for the Department of Injustice so that its two-tier deployment of police power is not too obvious to the casual onlooker. Weiss has supposedly been investigating Hunter Biden for the last five years. Wouldn’t you know it, the statute of limitation on many of the tax charges is passing by like that herd of cows outside your train window even as I write.

A Georgia district attorney operating in Fulton County unveiled a sprawling state indictment Monday charging former president Donald J. Trump and his allies with violating a mafia-era state law — modeled after a federal law known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) — for their alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Weighing in at ninety-eight pages, the forty-one-count indictment charges nineteen defendants with more than 161 overt acts in furtherance of a conspiracy “to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” The indictment is stunning on its face for several reasons.

Welcome to Thunderdome, where this week it’s yet another indictment for former president Donald Trump, this time over argle-bargle about the 2020 election which violated the laws of truth-telling that apparently only matter when Republicans do them. Let’s be clear: Donald Trump lied about 2020 — and he lied a lot. But Democrats lied about 2016, about 2004, about 2000, all at rates that were just as high but didn’t result in riotousness. The Department of Justice and the Joe Biden team at the White House seem confident that this is the path to go down to ensure re-election next fall. But we’ve seen this dangerous game played out before — and in 2016 it had shocking results.

Donald Trump has now been indicted enough times for there to be a sense of routine around the news of a fresh batch of charges. The former president warns that an indictment is coming. Then it arrives, it’s unsealed, and he’s arraigned. Trump’s Republican primary rivals respond, their choice of words assessed for signs of obsequiousness and defiance (the former are usually easier to find than the latter). The jurisdiction and likely make-up of the jury is debated. As are the prejudices of the judge, when the name becomes known.  And so yesterday when Trump was indicted for the third time this year, in relation to January 6, there was a familiar, inevitable, almost unremarkable feel to what is, by any reasonable measure, a grave moment for the country.

Welcome to Thunderdome, your weekly update on the latest attempt by the obviously inappropriate behavior of a former president, or if you prefer, the latest attempt by the Deep State to stop the Orange Man! (It can be both.) Thanks for listening to our weekly podcast, the latest edition of which is available here — I hope you’ve subscribed, and here’s the player: https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=RPTTP8574902228 On this week’s edition we discussed the indictment and its fallout for most of the show, as well as how all the candidates — with a few notable exceptions — seem to be sounding a slightly different note on this one… Who in Trump’s cabinet still supports him?

Given that Donald Trump’s legal trouble has been the political equivalent of background noise for more than half a decade, it’s easy to see why many will shrug at the news of the former president’s indictment in the classified documents case.  “America is stuck in Trump legal groundhog day,” argued Freddy Gray on the site this morning. Also writing for The Spectator, Jacob Heilbrunn suggests that, contrary to the indictment marking a “uniquely contentious time in American history,” the country “may simply greet [Trump’s] indictment with a yawn.”  Those betting against Trump’s ability to shake off whatever charges he faces, to move on from the latest scandal miraculously unscathed, have lost a lot of money over the years.

Donald Trump has been indicted by the Department of Justice following an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith into classified documents he took while exiting the White House, according to a Truth Social post from the former president. This would be the first time a former president has ever faced federal charges. Trump has been charged with seven counts in the indictment, according to multiple reports. "The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional boxes in Chinatown, D.C.

Alvin Bragg has made good on his campaign promise to hold former president Donald J. Trump “accountable” by indicting him under New York law for thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. For seven years, Bragg’s predecessor and numerous federal entities considered the same facts and declined to pursue charges. Given Bragg’s well documented leniency toward the violent criminals currently terrorizing New York, it’s difficult to imagine this case would have been brought against anyone but Trump.

So, everyone was even more right than they thought: Alvin Bragg’s breathlessly awaited arraignment of former president Donald Trump really was the Oakland of all arraignments. It was just as Gertrude Stein said of that California city: there is no there there. The indictment had thirty-four counts — thirty-four! Everyone expected them to be more or less the same count, just repeated with some sort of elegant variation to hold the attention of his audience. But, minimalist that he is, the George-Soros-funded district attorney exceeded expectation. Bragg came up with one charge. The statute of limitations had passed on it, but that didn’t matter. He liked the charge, misdemeanor though it was.

The many unknowns of the Trump indictment The first president to be impeached twice has become the first former president to be indicted once. Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday. It is at that point that the charges against him, relating to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, are expected to be unsealed.  In the almost twenty-four hours that have passed since the long-expected news of the indictment finally broke, much has gone as expected. Trump’s statement made the complaints you’d expect. Almost every high-profile Republican, including every 2024 contender, has criticized Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg and his case against the former president (not that we know what it is yet, exactly). The White House has kept mum.

Here are six things to think about ahead of any indictment and arrest of Donald Trump: 1. What is Trump going to be indicted for? Trump may soon be indicted on a campaign finance law violation. This means Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has convinced a grand jury there is enough evidence to charge Trump with the crime (federal prosecutors seem to have long abandoned the cheesy political revenge fantasy). 2. But I thought this was all about Trump having an affair with some porn star? Stormy Daniels allegedly had sex with Trump in 2006, which he denies, and which she and Michael Cohen also once denied. She then took money in 2016 to sign a nondisclosure agreement, or NDA, to keep silent.

Nixon said: ‘When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.’ President Trump’s version of this is that he can pardon himself and he can’t be accused of obstructing justice in a federal investigation because he’s the head of the federal government and that would be to obstruct himself. His lawyer and spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, argues that a president can’t be indicted in the ordinary criminal courts. Giuliani also says that the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, agrees with this. But could a president be indicted, that is charged, or accused, in the courts? And would Mueller want to? The answer may not be as simple as Giuliani makes it seem.