Cage match. DOJ versus Trump
quote
The House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has urged the Justice Department to pursue Trump for inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the US government and making false statements.
In their final report, the committee cited Trump's speeches and rhetoric in the lead up to the attack. But in 1969, the Supreme Court case?Brandenburg v. Ohio?determined that speech must include an "incitement to imminent lawless action" before it can be restricted or prohibited by the government.
However, McQuade argued that the January 6 committee had framed their allegations against Trump in such a way that it would pass constitutional muster.
snip
“The stroke of genius I thought, in the committee’s referral, was to base it on that speech, but also on the tweet that Donald Trump sent at 2:24 p.m. where he said that Mike Pence lacked ‘the courage’ to do what was right,†McQuade said during?an interview with The Hill.
In the tweet McQuade is referring to, Trump wrote: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth."
end of quote
one giant caution
The panel failed to fully tease out the ties between Trump, his associates, and members of the two extremist groups, even as some confidants like Roger Stone were connected with their leaders or relied on them for security.
Also outstanding is whether the Justice Department will see fit to pursue any charges against the other Trump associates named in the report.
McQuade said the transcripts alone — some of which have been released, others of which will be released in the coming days — could be a shortcut for the department, helping them determine any outstanding witnesses they may wish to speak with or prod for more information using DOJ leverage
end of quote
Here is the bottom line, take 1
quote
Trump's voters forgive him for being a liar, a criminal, a whiner and a narcissist, but only because they think he's a "winner" who owns the liberals. The GOP elite is betting the base can be dissuaded from backing Trump if he's stripped of that "winner" image, so voters can see the insecure loser underneath all the bluster. The NFTs portray Trump as a big, tough guy, but they are just cheesy and worthless crap. In this, they are the perfect symbol of who he is. The only question is whether Republican voters are ready to accept the Trump everyone else sees, the world-class loser whose "winning" exists only in the realm of lies and delusions.
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Bottom line , take 2
quote
But while taking bribes and robbing taxpayers is the easiest work imaginable, Trump was still hilariously bad at it.?He had a "negative income" for four out of the six years?that were released to the public. Overall, he saw a net loss of $60 million.?As the New York Times reports, "the entirety of his core businesses — mostly real estate, golf courses and hotels — continued to report losses every year." The one year he actually made a decent chunk of money, $24.3 million in 2018, it was only because he sold off a bunch of property that he inherited from his father. Not only is it just another example of money being given to him, but it is a pittance compared to the hundreds of millions he owed going into the presidency, and is dwarfed by his overall losses while president.
All of which is to say that Trump had an elaborate structure of real estate and hospitality holdings that were perfect for laundering bribes. But he is so bad at business, he was losing more than he was taking in. The man's only real skill is setting money on fire.
end of quote
Bottom line take 3
quote
The committee's case was bolstered by a federal judge in California who found it "more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6."
Authorities say some 140 officers were assaulted during the riot. Around 900 people have been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the attack and more than 800 have been charged with crimes ranging from trespass and assaulting police to seditious conspiracy.
end of quote
Cage match is on
quote
Legal expert reveals how one of Donald Trump’s tweets could sink his Jan. 6 defense
December 24, 2022
?????
President Donald Trump walks from the west wing of the White House to Marine One in 2017. (Shutterstock.com)
A tweet that Donald Trump sent out on January 6, 2021, could hamper his efforts to argue that he is protected by the First Amendment if he faces charges for inciting an insurrection, according to former U.S Attorney Barbara McQuade.
The House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has urged the Justice Department to pursue Trump for inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the US government and making false statements.
In their final report, the committee cited Trump's speeches and rhetoric in the lead up to the attack. But in 1969, the Supreme Court case?Brandenburg v. Ohio?determined that speech must include an "incitement to imminent lawless action" before it can be restricted or prohibited by the government.
However, McQuade argued that the January 6 committee had framed their allegations against Trump in such a way that it would pass constitutional muster.
“The stroke of genius I thought, in the committee’s referral, was to base it on that speech, but also on the tweet that Donald Trump sent at 2:24 p.m. where he said that Mike Pence lacked ‘the courage’ to do what was right,†McQuade said during?an interview with The Hill.
In the tweet McQuade is referring to, Trump wrote: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth."
According to the committee, “When he wrote those words, he knew exactly what he was doing. Before President Trump issued the tweet, a White House staffer cautioned him that the statement would imply that he ‘had something to do with the events that happened at the Capitol’—but he tweeted it anyway."
McQuade said that the tweet and how the committee framed “it not as inciting an insurrection, but as assisting in an insurrection – I think that tweet probably passes that [Supreme Court] bar.â€
However, the legal expert also cautioned that prosecutors could have difficulty in proving intent.
“It requires that you knew what you were doing was wrong. The old George Costanza line: ‘If you believe it, it’s not a lie.’ To what extent did Donald Trump believe these things and to what extent did he know it was all just a fraud and a lie? So all of those things have to be considered by the prosecutors in a way that the committee didn’t have to deal with,†McQuade told The Hill.
The House select committee maintains that Trump "oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power."
Investigators say the plot began with Trump's campaign to spread allegations that the election was marred by widespread fraud.
He is accused of trying to corrupt the Justice Department and of pressuring his vice president Mike Pence, state election officials and legislators to help overturn the election by violating the Constitution and the law.
Trump is also accused of summoning and assembling the mob in Washington, and directing it toward the Capitol despite knowing it was armed with assault rifles, handguns and numerous other weapons.
And he ignored pleas for from his team to take action to stop the violence, lawmakers say.
The committee's case was bolstered by a federal judge in California who found it "more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6."
Authorities say some 140 officers were assaulted during the riot. Around 900 people have been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the attack and more than 800 have been charged with crimes ranging from trespass and assaulting police to seditious conspiracy.
Trump has repeatedly disparaged the House panel on his own Truth Social platform, calling the members "Democrats, misfits and thugs."
end of quote
quote
The GOP elite wants to brand Trump a loser — the humiliating release of his tax returns could help
December 22, 2022
It's no secret, among political junkies anyway, that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and much of the Republican elite have been casting around for a way to derail Donald Trump's bid to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. It's a delicate operation, to be certain. Trump's allure to the GOP primary voting base isn't just that he triggers the liberals, but that he ruffles the feathers of the Republican establishment. It makes the deplorables feel powerful, watching people like McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy bow and scrape to the ludicrous reality TV host foisted on them by their own voters. So the strategy is always about trying to find some way to undermine Trump without provoking him to unload personal invective on Truth Social in retaliation.
领英推è
Some of the maneuvering is behind the scenes. As?Greg Sargent of the Washington Post documented?this week, Senate Republicans helped slip an electoral count reform bill into a larger spending bill. The covert move isn't just about circumventing Trump's plan to steal the 2024 election, but to do so in a quiet and highly technical manner that will likely avoid his attention.
But mostly, Trump's opponents in the GOP are trying to brand him a loser. After Trump-backed candidates took a bath in the 2022 midterms — they fell?behind non-Trump Republicans by an average of five points?— a number of Republican pundits and politicians stepped forward to declare him an albatross around the party's neck.?McConnell repeatedly shaded Trump by saying?someone like him is "unlikely" to win. "What will Democrats do when?Donald Trump?isn't around to lose elections?"?snarked the conservative Wall Street Journal?editorial board. "GOP voters should give up on the idea that Trump is a winner,"?argued the editors at National Review.?Hopeful Republican op-eds predicting Trump?has lost his luster have become a cottage industry.
We'll see, of course. But there's no doubt the bad press is getting to Trump,?who seems incapable of even leaving?his house these days. The?announcement of his presidential run was conducted?from the safety of the Mar-a-Lago bubble, but even then, it was lackluster at best.?As Heather "Digby" Parton noted at Salon, "the former president tends to wander aimlessly around Mar-a-Lago, bored and lethargic, depending on his attendants to call around to allies to ask them to deliver 'affirmations' and cheer him up." He's even?calling people who won their elections "loser," in his typical psychological projection.
Calling Trump a criminal and a fascist may be accurate, but both tend to be assets for Trump in the eyes of his base. But, the theory goes, if Trump can be branded a loser, it would finally break the spell he has over his credulous base. The only problem is getting that message through their fact-repelling skulls that have been hardened through years of Fox News propaganda.
Which is why Republican leaders should fall on their hands and knees and thank House Democrats for finally,?after years of court battles, releasing Trump's tax returns?from 2015-2020. Not because they reveal that Trump is a massive tax cheat, which only makes the base love him more. What's great about the tax returns is they?show that President Drink Bleach is about as good?at business as he is at medical science. Despite his years of dubious claims to be a "billionaire," the tax returns show that?he spent most of his presidency losing money hand over fist. This is a guy who?used to brag that he'd "make money" by?running for president, after all.
That Trump is a uniquely terrible businessman was known long before this. In 2020,?the New York Times successfully obtained years of tax records, mostly from his pre-presidential life. Even those who had long been?skeptical that a guy who hawked ringtones?was really a "billionaire" were astonished at how very, very bad he is at business. Over his lifetime, Trump was handed nearly a billion dollars by benefactors, first his father, then "Apprentice" producer Mark Burnett. Trump promptly flushed it all down the toilet. He didn't just fritter away at least $834 million in cash — the reporting showed he was at least $421 million in debt. That's over $1.2 billion lost over the years, and that's not even counting the many losses he's been able to use creative accounting to conceal.
Still, even his biggest detractors tended to feel his fortunes would change in the White House. Surely even a moron like Trump could handle the task of sitting on his tush watching bribes flow in from foreign benefactors, right? He did not even bother to hide that "taking bribes" was a central feature of his presidency. He would speak publicly about the opportunities for memberships at Mar-a-Lago or stays at various Trump hotels, unsubtle reminders that these businesses were excellent ways for those with cash to seek favor with the White House.
To a certain extent, it worked.?Diligent reporters documented how the Saudi government?would routinely buy out blocks of rooms at Trump hotels.?Foreign officials would book not just rooms?but events at Trump properties, and make sure Trump knew about it. Domestically, the bribery was just as bad, if not worse. As?Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) documented in 2020, government officials, political groups, and special interest groups would curry favor by holding events at Trump properties. Trump and his officials "used their platform to promote Trump businesses 426 times," driving tourist traffic from the MAGA fanbase. Trump even had a racket going with the Secret Service,?where he would routinely book them at Trump properties?for about eight times what he claimed he was charging them.
But while taking bribes and robbing taxpayers is the easiest work imaginable, Trump was still hilariously bad at it.?He had a "negative income" for four out of the six years?that were released to the public. Overall, he saw a net loss of $60 million.?As the New York Times reports, "the entirety of his core businesses — mostly real estate, golf courses and hotels — continued to report losses every year." The one year he actually made a decent chunk of money, $24.3 million in 2018, it was only because he sold off a bunch of property that he inherited from his father. Not only is it just another example of money being given to him, but it is a pittance compared to the hundreds of millions he owed going into the presidency, and is dwarfed by his overall losses while president.
All of which is to say that Trump had an elaborate structure of real estate and hospitality holdings that were perfect for laundering bribes. But he is so bad at business, he was losing more than he was taking in. The man's only real skill is setting money on fire.
These returns were released mere days after Trump's "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT"?that turned out to be an NFT peddling scheme, a naked grift less suited to a former president than to the has-been reality TV star that he is at heart. Even funnier, he's not even selling the cards himself but?merely licensed his image to a shady company?that sells NFTs,?so that he only got a cut of the $4.5 million?that was made. That's a lot of money for ordinary people, but for a real billionaire, it wouldn't be worth getting out of bed. It certainly isn't enough to start paying down his immense debt. None of this looks like the behavior of a successful businessman but instead looks like the grubby cash grab of someone who is probably broke.
Trump's voters forgive him for being a liar, a criminal, a whiner and a narcissist, but only because they think he's a "winner" who owns the liberals. The GOP elite is betting the base can be dissuaded from backing Trump if he's stripped of that "winner" image, so voters can see the insecure loser underneath all the bluster. The NFTs portray Trump as a big, tough guy, but they are just cheesy and worthless crap. In this, they are the perfect symbol of who he is. The only question is whether Republican voters are ready to accept the Trump everyone else sees, the world-class loser whose "winning" exists only in the realm of lies and delusions.
end of quote
quote'
With eyes on DOJ, a complex path for Trump Jan. 6 prosecution
BY?
The criminal referrals and report released by the Jan. 6 committee may not provide a clear-cut path to charges for Donald Trump. But they lay a road map for an investigative agency with the tools to compel cooperation and gather more evidence from many of those closest to the former president.
The panel’s final two acts effectively accuse Trump of betraying the country, recommending the Justice Department pursue four different criminal charges against him, while encouraging Congress to use the 14th Amendment to bar him from ever serving in office again.
And while it held back on making such recommendations for many in Trump’s orbit,?its 845-page report?leaves a trail of breadcrumbs on a number of plots and people involved in working to prevent the transfer of power.
“What the committee has done is to refer the former president for criminal prosecution for his role in attempting to foment a rebellion against the United States and or its system of law. That has treason written all over it,†said Jeff Robbins, an attorney who has served as both a federal prosecutor and a Senate investigative counsel.
The criminal referrals, and even the broader package of evidence laid out in the report, are merely suggestions for the Justice Department, which has its own sprawling, if less visible, investigation into what Attorney General Merrick Garland summarized as “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power.â€
But the sheer weight of the evidence presented to the public, along with the detailed argument breaking down the illegality of the plots, could put pressure on a Justice Department that has often — at least publicly — lagged behind the committee.
Taken together, the committee said there was enough evidence on hand to charge Trump with inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and — with his lies about winning the election and effort to submit false slates of electors — conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement.
They stopped short, however, of making referrals for the bulk of the names that have become central figures during their 18-month probe, like Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, a slew of Trump attorneys including Rudy Giuliani, and?Jeffrey Clark,?the DOJ lawyer who was prepared to initiate an investigation into Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud if the former president made him attorney general.
“This is a very delicate balancing test that the committee had to engage in, knowing this is a statement for the American people and for history, and that if they present like a machine gun, simply going after wide swaths of people at the point of making a criminal referral, that would damage their credibility,†Robbins said.
“On the other hand, they want to point out, and they did point out, that there are other people whose conduct should be investigated.â€
What comes next?
The report, while trailing the bombshell revelations laid out in its summer hearings, delves much deeper than the initial criminal referrals presented Monday, including offering some new details about the extent of efforts to pressure state officials to overturn the election and submit false slates of electors.
The path ahead will be determined by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed to oversee the Justice Department investigation on the Jan. 6 front as well as its probe into the handling of records at Mar-a-Lago once Trump announced his 2024 bid for the White House.
But the Justice Department has both powers and limitations the committee did not, particularly when it comes to presenting a case that can convince 12 jurors of a former president‘s guilt.
“They have tools available to them that are unavailable to the Jan. 6 committee, like search warrants to obtain phones where they can find encrypted messages, and the grand jury where they can have witnesses testify with subpoenas that actually have some teeth that can result in jail time if you refuse to testify. Or they can grant immunity and compel witness testimony,†said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney.
“They most certainly have a much more difficult task than the committee does in presenting a case.â€
Trump charges face legal hurdles
Any charges against Trump would have to meet a series of legal tests — including, for some of the crimes, demonstrating intent. For others, the department would have to combat defenses from Trump that he was exercising his free speech or relying on the advice of his counsel in pursuing novel legal strategies.
“I do not think that anybody can reasonably say that any of these charges against the former president — these four charges — are a slam dunk,†Robbins said.
The charges for inciting an insurrection, while among the weightiest, could also be the most difficult to prove.
“While there is a very formidable body of evidence pointing to guilt, that doesn’t mean that the former president is naked — and I’m sorry for the imagery — when it comes to a defense,†he said.
“His team will have formidable legal and factual arguments that he is essentially being charged for speech … Politicians use phrases like ‘fight like hell,’ all the time. Politicians urge their supporters to demonstrate all the time,†he said.
A 1969 Supreme Court decision protects speech other than that designed and likely to produce imminent lawless action.
McQuade, however, said the committee framing could pass that bar, focusing not just on his fiery speech directing a mob toward the Capitol, but fanning the flames once violence was underway by firing off a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence.
“When he wrote those words, he knew exactly what he was doing. Before President Trump issued the tweet, a White House staffer cautioned him that the statement would imply that he ‘had something to do with the events that happened at the Capitol’—but he tweeted it anyway,†the panel wrote in their report.
“The stroke of genius I thought, in the committee’s referral, was to base it on that speech, but also on the tweet that Donald Trump sent at 2:24 p.m. where he said that Mike Pence lacked ‘the courage’ to do what was right,†McQuade said, noting he sent the tweet after watching the violence unfold at the Capitol.
“I think it’s that tweet – and they frame it not as inciting an insurrection, but as assisting in an insurrection – I think that tweet probably passes that [Supreme Court] bar,†she added.
But she said the Justice Department could hit roadblocks in proving intent, an element necessary for the conspiracy charges.
“It requires that you knew what you were doing was wrong. The old George Costanza line: ‘If you believe it, it’s not a lie.’ To what extent did Donald Trump believe these things and to what extent did he know it was all just a fraud and a lie? So all of those things have to be considered by the prosecutors in a way that the committee didn’t have to deal with,†McQuade said.
But the committee stopped short of recommending seditious conspiracy charges for Trump or those in his orbit, even as DOJ has successfully pursued such charges against members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia and prepares for a similar case against members of the Proud Boys.
The panel failed to fully tease out the ties between Trump, his associates, and members of the two extremist groups, even as some confidants like Roger Stone were connected with their leaders or relied on them for security.
Also outstanding is whether the Justice Department will see fit to pursue any charges against the other Trump associates named in the report.
McQuade said the transcripts alone — some of which have been released, others of which will be released in the coming days — could be a shortcut for the department, helping them determine any outstanding witnesses they may wish to speak with or prod for more information using DOJ leverage.
But the public nature of the release could also inhibit the investigation too.
“Not only can DOJ see that witnesses said,?so can?the rest of the world, and so it allows people to get their stories straight to say, ‘What are the other witnesses saying about this? Oh, I better say the same thing,’†she said.
“Or it allows Trump and others to frame their messaging in certain ways to or just to discredit some of these witnesses that they knew said damaging things about them … So there’s some downside to having all of this out there in addition to the upside that the Justice Department gets from this.â€
Any action from the Justice Department could still be months away, with the agency only just beginning to get much of the information it requested the committee share.
“The department, the special counsel, and their staff are already going very slow on this. The last thing that anybody wants to do in that department, in that special counsel’s office, is to bring a prosecution of the former president and lose,†Robbins said.
??end of quote
Andrew Beckwith, PhD???