Trump Melts Down As Investigators Decide on Prosecution
For years now, the “word on the streets” has been that Donald J. Trump was about to have his day of reckoning with the American judicial system.
Let me point out that all those predictions have proven wrong. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen turning state’s evidence didn’t do it. The effort to bring his tax returns to light didn’t do it. Stormy Daniels' story didn't do it. Literally dozens of investigative journalism efforts about Trump business practices didn’t do it. And those ‘adults in the room’ who came and went from the White House didn’t do it.
What was that initial political assumption? Something about Donald Trump saying “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters?”
It looks to me to be a lot of truth going on about the very rich white guys in this society having different standards for justice from the rest of us. Certainly if I did any of this stuff, plus a host of other things like not paying people, I’d spend most of my life getting ground down by the wheels of justice.
To be fair, it’s likely that some of the documents seized by the FBI at Mar a Lago weren’t in the wrong place. That’s why the Justice Department deploys a team in these sorts of cases to screen out things irrelevant to the case at hand and/or protected by legal precedent.
It’s also likely that some of the seized documents–based on past experiences–were indeed no longer allowed to be possessed by the ex-president. The law was changed after Richard Nixon attempted to have his White House records destroyed, and now says that all those documents belong to the American people and that the National Archives is responsible for curating them.
The fact that Jay I. Bratt, Chief of Counterintelligence and Export Control of the National Security Division of the Justice Department is appearing at hearings in response to Team Trump’s demands concerning the documents should tell us this is a Big Effin’ Deal.
From the New York Times:
President Donald J. Trump took more than 700 pages of classified documents, including some related to the nation’s most covert intelligence operations, to his private club and residence in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a letter that the National Archives sent to his lawyers this year.
The letter, dated May 10 and written by the acting U.S. archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran, described the state of alarm in the Justice Department as officials there began to realize how serious the documents were.
The former president escaped conviction in not one but two impeachment trials and cowed Republican leaders to fall in line after the January 6 insurrection. He is presently the leading contender for the Republican party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Something has changed in recent days, I think.
The New York Times editorial board says the benefits outweigh the dangers of moving ahead with prosecuting the president, should the attorney general decide he’s got a case.
No one should revel in the prospect of this or any former president facing criminal prosecution. Mr. Trump’s actions have brought shame on one of the world’s oldest democracies and destabilized its future. Even justice before the law will not erase that stain. Nor will prosecuting Mr. Trump fix the structural problems that led to the greatest crisis in American democracy since the Civil War. But it is a necessary first step toward doing so.
It’s not because there are stories in the media about allegations of wrongdoing; it’s the behavior of the former President that’s different. He’s increasingly acting like a cornered rat.
Some of his most loyal followers have taken the cue with Sen. Lyndsey Graham’s promised riots, and fascist cub Sebastian Gorka is spitting out excuses faster than bullets coming out of an upgraded AK-47.
Trump was so impressed with Graham’s threat that he re-posted the video from a Sunday news show on his failing social media** platform. (**It’s like a Trump casino without the buffet.)
On Monday, he demanded that the 2020 election be voided, based on his perception of the injustices he’s suffered.
On Tuesday morning he posted or reposted crazy stuff from the dark side of the internet more than 60 times, including content from QAnon accounts and the far-right message board 4chan.
Trump’s desperation is connected to the government’s quest to reclaim their property, aka documents taken from the White House and strewn about Mar a Lago. The Republican Party is refusing to pay for legal assistance for this case (they are still paying other bills for Trump).
Since federal agents executed their August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump's allies and other Republicans have urged the former president to stay quiet, or have distanced themselves from initial criticism of the FBI raid.
Discussions on Fox news and other forums are increasingly turning to criticisms of the FBI’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop or even reviving long-since-disproven rumors about Hillary Clinton.
The former President’s legal team is disorganized and prone to throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks, while the Department of Justice is plodding along, perhaps even building a case for prosecution. Justice Department documents, like the heavily redacted search warrant memo have pointed the way towards the case they are said to be building.
Of course, the right’s pundits are all upset that President Biden used the phrase “semi-fascist” to describe Trump supporters last week. (I have an issue with the use of “semi” in that phrase.)
I can't help but think that the announcement of a presidential address to the nation on Thursday during prime time is somehow related to the former president. It’s not that Biden necessarily knows an indictment is coming, but that he knows the GOP is playing defense on things like calls to defund the FBI.
From NBC News:
While it’s not yet clear how much Biden will invoke his predecessor this week, he and his advisers have made clear that they think the former president’s grip on the GOP has boosted Democrats’ chances of protecting congressional majorities this fall.
Last week, in remarks at a Democratic National Committee rally in Maryland, Biden said that “MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security, they’re a threat to our very democracy.”
“They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — political violence. They don’t believe in democracy,” he said. “This is why, in this moment, those of you who love this country — Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans — we must be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are to destroying America.”
Finally, it’s important to remember that Trumpism has never been about facts or truth. It’s about perceived injustice translated into a violent fairytale of revenge on political enemies.
No matter what the outcome of the current investigations into Trump’s actions, some of his supporters will feel obligated to act on their fantasies. I can only hope that they end up facing the kind of “justice” they deserve.
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com