Because this needs to be done 1000% right, there is no margin for error, everything has to be done in an iron clad manner that cannot be dismantled by half-assing it. Indicting a former president is a first in the history of this country, and this former president is nothing short of a cult leader with millions of unshakable followers, many of whom are armed to the teeth and ready to burn this country to the ground for him. So this has to be done very friggin carefully.
Like Mueller half-assed it and the end result was nearly a fucking coup. Can’t let that happen again.
Mueller didn’t half ass anything. He conducted his investigation and determined that crimes were likely committed, but that he didn’t have the power to bring charges in his position as special counsel and it would be up to the AG.
Which is true. A DOJ special counsel is not the same thing as the independent counsel that used to exist, which was what Ken Starr was when he investigated Clinton.
A DOJ special counsel is completely beholden to the AG and DOJ policies and can’t bring charges without the AG signing off on them.
If you actually read the mueller report, it’s extremely damning and he turned it over to the AG and Congress to do something about it. The AG declined to bring any charges based on a DOJ memorandum that says a sitting POTUS cannot be charged. The House impeached Trump over the findings and the Senate failed to convict and remove him.
The current AG could still bring criminal charges over the conclusion of the report, but at this point it’s been so highly politicized that it would be impossible to get a conviction on.
Muller half assed the investigation, on top of that corrupt Barr hid all the important findings, and Bitch McConnell swept the whole treason under the rug - that all lead Orange Man to be even bolder with his treason and rise of blatant lawlessness within the Republican Party.
I don’t disagree with what you said but I just wanted to point out how entire republican machinery is responsible for the imminent death of democracy in this country. Not just Muller’s half assed investigation.
If it was really that bad the cia would have him killed. It’s just because he had a good team of lawyers to make sure that when he did anything he did it was either defendable or on someone else so it’s hard to get him.
unshakeable followers
You spelled ignorant morons wrong
When you're a billionaire, you can do whatever the hell you want in Murica.
When you're a billionaire, you can do whatever the hell you want.
Nah, it does depend a bit on the country. Didn't several russian billionaires (aka oligarchs) ... erm.... have accidents last year? So I don't think money helps you a lot in a system like that. It gets them further, no question. But ultimately it didn't matter.
The country's political system didn't kill them. A more powerful billionaire killed them.
Part of it is because there are still looming constitutional questions about whether a president, current or former, can be indicted for his actions during his presidency. I think we've mostly resolved those, though. A substantial and powerful cadre of political thugs is still going to try to sue to throw every conceivable barrier in the way of a reasonable interpretation of the law, but that just takes time to wade through the bullshit.
Another big problem is that Trump captured a huge amount of the judiciary, at all federal levels, by putting cronies into high ranking judicial seats. It's the main thing Republicans have been doing for, like, 50 years. Putting a case in front of any one of those is a landmine, and that minefield has to be carefully navigated, and that also takes time. We're basically done with that part, now.
Almost 50% of the voting public voted for this motherfucker. His approval has dipped sharply since then, but still, a huge portion of the US public is willing to do just about anything to make sure "their guy" wins. They have proven nearly invulnerable to rational argument, emotional argument and any appeal to empathy or compassion. They will lie to get on that jury, and then they will vote for his acquittal if they don't get caught. Voir dire--the process of choosing that jury--is going to be one of the most harrowing things any prosecutor ever has to do. And it has to be done correctly because it's extremely important that once the wheels of justice start turning, that they reach the correct verdict.
Any thinking person knows what that verdict has to be. But there's no guarantee that we'll get it.
And if we don't get it, we see the rule of law start to collapse at all levels. Remember the 1992 riots after the cops that beat Rodney King got acquitted? Imagine a whole country of that. The prosecutors in these cases are thinking about that. And that's why they're being extremely meticulous about every detail of these proceedings, because their errors could cost us a lot more than Trump getting away.
It feels like, while in theory it might be possible to convict a former president, in practice it'll be literally impossible to find a jury who aren't biased in one way or another, because everyone has a strong opinion about the man. I'd bet my life savings that for virtually every potential juror, how they voted in 2020 has a bigger impact on their verdict than any evidence either side could possibly provide.
Well, aside from what others are saying...
Try to picture Trump on the phone with the Proud Boys, giving them explicit instructions or discussing strategy. Even if he did talk to them (which I doubt), surely it'd be his usual "We're going to do great things, great things, we're all great people, we're gonna turn this thing around, it's going to be beautiful!"
When Russia collaborated to help Trump get elected, do you figure they talked on the phone in person? Or emailed back and forth? Motherfucker couldn't make it through a one-page intelligence briefing, I'm not even sure he can write. Surely it was Trump's people working with Putin's people (several levels down in both cases).
You need to prove that Trump personally and intentionally violated the law. It's not enough to show that shady shit was going on around him. And that's hard to prove, since he generally was working at a remove. And this is a guy who's been in and out of courtrooms his entire adult life; surely he has some instinct for what kinds of things to avoid.
Except when he was clearly hear saying he wanted the Georgia officials to find exactly enough votes to win, on a phone call to them.
The two indictments about Jan 6th and the plot to use fake electors offer a detailed look at a conspiracy. This isn't just mob talk about "it would be awesome if this happened" – there is evidence of a coordinated effort to create fake electors and attempt to steal an election. The act of creating fake electors is a crime. The conspiracy to create fake electors is a crime.
All of these things are a crime. The problem is, in America, people who have power are held to a higher standard. Trump will get all sorts of concessions, and slow this down like mad. What he also has is an entire network carrying water for him. Because of Fox News – which was started to avoid another Nixon, he gets to both sides this.
Look into RICO laws, it makes it much easier to convict people of those types of nebulous crimes. They were pretty much invented to take down mob bosses who "never personally did anything illegal."
The GA indictments include RICO charges.
Surely it was Trump’s people working with Putin’s people (several levels down in both cases).
Surely you have information that contradicts the investigations then right?
If you come for the King, you best not miss.
This is what it boils down to. All this time, I kept seeing all the shit he did and kept wondering the same question. But the flurry of indictments over the past little while has answered it: they were biding their time, making sure all their ducks were in a row, so they could all collectively take one giant, perfect, swing for the fences. We can only hope they don't miss.
It has been a taboo to go after previous politicians, so all prosecutors are trying their best to ensure that they've followed every procedure to the letter, which has taken a while.
We are also dealing with a person with a long history of doing whatever he can to stretch out court cases.
It's a good question - all Constitutional scholars agree he has violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and is therefore ineligible to hold any political office (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/donald-trump-constitutionally-prohibited-presidency/675048/) but does America have the collective strength to admit it?
Trump has avoided legal trouble so far because there hasn't been enough evidence to guarantee charges would stick. With the latest few indictments, he either basically admitted to the charges or other new evidence came to light. It's taken so long because the prosecutors are making sure they built absolutely bulletproof cases, and because the nature of the trials (first time a former president has been charged), and because trump's lawyers are trying to delay as much as possible. It's basically a huge mess, but the general sentiment is that trump is screwed... Eventually.
Because current US politics and justice system are a sham that only serves the rich.
How come there are still people who get the death penalty but later get found to be innocent, while when it comes to an ex-politician, they gotta drag the process out for years and years to find every single detail?
Not only that but we say corporations are people, yet when they are found to have knowingly caused actual human death, we punish them by making them pay a small fraction of the profits they earned through those same actions. Fuck capitalism.
If they arrest him, there is a major concern of right-wing terrorism.
Police departments don't want that to happen because they'll have to arrest their own.
Government departments will also start to point fingers at one another, as loyal maga fucks deep inside places may refuse to act or do their job.
The legal way is the most non-violent way to handle this, even if it does drag on and on.
I know this may be pedantic, but he was “arrested” the same day he was arraigned for the first three indictments (he will surrender later this week for the fourth one in Georgia). He just wasn’t handcuffed and isn’t being detained while he awaits trial. He was also booked at the courthouse instead of the police station.
I mean, I would never talk directly to them. And you would never talk directly to them. But neither one of us would go on the record on video saying we could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody.
There have been plenty of cases where he's done some incredibly stupid things that he could easily have gotten away with simply by playing along. Hell look at the documents, he could have literally just made photocopies of them said my bad and It would never have even hit the press.
I think the legal system is just moving as slowly and carefully as possible to make sure he can't lawyer his way out of these things.
I don't think Trump will spend a day in prison. Simply because they don't want to set a precedent, that a u.s. president can go to jail.
Worst that might happen, is that he's barred from running again.
Wouldn’t that be a good precedent? Meaning that no one, no matter the position or how rich he is is above the law.
It's as simple as this: -Politician does something illegal -Politician is caught -Politician tells their party members they didn't do -Party members believe politician because they're of the same party -Politician now has millions of supporters vouching for them not to get convicted -Politician doesn't get convicted
It's happened before, it's happening now, it'll happen again.
The only good thing about trump is that I've learned a lot about how gov't, justice, and red states are. Good is probably the wrong world.
Law is very different for rich people.
Have faith. Coming from a country that jails our ex prime minister, I’ll say that it takes quite a lot of time.
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