Trump Indicted: Now Comes the Hard Part

Keep the focus on what he did, not who he is

I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic trying to get home from weekly chemotherapy when news of former President Donald Trump’s indictment broke, so the endomorphin-induced rush of excitement didn’t happen.

After years of waiting for the man to face consequences for his actions, I was feeling dread. There was no joy in hearing the news, coming via social media messaging from the defendant. 

I suspect my feelings would have been different if we’d learned about the charges through a Department of Justice press conference, with somber officials reading from a highly vetted script and deferring further questions until after the arraignment. 

You might think the response from right wing media was preordained, and you’d be right.

Here’s Oliver Darcy at Reliable Sources:

• The assault on the American justice system was swift and savage. On Fox, the historic legal action was portrayed as President Joe Biden weaponizing the Justice Department to target his political opponent. "BIDEN ADMIN INDICTS A PRESIDENTIAL RIVAL," one on-screen banner read. 

• "Yes, it is a dark day in America," Sean Hannity declared. "We have said it often. There is no equal justice, there is no equal application of our laws. There is one set of rules for Democrats and another set of rules for Donald Trump and conservatives and anybody especially in his orbit."  

• Despite the indictment not being made public, Hannity went on to tell his audience that the "system of justice" in the U.S. has "been weaponized beyond belief" and that the country is "in serious trouble." 

I’m here to say the defense has won round one of their legal battles by framing the charges as an attack on Trump for who he is rather than what he has done. A carefully choreographed chorus of congress members immediately started denouncing the charges as a political attack, one endangering the very foundations of Americans freedoms.

Joe Biden did this, we were told, over and over.

Via the New York Times:

• As speculation intensified ahead of the Justice Department’s notification of the indictment, Mr. Trump’s team pretaped a video of the former president reacting to the expected charges in a speech direct to the camera — and standing in front of what appeared to be a version of a painting of President Theodore Roosevelt and Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany’s leader during World War I.

• Half an hour after he announced his indictment, he posted the video on his social media website. In it, he bashes Democrats, portrays the indictment as evidence of “a nation in decline” and calls himself “an innocent man.”

Meanwhile, honest journalists were having to dig to get to the facts. “Sources” told reporters there were seven counts to the indictment and they were centered around obstruction of the investigation of the mishandling of government documents.

As I was writing this, news broke that Walt Nauta, valet to the former president, was also indicted. There has been reporting that Nauta assisted with the attempt to hide documents from authorities.

Another valuable tidbit out this morning is that Trump’s lawyers either quit or got fired. A social media message announced Todd Blanche would be the ex-president’s lawyer (plus a legal firm to be named later)

Over at Fox News, head clown Geraldo Rivera is pleading for a presidential pardon for Trump in exchange for a promise to drop out of the race. 

We know that Tuesday’s arraignment in Miami will be heard in front of Aileen M. Cannon, a young conservative judge nominated by the Trump administration in 2020. She’s already been involved in the case, blocking the Justice Department from reviewing materials seized via a search warrant at Mar a Lago, a ruling that was reversed on appeal.

For those of you who need to get up to speed on the documents case, here’s the Politico explainer.

The good news for the judge is that her earlier involvement in the case should tamp down attacks (for now) from the Trump camp along with the death threats inevitably following those sorts of remarks.

The bad news for the ex-president is that information leaked to the press (likely by Trump’s attorneys) indicates the government has a strong case. Defense attorneys sometimes reveal portions of the prosecution case in hopes of either defaming witnesses or encouraging further disclosures.

Via Politico's Playbook:

• While the charging document is not yet public, Trump attorney JIM TRUSTY told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last night that “some of the language” in the summons “suggests what the seven charges” are.

• “They basically break out from an Espionage Act charge … several obstruction based-type charges and false statement charges,” Trusty said. He also confirmed a retention charge, and suggested that “there was a conspiracy charge as well.”

Former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who reportedly helped in unauthorized removal of materials, has flipped. There is a tape recording of the president acknowledging that the classified documents in his possession couldn’t be declassified once he was out of office.

The defense will likely have to convince a jury that their guy is the victim of a witch hunt, despite (what should be) charges in four different locales for assorted unrelated crimes. Again, the defense in common for all these cases will be built around who Trump is (or thinks he is). 

The uniqueness of this particular case is undermined by history, namely that Socialist Party nominee Eugene Debs was prosecuted and convicted under the Espionage Act for his opposition to World War I in 1918. He campaigned from prison for the 1920 election, before losing to Republican Warren G. Harding.

The whoTrumpis defense will be packaged with various causes favored by right wing extremists, with allegations of corruption in the Biden administration as the bow on top. 

Meanwhile Trump’s campaign for president continues…because, why not? His followers don’t care and probably enjoy losing so they can brag about being victims.

Via the New York Times

• Public opinion of former President Donald J. Trump has remained remarkably stable, despite his unprecedented legal challenges, and a modest majority of Americans seeing his behavior as disqualifying, though voters are deeply divided along partisan lines.

• The indictment may not have much impact on Mr. Trump’s political prospects. When asked if Mr. Trump’s legal peril would impact their views of him, two-thirds of his supporters said it would not make a difference, according to a USA Today/Suffolk survey in April.

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I read a lot, like a couple of dozen newsletters by knowledgeable people and at least four newspapers daily. Here are a few excerpts from people I respect.

Oliver Willis  

• This isn’t a movement that has a shot at redemption. It’s long past time to stop begging Republicans to “finally” “speak out” against Trump and his criminal behavior. The right has shown us time and time again that far from being appalled by what Trump keeps getting caught doing red-handed, they actually like it. From Mitch McConnell at the top to the mouth-breathing MAGA supporter tweeting out his frustrations or yelling on the street corner, they are all in.

• So let them stew in it. This isn’t rhetoric or a mindset that is remotely deserving of a life preserver. They don’t want you to rescue them. They are absolutely happy where they are. They love doing crimes and lending their political support to a serial criminal.

• Throw them an anvil and watch in pride as they sink to the bottom of the filth where they belong.

Heather Cox Richardson

• Nonetheless, this is a moment to take stock and to realize how far we’ve come from the fragility that shook the country in January of  2021. We’re entitled to a small moment of self-congratulation to appreciate everything that we have accomplished, and to double down on the commitment to preserve an American Republic from succumbing to a dangerous cult leader with fascist tendencies.

• The American dream has always been aspirational, in the sense that there is always more work to do to extend its promise to include all of us. Women, Black people, immigrants, people who follow different faiths or none at all, people who were formerly incarcerated, and on and on. We, like always, have much important work ahead of us as a country to make sure we have a more perfect union. The good news is, we have fought our way back from a struggle it looked like we might not survive. We have the strength and the grit to restore ourselves. The next few weeks will tell an important story. Tonight, we go to sleep knowing no man is above the law. We still live in a rule of law country where even a former president can be prosecuted for violating the law.

Cousin Mary L Trump

• There is nothing he won’t do to get away with his crimes. He will turn his followers against the rest of us, he will threaten to destroy the Republican Party if it doesn’t do his bidding (and it will do his bidding). If none of that works, he will burn it all down.

• It will get worse before it gets better. It will be frightening, it will be frustrating, and it will be dangerous. But it will get better eventually. If we stick together and refuse to give up hope, it will get better.

My advice is to go with what Yogi Berra once said: It ain’t over until it’s over.

Non-Trump News

Cracker Barrel touts rainbow rockers and Pride message, a middle finger to customer base Via American Wire. First Chick-fil-An Fila and now Cracker Barrel? Are we looking at a mass starvation event for faith-based haters? 

• Cracker Barrell shared a photo on Facebook of one of the rockers that traditionally sit in front of its stores with rainbow-colored slats, along with the message: “We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests. Everyone is always welcome at our table.”

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Transparency Foundation finds massive fraud in California’s elections Via KUSI News. Hmmm. Sounds like it could be a grift…

L.A.’s Summer of Solidarity Via The American Prospect

• The drive to afford life in L.A. is at the heart of many of the summer’s negotiations. The WGA is pressing on multiple fronts, among them its desire to put guardrails on the use of AI-generated content, but many of its pressing concerns center on how writers are paid—and under what working conditions.

• Though it’s impossible to predict the outcome of any individual deal, that shared concern is producing a new sort of union solidarity that cuts across job titles. “Los Angeles is a union town in many ways,” Minato said. “Have we always acted like a union town? Not always. This is the first time in a while that the unions are really working together to succeed.”

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