Every Day, Trump Writes the Book

The circus of litigation triggered by the Trump Extended Family crime syndicate has referenced the right to a speedy trial in multiple contexts. When indictments were first issued in the documents case in Florida, questions about the timing of the actual trial referencing "speedy trials" arose because that District operates under so-called "rocket docket" rules which require the assigned judge to set an initial trial date no later than five months from the date of indictment. Even that goal comes with a GIANT caveat because while initial trial dates can be SET, they are immediately subjected to litigation which routinely pushes ACTUAL start dates well off into the future. However, the intent is to err on the side of inertia and get the parties to the litigation MOVING towards trial.

The primary motivation for rules attempting to accelerate trial activity is to ensure a defendant accused but not convicted doesn't sit in limbo without the chance for exoneration. Obviously, for defendants jailed prior to trial, the goal of ensuring a speedy trial is aimed at minimizing the amount of time a potentially innocent defendant is incarcerated. In other words, the primary motivation involves the rights of the ACCUSED.

However, the same speedy trial goals also serve the interests of any potential victims of the defendant (civil or criminal) and the larger public. If someone is accused of a crime and is truly "guilty", then those wronged have an interest in seeing whatever punishment is assigned meted out as quickly as possible, both as a response to the actual felon's actions and as notice to the larger public that such actions by others will also presumably be investigated, indicted, convicted and punished appropriately.

Of course, that's the historical thinking on speedy trials and justice in the real world.

In the parallel universe occupied by the Trump Extended Crime Family, platitudes about fair and speedy trials promoting justice and fairness have nothing in common with his criminal interests. In Trump-World, there is ZERO interest in a speedy trial in any of the pending cases. Any possible conviction or plea deal of any co-defendants in these cases PRIOR to the election of 2024 decreases his chances of winning the Republican primary and winning the Presidency and the ability to escape the federal charges and pressure forces in Georgia to drop state charges. It is in Trump's personal interest to delay EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of EVERY ONE of these cases against any of the defendants.

In Trump world, there is ZERO interest in a fair trial, for him and for any of his co-defendants. That is true to such an extent that the DOJ has identified situations where the facts at its disposal confirm there are parties in Trump's sphere who have conflicting legal interests who SHARE a counsel paid for by Trump who has directed them to do X when it is absolutely in their individual interest to do Y instead. The additional indictments brought against some of Trump's staff in Mar-a-Lago arose after the DOJ identified perjury on the part of Yuscil Taveras who was being represented by lawyer Stanley Woodward who was also representing Walt Nauta who was indicted up front with the rest. The physical evidence held by the government confirmed Taveras lied to investigators previously and instead provided testimony matching the other defendants.

In addressing this situation with the parties being investigated and their counsel, the DOJ was told by counsel that Taveras was sticking with his story. The DOJ knew at that point that any change in course by Taveras to tell the truth and mitigate his individual circumstances would further incriminate Trump, Nauta and others and thus his lawyer Woodward had a conflict of interest in representing clients with diverging legal interests.

THIS issue drove the filing Jack Smith attempted to file privately with Aileen Cannon's court -- an attempt to ensure this potential conflict of interest of the defendant's counsel was appropriate addressed to avoid the issue coming up later and triggering delays at a more critical phase of the trial and claims of defective counsel which would waste more of the DOJ's time (and the interests of We The People).

Of course, Cannon again demonstrated her lack of familiarity with criminal procedures and basic fairness by a) denying the private submission of the motion, b) instead requiring it be publicly addressed and c) further couching complaints from the defendants' counsel as her own questions about why information about defendants in a case now in HER court in Florida were being supplemented with information gleaned from grand jury activity in Washington DC.

That of course required Jack Smith to RESPOND to her in a public filing, a filing that further outlined her incompetence and lack of suitability to sit on any bench. His response not only explicitly outlined the conflict of interest of Stanley Woodward but disclosed the underlying fact that Taveras has now changed his testimony after finally getting new counsel and his new testimony further implicates Trump and Nauta on the obstruction of justice charges. Woodward is now attempting to claim that Taveras' testimony must now be banished from use in the trial, which of course would eliminate evidence supporting conviction of his clients.

Of course, Smith also had to explain to Cannon in writing that additional facts came from the Washington DC grand jury because Taveras perjured himself in front of that grand jury. That grand jury was hearing evidence in this case because the investigation STARTED in Washington, DC because that's where the document crimes BEGAN, by Trump removing the documents from the White House. He also had to instruct Cannon that while federal prosecutors must pick a venue to file an indictment that is appropriate for the location where a crime was committed, grand juries and prosecutors are free to consider evidence regardless of any geographic restriction.

We are only two months into this farce but it is clear Trump is creating a new book of criminal defense strategy that reflects everything he learned over his life from Fred Trump and Roy Cohn -- Screw your Employees/Contractors, Sue Everyone, Double Down on All Accusations, Settle Privately and Flood the Zone With **** -- and puts it on steroids. Atop the new strategy appear to be these keys:

1. paralyze the system by committing as many crimes in as many jurisdictions as possible
2. never pay your legal bills, ensuring you continue to attract only the most incompetent defense counsel possible
3. if you're going to steal top-secret documents, mix them in with tens of thousands of pages of other documents so that prior to trial, you can claim the need to read ALL of them before a trial can start
4. run a cult on the side and soak it for cash continually by operating a political action committee - it takes gobs of money to continue leading the lifestyle that attracts the next round of legal loser lawyers to replace the current crop as they quit because you're not paying them or they become indicted for being your prior lawyer
5. flood each judge's docket with bogus motions written at an eighth grade reading level with a sixth grader's comprehension of criminal law
6. ensure your counsel spends more time on TV than preparing for court to claim as many reasons for delay
7. if you ever get the chance, appoint a potted plant to a judgeship in your new hometown district where you plan on committing some of your crimes -- you could win the docket lottery and have a potted plant that owes you assigned to your case

While Trump continues writing his book on thwarting justice, consider the REAL impact on justice these cases are having across the country. Think of the MONTHS of prosecutor time occupied by these charges that could have been focused on other pressing criminal issues facing the country. That is why these charges ARE now the most important issue facing these courts and the country. This sustained, organized plot to reject the results from the process lying at the core of a democracy is the most important case. If these defendants escape justice for this crime, the words behind our Constitution mean nothing and democracy will vanish under the surface along with the rule of law.

WTH

Would-Be Bio: Vivek Ramaswamy

In what may be the first of a series of brief biographies and commentaries on the various people that would like to become the next President of the United States, it's worth starting with Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy is only attracting about seven percent support rate among Republicans as of August 21, 2023 so clearly there's room for the discriminating Republican primary voter to learn more about him. The short synopsis is he's a mix of the most defining characteristics of Donald Trump and Ron Desantis.

And that is not a good thing, for Republicans or America in general.

Ramaswamy is making news as of late for doing what any political candidate failing to break a five percent support rate is desperate to do... Get in the news -- by saying anything. ANYTHING. In particular, an article in The Atlantic entitled VIVEK RAMASWAMY’S TRUTH included this quote about September 11, 2001:

I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers. Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to.

He's not raising questions about whether America might have been MORE aware of the threat than we thought and had positioned air marshals on the flights who failed to act then squelched THAT news in embarrassment. He's re-raising the far right lunatic fringe theory that the terrorist attacks were the result of American plots hatched within the government. With the leader of the Republican candidates dominating the field in both voter support and indictments by wide margins, apparently Ramaswamy thinks the "9/11 inside job" conspiracy fringe is under-exploited by the other candidates and provides an opening for him to pass seven percent.

In another desperate appearance on Fox News on August 18, 2023 covered by The Hill, Ramaswamy tried to provide a sound byte explaining his modus operandi for improving the efficiency of government.

What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do to the administrative state. Take out the 75 percent of the dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.

So who is the demographic seeking out a candidate spouting this type of sound byte? The same demographic that

• complain about long waits for passports
• complain about long waits to get a tax question answered by the IRS
• complain about constant airport delays amid controller staffing shortages
• wonder where the fresh water and food are at after their home gets destroyed in a flood
• expect a bailout when their home or business is destroyed for the third time by a hurricane or flood
• don't understand the insanity of overpaying for a company then laying off half the workforce

If one gives Ramaswamy the benefit of the doubt that he is cynically sucking up to Elon Musk for cash to keep his 4% campaign alive, this kind of comment could be written off. However, Ramaswamy is worth over nine hundred million dollars and doesn't need a billionaire to cover his private jet flights and stays at the Ritz between visits to state fairs and hog auctions in Iowa ("God bless the child that's got his own..."). More importantly, there are many other aspects to his biography that would indicate Ramaswamy is actually likely to believe what he says and in fact knows NOTHING about improving the operational efficiency of anything, much less a trillion dollar operation whose purse is controlled by two warring political factions.

Vivek Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard as an undergrad in 2007. He earned a law degree from Yale in 2013 but between 2007 and 2013 he developed a net worth of over $15 million dollars working at hedge fund QVT Financial. Hmmmm. He stayed employed at a hedge fund while going to law school at Yale?

One of his biggest business efforts involves a firm called Roivant which operates multiple subsidiaries (all with names of the form ____vant) focused on drug development in different areas. One was Axovant Sciences, which was trying to develop a drug for Alzheimer's. The firm purchased the patent for the drug they were going to develop and test from GlaxoSmithKline for $5 million dollars in 2014. In 2015, the firm raised $360 million from venture capitalists. He took Axovant public later in 2015, raising an additional $315 million dollars in the IPO, a share price that implied a total market valuation of over $3 billion. Ramaswamy immediately cashed out $37 million dollars that same year. By 2017, the company announced the drug had failed its first clinical trials and the stock plummeted in value by 75% and continued dropping to $0.13/share in 2020, at which point the firm changed its name to Sio Gene Therapies and ticker symbol SIOX which is still only trading at $0.38/share.

In 2017, SoftBank invested over $1.1 BILLION dollars in the parent firm Roivant and within 2 years, Roivant sold off the different subsidiaries to another firm, netting Ramaswamy another $175 million. Keep in mind SoftBank has not been noted for making many smart investments. Softbank also invested $10 billion into WeWork, a firm that recently announced a 40:1 reverse stock split in order to get its stock price up from the current $0.13 (yes, 13 CENTS) that would trigger a de-listing from the NYSE.

How is that parent company Roivant doing since selling off its first litter of startup subsidiaries? As part of a prearranged deal, Roivant merged with a special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC") to go public on December 6, 2020 (NASDAQ symbol ROIV) with an initial share price of $10.50. Roivant currently trades at $10.87, up nearly one dollar from its $9.92 IPO price and down from its peak of $11.96 on 12/19/2021. Ramaswamy still owns a 7% share in the parent entity Roivant which continues forming new "seed" companies aimed at specific diseases or merging with other companies. Despite all of these deals, Roivant has never been profitable.

He is also currently being sued by two former employees of his firm Strive Asset Management who claim he and his co-founder fired them because they raised sexual harassment claims about an executive at the firm and they were pressured into using sales materials that promised specific future returns and allowed unregistered employees to sell securities -- both securities violations.

While his undergraduate work at Harvard involved biology, it appears his career to date has involved neither providing scientific insight / guidance to these pharmaceutical startups nor providing ongoing daily operations guidance to these pharmaceutical startups. Instead, his college internship gig and later employment at a hedge fund seem to indicate he has focused on exploiting the unique aspects of drug R&D that involve a) astronomical financial investments, b) very high payoffs for winners, c) phenomenally low success rates. These dynamics create an environment where hope springs eternal for the next wonder drug and large amounts of money have to be raised to buy a ticket in a scientific lottery. He seems to excel at being in the room where millions of dollars are transferred as these lotto tickets are being purchased, having ownership for a brief period then cashing out before the downside of the risk drops evaluations or actual failed results bring the venture crashing to the ground.

It is possible that playing such a role provides a valuable service within big pharma by helping to eliminate the friction that slows the flow of money into legitimate efforts to develop drugs that could be highly beneficial and/or profitable. It is also possible he is purely interested in exacting a toll from the process while taking none of the risks and is thus a net drain on an already cumbersome scientific and financial processes. It is absolutely clear from the business model he is leveraging that he has ZERO expertise at actually improving the long-term operations and efficiency of a needed organization. More than likely, he's a successful GAMBLER trading on his own account but he is not a BUILDER of anything.

The constant "deal making" involved with the Roivant business model also sounds disturbingly similar to Worldcom in the 1990s -- constantly merging and acquiring to generate buzz about the next big thing while distracting investors from the fact that the business model doesn't appear to be working or terribly efficient. So maybe Ramaswamy does know something about laying off employees. All of his wealth seems to have stemmed from cashing out early enough in hype cycles that he created.

So let's summarize...

business career primarily based upon hype and timing

suspected unethical / illegal financial dealings

possible ignoring of sexual misconduct in the workplace

willing to say anything to the smallest fringe regardless of its relation to reality

Sounds like a 90/10 mix of Trump and DeSantis.

WTH

What's Brewing in Coffee County?

More criminal legal trouble for Donald Trump and his consortium of constitutional criminals.

CNN published a story on August 13, 2023 linked here with the following facts:

• Missey Hampton, the top election official in Coffee County, made a statement in an election board meeting after the election that Dominion voting machines could be manipulated, attracting interest from the Trump team.
• In early December, Hampton delayed Georgia's certification of its electoral votes due to her alleged concerns.
• The claims involving Coffee County and their machines were discussed in an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020 with Trump present.
• Between December 18 and January 1, Hampton wrote a letter inviting Trump officials to come to Coffee County for investigations.
• A copy of the Hampton letter was shared by Katherine Friess -- an attorney working for Guiliani, Powell and outside contractors hired specifically to look at Coffee County -- with Bernard Kerik who was roaming the country under Giuliani's direction looking for claims of voting fraud that could be used to bolster Trump's case.
• Hampton and fellow county election official Cathy Latham then granted access to election facilities and actual voting machines for Trump's team.
• The outside team actually arrived in Coffee County on January 7, 2021, AFTER the Capital riot.

All of these events are backed up with text messages between the parties, surveillance video in the facilities and the actual letter from Hampton. An earlier CNN story from April of 2023 here cited additional text messages between Jim Penrose, a lawyer working under Sidney Powell, to Doug Logan, CEO of the outside contractor firm Cyber Ninjas that was hired to analyze voting machine security in multiple states. Their texts itemized numerous opportunities they identified for using the illegally extracted voting machine data:

• using them to bolster the bogus Presidential election fraud claims to help Trump
• using them to cast doubt on the integrity of an even more recent runoff election between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue
• holding the data for some future strategic use

Note, Cyber Ninjas didn't FIND any evidence of incorrect vote tabulations during the election or after. The only piece of information they had that could be damaging was the fact that they had extracted voting data from the machines. But that was solely due to their own criminal actions and equally criminal cooperation from voting officials friendly to the Trump cause.

The sheer criminality is staggering. The breach of the data in the Coffee County voting machines took place THE DAY AFTER the Capital riot. Normally, one would assume anyone with a brain -- if not a moral fiber in their being -- would lay low on additional criminal activity after watching a disaster like that on January 6 take place. Ixne on the political ottenre, right? Team Trump still appeared to be doubling down.

The sheer cynicism is staggering as well. Generate a bunch of fear and doubt about election integrity once it becomes clear you are going to lose. When you DO actually lose, criminally conspire with local officials in your OWN PARTY to tamper with machines that were operated securely during the election and generated accurate results. As a result of your tampering, you might be able to manufacture some votes in a Republican dominated county no one would question to alter a larger statewide vote and possibly turn a national election. You might decide to wait and use the confusion resulting over news of a breach to nullify another close vote in the state that didn't go your way. Or you might choose to sit on the information, lie in wait in the grass for some future mother of all dirty tricks. And if news of your tampering gets out, then it "proves" you were right about the machines being insecure.

I seriously think every person involved in this deserves a life sentence at minimum. In the overall history of America, these crimes stand at the top in their damage to the country.

In the mean time, every county election official in the country needs to be provided formal re-training that emphasizes that ANYONE arriving in their office requesting physical or network access to voting machines on ANY day of the week better come with a metric ton of warrants and subpoenas and a signed letter from the Governor. Any legitimate expert in the cyber security field should also know that. Any claimed cyber security expert that would participate in an exercise like this is a criminal.

WTH

Despair Posters and the American Justice System

Everyone remembers those Successories posters that became popular in the 1980s. You've seen them. They featured beautiful scenes of nature or architectural marvels along with a short theme in ALL CAPS with some vapid, mindless lesson about management or personal growth in small print below. For a while, they were popular as workplace gifts for situations where you had to get something but couldn't be too controversial. Successories were soon followed by a brilliant series of satire posters marketed by Despair, which featured the same over-the-top beautiful photographs of nature but instead lampooned the hypocrisy, ineptitude and sheer idiocy of Corporate America.

On of the best Despair posters is "MISTAKES -- It could be that the only purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others." The photo in the poster? A shot of an ocean-going container ship with the stern sticking out of the water and the bow plunged under the water, nowhere to be seen.

Well, that theme not only applies to business but to justice as well. The following things all happened the same day, August 11, 2023, in what we still call the American justice system:

• Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of existing Hunter Biden prosecutor David Weiss as special prosecutor in the Hunter Biden case, after a prior plea agreement between the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden was questioned by the judge in the case, triggering a collapse of the plea deal and howls of favoritism from Republicans.
• Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan heard motions from Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and Trump's attorneys regarding terms of a protective order around evidence the government would share with Trump in order for his lawyers to prepare his defense and ruled that the protective order should be limited only to SENSITIVE documents, not the entire discovery trove.
• Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked the bail of Sam Bankman-Fried and sent him IMMEDIATELY to jail in Manhattan, citing at least two cases of attempted witness tampering after Bankman-Fried leaked documents to the New York Times he thought would be disparaging to his ex-girlfriend who is set to testify against him. Instead of staying at his parents' plush home on the grounds of Stanford University, he will instead sit in jail until his trial begins October 2, 2023.

Like everything happening in the judicial system today, none of these seem like a pure win for actual justice but implications do emerge which could be encouraging.

What will appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case accomplish? Especially when the special prosecutor appointed is the CURRENT prosecutor who has already generated criticism for cutting a plea deal with Hunter Biden in the first place? The short answer would seem to be "not much." Numerous witnesses brought forth by James Comer and Jim Jordan in the House Republican show trial charade desperately trying to find Hunter Biden malfeasance that can be linked to President Joe Biden have all raised their right hand and explicitly said they never saw Joe Biden speak about any business matters Hunter Biden might have been working and had no knowledge of any deal Hunter Biden may have executed that benefited Joe Biden. There is zero doubt of any of the following facts:

• Hunter Biden was given business positions BECAUSE his last name matched that of an active or former Vice President
• Hunter Biden had zero moral compass to avoid situtations where he could be accused of trading on his father's name
• Hunter Biden repeatedly failed to pay taxes in a timely manner as an active criminal goal or out of coked-out ineptitude
• Hunter Biden was charged with possession of a gun while an unlawful user of drugs - a federal crime

But there are twists. Critics who thought the terms of the plea deal were too lenient on the tax issues fail to recognize the reality that jail terms are exceedingly rare and short in duration for most tax violations, even those involving flat-out failure to file. The IRS just wants its money in most cases. Having tax charges filed as misdemeanor charges is routine. What WASN'T routine about the Hunter Biden plea deal was the term that granted immunity from prosecution of any other tax-related crimes. It isn't clear WHO inserted that clause in the proposed deal. It also isn't clear if that immunity only involved other tax issues IN THE SAME time period or over some wider period of time dating farther back. Given Hunter Biden's well-documented drug and mental health issues, it appears this deal was primarily negotiated as an issue involving someone who was deemed "incompetent" due to extreme drug use -- a condition with which MANY American families are tragically familiar over the past twenty years of the opioid "epidemic."

In that light, providing immunity for other tax crimes during the same period as the alleged offenses makes sense for ALL involved. It reflects the fact that the IRS likely has a clear enough picture of his ACTUAL income during the period to know they now will have collected what was owed to them. If the IRS is confortable they got their pound of (tax) flesh, then ensuring the entire situation isn't used in the future as a political football to accuse Hunter Biden of MORE tax issues avoids a waste of DOJ resources. It obviously makes sense to Hunter Biden himself. If the tax immunity extended BACKWARD in time, then the origin of that plea term SHOULD be investigated for possible foul play. There's no reason to surrender the right to prosecute older crimes still within any applicable statute of limitations. If it is found there ARE earlier tax crimes AND someone KNEW about those crimes AND thus lobbied to add that immunity grant, that requires investigation and removal of any parties who participated.

The twists with the creation of a special prosecutor for Hunter Biden involving tax/financial issues and weapons charges? First, Hunter Biden isn't the only close family member of a prominent Presidential player (past or present) tied to questionable business dealings. Ivanka Trump gained lucrative trademark rights in China AFTER Donald Trump became President. Jared Kushner -- Ivanka's husband and actual Trump Administration staff member -- closed financing deals worth BILLIONS that prevented financial collapse of his business empire while a taxpayer-paid member of Trump's official policy making staff. Kushner made last minute trips to Saudi Arabia AFTER November 2020 and only three months after Trump left office, Kushner closed a deal to manage $2 billion dollars in assets for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund which will pay him $25 million per year in management fees. TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. PER YEAR. For advice from Jared Kushner, whose inexperience and ineptitude were cited by the management team of the soveriegn wealth fund, whose recommendation to AVOID the deal was ignored by the Crown Prince.

The other twist involves the gun charge. Biden was charged under US Code Title 18, Section 922(g)(3) which states:

(g)It shall be unlawful for any person—- (3)who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802));

That language in that statute has been generating debate within the federal court system for years and in fact resulted in a Supreme Court decision on June 22, 2022 in the Bruen case. In an opinion written by Clarence Thomas, the court ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person's right to carry a weapon for self-defense outside the home, even if the person is a felon.

Given that recent judicial ruling, it seems likely the Justice Department decided the charge might get tossed over overturned at some point anyway and as long as the target participated in a "diversionary program", didn't merit more prosecutorial time being spent. Any continued attempt by Republicans to make political hay out of a Biden escaping a weapons charge could and should backfire on them spectacularly by simply pointing out the entire charge was ruled an offense to their precious Second Amendment by their patron saint of judicial corruption, Clarence Thomas.

The ruling by Judge Chutkan on restrictions regarding discovery documents shared with Trump's defense team seems disappointing for anti-Trump followers of the process. It seems patently obvious that Trump is unable to hold his tongue on ANY topic under any circumstance, much less make distinctions between "sensitive" information protected by the final order versus "regular" information. The government has a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant from making public threats (overt or more subliminal) to those who might cave under pressure and change their testimony or "forget" events. On the other hand, the events of January 6 do not involve national security secrets... only the security of our democracy... a distinction that seems utterly bizarre to make in any prior era of American history.

A more careful review of the judge's ruling makes any interpretation of her decision as a Trump win less appropriate. While refusing to enforce a protective order against the ENTIRE discovery collection of documents to be provided to Trump, she stated "sensitive" documents would remain under protection and -- more importantly -- gave sole discretion of determining "sensitivity" to the prosecutors. This makes more work for Jack Smith's team to sift through the documents before handing them over but ultimately, it leaves Jack Smith in the driver's seat on the larger issue.

Judge Chutkan made two key comments in court as she released her formal ruling. First, she re-iterated that any disclosure of "sensitive" materials creates too great a risk for intimidation of witnesses or polluting the jury pool. In nearly the same breath, she reminded Trump's lawyers (Trump himself did not attend the hearing) that he must continue to abide by the terms of his release at arraignment which include not intimidating witnesses or interfering with the administration of justice. She also stated she will not allow politics to play any part in her decisions throughout the case. On one hand, that's a note to the prosecution that worries about whether Trump might leak information as part of campaign tactics itself will not act as a a priori filter on her decisions. At the same time, it is a direct notice to Trump's team that his campaign schedule will have ZERO influence on her scheduling of actions within the case -- not only the trial itself but all of the mindless motions Trump's team will file in the days to come.

Judge Chutkan's warning to Trump's legal team about witness tampering and jury pool manipulation was serendipitously reinforced by events in the unrelated federal criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried. As another example of America's two-tiered justice system where the rich and powerful gain bail and temporary freedom while awaiting trial, Bankman-Fried was subject to home confinement at his parent's plush home on the grounds of Stanford University while awaiting his criminal trial for financial fraud regarding FTX. Bankman-Fried leaked private correspondence of his ex-girlfriend and ex-partner Caroline Ellison to the New York Times, expecting it to be used in a background story that would impair her credibility. Regardless of the actual impact of the final article, Judge Kaplan saw the information on how Bankman-Fried provided the information and revoked his bail and sent Bankman-Fried IMMEDIATELY to jail in Manhattan where he will remain until his trial starts on October 3, 2023.

Bankman-Fried's plight is something Donald Trump and his lawyers should spend some serious time contemplating. Judge Chutkan is no Aileen Cannon. She has years of experience as a defense attorney, knows the rules of evidence and criminal procedures inside and out from both a defense and prosecution perspective and has already warned Trump and his team TWICE of the consequences from any behavior that could be construed as witness intimidation or jury tampering. Concerns about witness intimidation were tragically heightened when a Utah man was shot as the FBI attempted to serve a warrant on him after he posted specific threats against Biden on August 7 after learning Biden was coming to Utah for a political event. He had previously posted threats at least back to January 2023 against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland, Latetia James, Alvin Bragg, Barack Obama and others, many related to Trump cases. The idea that there are Trump supporters willing to kill and willing to die is REALITY and these judges have a immediate example to reference.

Is Trump smart enough to learn from anyone else's mistakes? In "seven seven" years, he has failed to learn from a single mistake of his own -- some costing him billions -- so the odds of him having the intelligence to learn from anyone else's mistakes seem remote. It would be ironic (and completely out of character) if Trump suddenly learns the value of a speedy trial after violating the judge's order and landing in jail awaiting a trial his team has successfully pushed out in time. The real question is.... Is anyone else learning anything from these mistakes?

WTH

A Penance for Pence

Since the August 1, 2023 criminal indictment of Donald Trump in the case of the January 6 conspiracy, former Vice President Mike Pence seems to have suddenly located his conscience and has begun using much more explicit language in public to describe the crimes he was asked to commit by Trump and his cabal of crackpot outside counsel. On August 2, Pence made the following comments at a campaign event in Indiana:

January 6 was a tragic day and I have spoken about it and written about it extensively. I have nothing to hide. By God's grace, I believe we did our duty that day, fulfilled the oath that I had taken to the Constitution and to the American people. The Constitution is quite clear about what the role of the Vice President is in the counting of electoral votes. It essentially says the Vice President presides over a joint session of Congress where the electoral votes that are certified by the legislatures of the states shall be opened and shall be counted and irrespective of the indictment, I want the American people to know that I had no right to overturn the election and that on that day, President Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution but I chose the Constitution and I always will.

I really do believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States. And anyone that asks anyone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States again. I've been very forthright about this issue and I will continue to be.

Now with regard to the substance of the indictment, I hoped it wouldn't come to this. I had hoped that this issue and the judgement on the Presidents actions that day would be left to the American people. But now it's been brought in a criminal indictment and I can't assess whether the government has the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what they assert in the indictment and the President's entitled to a presumption of innocence. For my part, I want people to know that I had no right to overturn the election and what the President maintained that day and frankly has said over and over again the last two and a half years is completely false and it's contrary to our Constitution and what the laws of this country provide.

What Pence DIDN'T speak or write about "at length" prior this indictment was the simple fact that he had WRITTEN communication sent to him by John Eastman stating the act he was being requested to perform was a "minor violation" of the Electoral College Act but he was being urged to do it anyway and that Trump had seen that same communique and still urged that final call to Pence. And that was the call at 11:40pm EST well after the riot and after it was known at least one person died in the riot.

What Pence DIDN'T speak or write about "at length" prior to this indictment was the conversation he had with Trump on the evening of January 5 BEFORE the riot in which Trump again attempted to get Pence to agree to reject the certification per their plan. Pence refused and Trump responded by telling Pence he was "too honest." This conversation confirmed that Trump knew his requested action was NOT HONEST, confirming Trump understood the criminality of the plan and Trump's intent to commit the crime anyway.

Had Pence provided that information to the House impeachment team, that might have been enough to convict Trump in the Senate and ensure he never had a chance to regain the Presidency, immunize himself in perpetuity with a pardon then lay waste to the republic.

Had Pence provided that information to the House Select Committee on January 6, that could have shaved months off that exercise and accelerated actual criminal indictments by the Department of Justice and this issue might have been adjudicated eighteen months ago.

Instead, Pence kept these two facts out of the public sphere as long as possible. Why? Pence was hoping other factors would lead to an implosion of Trump's 2024 prospects WITHOUT Pence's damaging information being seen as playing any role. Pence viewed this as vital for Pence's own political prospects for the Republican nomination by avoiding anything that would offend the MAGA cult. Only when it became apparent that Trump would face indictment and that Pence's grand jury testimony would be a linchpin in the prosecution of Trump did Pence decide to put all of his cards on the table.

How crass is Pence's calculation? After the indictment, he is selling T-shirts emblazoned "Too Honest" online as a fundraiser. Prior to these facts being published in the indictment, Pence would have never attempted to fund raise off that fact -- it would offend the MAGA cult. It still will but now that the information is out there, Pence is hoping to rake in dollars from more normal Republicans -- if any such voters still actually exist.

Pence did ONE great thing on January 6, 2021 for which all Americans should be grateful. He allowed the electoral college certification to resume after an disruption caused by an insurrectionist riot promoted online days in advance by Trump. After the crimes of January 6, the constitutional measures available to Congress attempted to function to "quarantine" the virus and remove it from the body politic. As part of that second impeachment process and later House investigations, Pence had multiple opportunities to communicate information that would allow those processes to properly address the crimes that came to fruition on January 6 and do what was needed to identify the offenders and appropriately punish them to ensure it could never reoccur. At every one of those opportunities, Pence weighed the pros/cons of his personal political goals versus the needs of the country and opted to keep his political future protected at the expense of the country.

In the church of American democracy, Pence's reluctance to share the key facts only he could provide are not mere venial sins. These are mortal sins. Knowing how this information could have expedited justice for the country, they are equally treasonous to Trump's crimes.

Here's a great idea for Pence's penance for his sins…

Mike Pence should win the nomination of the Republican Party for President in 2024 and burnish his historical resume by becoming the LAST Presidential candidate of the Republican Party in history as it goes down in flames within him at the ballot box.

WTH

A Different Indictment - United States v Republican Party

I am hopefully only one of MILLIONS of Americans who have spent the time to read the indictment released by Jack Smith in the case of United States v Donald Trump filed on August 1, 2023. My first commentary on the indictment Trump Indictment #3: Themes and Takeaways published yesterday included this point:

In reality, "Republican" today is something else entirely, on a different dimension than traditional "left / right" dynamics. Unfortunately, our political processes at the federal and state level have been corrupted by rules which protect a two-party scheme. Those rules assume the two parties were roughly equal in power and roughly balanced in their policies with the average being BETWEEN them. The policies coming out of that altered dimension of the current Republican base bear no resemblance to anything experienced in America in its entire history and, if allowed to take root, may literally bring about the end of that history as we currently know it.

After pondering this indictment and the larger absurdity of the United States of America being put into the very position of an indictment of a former President triggering untold chaos in our democracy, it becomes very clear NO SINGLE PERSON can do this much damage. The roots of all of the crimes leading up to the January 6, 2021 riot at the United States Capital are far deeper and wider than five or ten fringe losers hanging around a corrupt President.

The Republican Party itself has metastasized into a cancer throughout America, distorting its political, social and moral senses and pursuing all means necessary and available to enhance the rights of the extremely (obscenely) wealthy while literally spitting on any and all mechanisms in a civil democratic society intended to provide equity and fairness to average citizens. The Republican Party itself was an unindicted co-conspirator in the January 6 coup attempt and has been mentally conditioning its members for that event for over fifty years. A review of its actions and key leaders over that period reflects a trend of continuous, intensifying contempt for the rule of law, individual rights and true patriotism.

Want a history lesson?

1968 -- Richard Nixon ran for President promising a "secret plan" to end the unpopular war in Vietnam. In reality, he was instructing campaign aide H.R. Haldeman to work with South Vietnamese contacts to RESIST peace negotiations being promoted by President Johnson. TREASON

1969 -- Instead of a secret plan to END the war in Vietnam, Nixon escalated the war beginning immediately after inauguration via Operation Menu, a covert bombing of Cambodia plan lasting from March 1969 to May 1970. History subsequently found part of the goal of the campaign was to spook North Vietnam into thinking Nixon was crazy to encourage a larger settlement. SEPARATION OF POWERS

1970 -- Four days of protests by hundreds of students at Kent State University in Ohio ended after National Guard troops deployed to the campus by Republican Governor Jim Rhodes opened fire on the crowd, killing four and wounding nine others. The protests were triggered by Nixon announcing more aggressive ground force attacks in Cambodia in April of 1970. The prior fourteen months of bombing was not yet known by most of the American public. CIVIL RIGHTS

1972 -- Richard Nixon, running high in the polls but paranoid of any potential humiliation of losing, approved illegal break-ins at the Watergate Hotel based headquarters of the Democratic National Committee to plant listening devices, etc. to collect intelligence on the Democratic campaign. ELECTION INTERFERENCE

1974 -- Investigations of the Watergate break-ins identify the existence of two and a half YEARS of tape recordings in the Oval Office describing nearly every detail of the planning of the initial crime and subsequent attempts to block its discovery. Every detail except eighteen mysteriously missing minutes. Discovery of the documentation of the planning and destruction of crucial segments triggered demands for Nixon's resignation, which came on August 9, 1974. CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

1974 -- Gerald Ford issued a full pardon to Richard Nixon. The key language? Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974. That wasn't just a pardon for the specific, still incompletely understood crimes of Watergate. That was a pardon of ANY crimes he might have committed during his entire term. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

1980 -- Ronald Reagan's campaign leadership negotiated with Iran to RETAIN American hostages to make President Carter look weak and to avoid a possible "October Surprise." TREASON

1986 -- Ronald Reagan and the CIA explicitly ignored Congressional bans on funding for Contra militants in Nicaragua by hatching a scheme that sold weapons to Iran, violating other US law, then delivering the cash proceeds directly to Contra forces outside Congressional supervision. TREASON. SEPARATION OF POWERS.

1988 -- George H.W. Bush hired a Presidential campaign staff headed by 1970s Nixon acolyte Lee Atwater with support from figures such as Paul Manafort and Roger Stone and proceeded to run a notoriously dirty campaign against his primary opponents and the eventual Democratic candidate. Among the lowlights, confirmation from reporter Robert Novak that Atwater asked him to spread rumors that Michael Dukakis' wife had mental health issues.

1994 -- Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist launch the "K Street Project" as a means for extracting campaign contributions from large corporations on a barely disguised "pay to play" basis and seeding outgoing Republican politicians and staffers into top positions at lobbyist firms and corporations in general. CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY. ELECTION FRAUD

1995 -- Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House and immediately adopts a scandal-driven agenda, ultimately resulting in the Ken Starr investigation into Whitewater which later snowballed into a sexual scandal that triggered the impeachment of President Clinton. Gingrich led his House peers to believe impeachment would preserve control of the House in the 1998 elections. In fact, Republicans lost the House and Gingrich decided to resign his seat at the beginning of 1999. Within months, all of the following became known about Gingrich: He cheated on his first wife in 1974 with a volunteer staffer on his Congressional campaign. He eventually divorced wife #1 in 1980 by notifying her a day after surgery for uterine cancer. He remarried in 1981 and was cheating on wife #2 during the impeachment of Clinton with a 30-year old House staffer. After leaving office in 1999, he divorced wife #2 then married mistress #2. SEXUAL HYPOCRISY

1995 -- Newt Gingrich adopted recurring fiscal terrorism as a core legislative tactic by halting negotiations over spending on education, health and environmental protections leading to two short government shutdowns in November 1995 and between December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996. LEGISLATIVE EXTORTION

2000 -- GW Bush leverages a similar cadre of 1970s Nixon era acolytes for his Presidential campaign. One memorable victory for Bush in the primaries over rival John McCain in the South Carolina primary was partly attributed to push-polls conducted shortly before the primary asking primary voters if their choice would be affected if it was known John McCain had an illegitimate child. No smoking gun found, but the only candidate that benefited was Bush. If they're willing to do this to fellow Republicans, what are they willing to do to anyone else?

2001 -- GW Bush meets with Vladimir Putin, peers into his soul and decides Putin is a man the US can deal with. GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL MALPRACTICE and INCOMPETENCE

2001 -- GW Bush ignores a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "bin Laden Determined to Attack US", leaving the entire US flatfooted for an unprecedented multi-state terrorist attack one month later. INCOMPETENCE

2001 -- GW Bush fails to focus on killing bin Laden in caves at Tora Bora and instead launches war in Afghanistan, repeating the exact same mistake made by the Soviet Union in 1979 that arguably resulted in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet war lasted nearly ten years and cost the equivalent of roughly $50 billion dollars (18 billion rubles in 1979 money). America doubled down on the failure, spending nearly twenty years in the country and spending roughly $2.313 TRILLION dollars. Any benefits of the American effort collapsed across the country the same WEEK as the US withdrawal on August 30, 2021. GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL MALPRACTICE and INCOMPETENCE

2003 -- GW Bush is cowed by his own Vice President and national security staff and allows known false information about the existence of WMD ingredients in Iraq to be used in a United Nations meeting and in a televised address to the American public as justification for launching a war in Iraq. At this point, the US not only doesn't know where bin Laden is, Bush publicly stated in a March 20, 2002 press conference he had no particular fixation on bin Laden and those focusing on him did not understand the true mission of his war on terror. GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL MALPRACTICE and TREASON

2003 -- GW Bush appoints Paul Bremer as "Provisional Coalition Administrator" of now-occupied Iraq in May of 2003, reporting to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Bremer's first two decrees removed any Baath party members from any government position -- however menial or important to public services like electricity, water, sewer -- and dismantled the entire Iraqi army. The resulting chaos triggered a civil war, led to the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a multi-state military terrorist organization that eventually outdid al Qaeda in destruction in the region. As a direct consequence, US forces were trapped in the country trying to preserve a "win" for eight years, costing $2.4 trillion dollars. GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL MALPRACTICE

2004 -- CBS aired a report in April of 2004 identifying systemic physical / sexual abuse and torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq conducted by US military personnel against claimed Iraqi insurgents. Bush Administration officials initially claimed the abuses were isolated instances and did not reflect formal policies. In reality, the same practices were identified in other "black sites" operated by the CIA in multiple countries specifically to avoid criminal exposure under US law. In reality, the Bush Administration had thoroughly analyzed strategies for torture as part of "advanced interrogation techniques" and had a secret policy signed in August of 2002 before launching the Iraq invasion. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

2006 -- Majority Leader Tom DeLay is forced to surrender his Majority Leader role then eventually resigns after being indicted on federal money laundering charges. He led efforts to launder corporate contributions banned in Texas state races by first passing those contributions through the Republican National Committee before shifting the money to state races. CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY. ELECTION FRAUD

2006 -- Mark Foley is forced to resign after numerous examples reach media outlets about inappropriate emails and texts being sent to underage House pages, sexual liasons with pages after reaching age 18 and age 21, and intoxicated visits to the dormitory used to house pages. The accounts date back to at least 1995. Curiously, two of Foley's pet legislative topics involved pornography and sexual predators. SEXUAL ABUSE.

2007 -- After Republicans lose control of the House in the 2006 midterm election, Speaker Dennis Hastert resigns his seat in Congress to go into the private sector. In May of 2015, Hastert was indicted and pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents and structuring bank payments to hide hush money payments being made to former students he had sexually assaulted while working as a wrestling coach at a high school in the early 1980s. The real damage to Americans brought about by Hastert was his parliamentary rule (known as the "Hastert Rule") that blocked any legislation from reaching a vote on the full House floor unless it obtained a majority of the Republican vote. This has been followed by every Republican House Speaker since, allowing a MINORITY to block legislation supported by a MAJORITY in the branch of Congress that is DESIGNED to be the most responsive to voter interests. SEXUAL ABUSE. CONSTITUTIONAL MALPRACTICE

2016 -- Candidate Donald Trump explicitly encourages Russian meddling in the 2016 election. ELECTION THUGGERY.

2017 -- Within two months of inauguration, Trump officials began creating a formal policy to separate children from parents at immigration retention locations, purely to amp up the psychological stress on would-be migrants as a deterrent to slow illegal immigration. Implementation began within weeks and by August 2017, reports reach the US Attorney's office in Texas of children not being able to be re-matched with their parents due to the failure to create ANY documentation at the time of separation or assign tracking IDs to allow location and reunion. By June of 2018, DHS confirmed over 2000 families had been separated just between April 19 and May 31 of 2018 while other stories emerged about HUNDREDS of children being housed in metal cages inside a warehouse in McAllen, TX. The policy was officially rescinded by Trump in 2018 yet continued in practice into 2019. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION. (Caveat, the Biden Administration continued to separate children when parents had a criminal record or active criminal case or major health issue. As of 2023, nearly 1000 of 1600 children had not been reunited with parents.)

2019 -- In January 2019, documents submitted to a court handling the criminal prosecution of Paul Manafort on charges of money laundering, conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal agents failed to redact information that confirmed Manafort, while acting as Trump's campaign chair in the 2016 race, met with a Russian operative in 2016 to discuss a plan by which Russia would gain control of eastern Ukraine via political subterfuge. TREASON.

2019 -- In a July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump attempts to extort Zelensky and the country of Ukraine into harming his suspected 2020 Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Trump offers to actually ship weapons and materiel already approved by Congress in exchange for Zelensky publicly announcing criminal investigations into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. Trump is impeached for this action but acquitted by a Republican controlled Senate. TREASON. ELECTION THUGGERY

2020 -- Donald Trump delays early attempts to protect Americans infected with COVID aboard a cruise ship, preferring they remain offshore as someone else's problem so "his numbers" for COVID still look low. Trump explicitly ignored an 69-page entire emergency response plan created during the Obama Administration specifically for pandemic events based on lessons learned from outbreaks of SARS, Ebola and Zika. The lack of coordination and missing sense of urgency allowed the virus to spread exponentially while the entire world lacked any effective treatments much less vaccines to prevent it. Over 1,135,919 American deaths resulted. PUBLIC HEALTH MALPRACTICE.

2020 -- Donald Trump loses the 2020 Presidential election by 7 million votes and immediately launches multiple criminal conspiracies across SEVEN states to reject the certified votes of MILLIONS of Americans to replace their electoral collage slate with fake electors to allow him to remain in power. The schemes involve DOZENS of Republican lawyers and probably HUNDRES of state level Republican Party officials all willing to sign / forge any document to keep their Republican in power in the absence of ANY valid evidence of fraud. TREASON. CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY.

2021 -- After losing EVERY official court challenge (dozens of them), Trump continued to attempt to strong-arm his own Vice President into violating the Constitution by withholding certification of the Electoral College ballots to allow the constitutional chaos to be used as an excuse to toss some of the state slates back to state legislatures to try to fake a win. After it becomes clear Pence would not agree to that, Trump literally speaks in front of MAGA protestors gathered in front of the White House and icites them to march on the Capital. A riot ensues at the Capital, rioters physicaly break into the Capital building, beat DC and Capital police and ransack the House and Senate chambers threatening to hang Mike Pence and Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump watches it unfold on TV for HOURS without communicating any request for the violence to stop. At the same time, his co-conspirators are still contacting key Republican representatives and Senators attempting to get them to follow the plan to derail the electoral college certification. Those efforts continued until 11:00pm EST. TREASON. INSURRECTION. OBSTRUCTION OF AN OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT PROCEEDING

What are the takeaways from this fifty year indictment of Republicanism?

Treason, corruption, fraud, grift, sexual abuse / hypocrisy, and plain lust for power are not anomalies of players within the Republican Party. They are nearly ubiquitous across the years and all regions of the country.

These behaviors have been magnified and reinforced because they have been REWARDED. Giant corporations reward them with campaign money for enacting tax reductions and eliminating pesky regulatory hassles regarding worker safety, environmental protection and financial transparency. Ignorant voters reward them by continuing to vote them into office as long as the party can identify "others" who can be blamed for what they lack. These voters seem perfectly happy allowing more of the fruits of their labor to flow to the top as long as they can "punch down" on someone else and feel good about their relative plight.

There is still a significant probability that Trump and his co-conspirators could escape justice. Procedural delays could defer all of these cases past the election and 2025 inauguration, allowing either Trump or a Republican President to pardon Trump. A single juror loyal to Trump and the MAGA cult could prevent convictions on these charges.

The fact that Trump is currently leading all Republican competitors for the 2024 nomination by double digits makes it clear anyone still calling themselves a "Republican" is likely beyond rational reason and reach. There are only two pools of potential voters that matter. Those labeling themselves as "independent" and those disturbed enough by Republican actions to avoid public identification with the party but still willing to go along. It is up to those groups to contemplate this extended history of Republican treason, criminality, self-dealing and arrogant incompetence and evaluate where this trend is headed if Republicans continue to control any levers of government at any level.

The operation of our legislative branch has been so distorted by centuries of habit around two-party government which has NO basis in the Constitution that neither incumbent party would voluntarily surrender its control. Both parties have evolved their internal DNA to prioritize self-preservation of the party even above the interests of its supposed voters. At this point in history, the Republican party has outlived its usefulness and must be destroyed -- by the only mechanism which cannot be thwarted. The ballot box. Republican operative Grover Norquest has been famous for decades for summarizing his ultimate political goal this way -- to cut the funding and support for the federal government until it shrinks to a point where it is small enough to drown in a bathtub. The United States of America has reached that point with the Republican Party. It must be eliminated -- and replaced with a party driven by ethics and morals.

WTH

Trump Indictment #3: Themes and Takeaways

Here we are again. Plowing new ground in political corruption, criminality and constitutional peril. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith gained agreement from a federal grand jury on four charges in an indictment against Donald Trump related to events leading up to the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capital. As with the national security documents case, Smith spoke briefly after releasing the indictment to the public and encouraged all Americans to READ the indictment. A PDF copy of the indictment is linked below and a full read IS encouraged.

United States v Donald J. Trump (via New York Times)

Some key themes and takeaways emerge from a full read of the indictment and are summarized below.

Key Themes

The indictment only names Trump as a defendant, though it assigns labels to six co-conspirators. The language describing the charges references statutes which have already resulted in prosecutions and convictions for dozens of minions who invaded the capital so Jack Smith is unlikely to leave any contributor unscathed. It is likely the other conspirators are not charged in THIS indictment solely as a means to streamline this case's flow through the court with minimal delays that would inevitably arise with SEVEN parties trying to coordinate defense resources. Smith also obviously knows the ever-rising pressure on parties in this case will likely result in additional evidence coming to light that will simplify making cases against the six currently identified co-conspirators. In fact, the indictment explicitly calls this out in paragraph #6 of the indictment:

6. From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant DONALD J. TRUMP did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government.

Knowing the public audience that will formulate opinions and biases on this case as it progresses, Smith's indictment makes a crucial point up front before describing any counts. Paragraph 3 of the indictment explicitly explains to the public and eventual jurors that the President of the United States has a right to LIE to the press and the public and there is no federal statute criminalizing that. However, the President cannot use his administrative powers to violate laws and thwart the basic mechanics of our democratic process.

3. The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely ,that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election andthat he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures. Indeed, in many cases, the Defendant did pursue these methods of contesting the election results. His efforts to change the outcome in any state through recounts, audits,or legal challenges were uniformly unsuccessful.

That could be the most damning aspect of the entire indictment. It's bad enough the United States has reached a point where a federal prosecutor has had to file charges against a former President and explain that as a legal matter, the President is entitled to LIE to the press and public. It is worse that the prosecutor feels compelled to further elaborate that the defendant isn't being indicted for lying but for other crimes because he knows forty percent of the public is already predisposed to ACCEPT a President who lies consistently. About everything. Not mere "white lies" about minor political tactics or awkward family matters but "black lies" about the actual outcome of the most fundamental process in our democracy -- a federal election for President.

Smith knows the country has sunk so low that a President lying is not by itself sufficient to eliminate the bias of a single juror who could thwart conviction. Smith has to EXPLAIN that those public lies are not the crime -- they were merely a lever to set conditions for the real crime of partnering with Republican officials to switch electoral slates and create administrative doubt during the official Electoral College Vote certification, actions whose illegality was clear to the defendant and the core co-conspirators.

Smith's indictment is worded to explicitly cast Trump as an active participant and instigator of key steps within the overall conspiracy. Trump's defense is likely to contend his statements merely asked people to identify possible remedies or lodge disputes and recount requests where margins were slim. In other words, Trump will likely claim he was reacting to ideas brought to him by counsel he had no reason to doubt and those concerns raised were chased down to the extent possible under the law. That is pure fantasy and the indictment references communications in which Trump himself originated a new tactic after hitting a dead end on a prior tactic or actively initiated communication with state leaders and his own Vice President with information other evidence proves Trump knew to be false.

The indictment describes conversations between January 2 and January 6 WITH Vice President Pence and ABOUT Vice President Pence and his legal authority to accept alternate slates of electors. That synopsis states that Trump LIED to Pence whose contemporaneous notes reflect the fact that Trump told Pence the DOJ was finding major signs of fraud in multiple states. In reality, the DOJ had ruled out ANY material fraud in ANY state for days prior to that conversation. This small vignette is notable because it conveys Pence provided this information to the grand jury and that Smith likely has ALL of those notes to use in proving the state of Trump's mind to prove intent. It makes that point even more profoundly by pointing out that a sitting Vice President was so concerned about the illegality and damning nature of the actions being requested of him by a sitting President that he memorialized them to protect himself when the scheme inevitably blew up.

Paragraphs 94 thru 97 of the indictment describe meetings between January 4 and January 5 in which multiple parties repeatedly state the likelihood of violence resulting from the chaos injected into the process. In two different meetings on 1/4 and 1/5, Co-Conspirator #2 (Eastman) meets with White House counsel (Eric Herschman?) and acknowledges that his legal theory behind the VP selecting alternate elector slates would be tossed by the Supreme Court if it reached them. Twice, that advisor tells him that if this plan is executed, it will likely trigger violence in the streets. Late on January 5, Trump met privately with Pence to twist his arm one last time. Pence refused to buckle and Trump further threatened him by telling him he would resort to publicly criticizing Pence (which he did). Upon leaving that private meeting, Pence's Chief of Staff heard that threat and was so concerned he notified the VP's Secret Service detail, asking for special precautions to be arranged. The violence of January 6 wasn't a SURPRISE to any of the core actors in the events prior to January 6. For those supporting the scheme, violence the day of the certification was simply the last weapon to adopt in the face of failures on all prior tactics.

Finally, count 4 of the indictment is the most important charge in terms of the larger fate of the United States. The count reads as follows:

From on or about November14, 2020, through on or about January20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant, DONALDJ. TRUMP, did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate , and agree with co-conspirators , known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States that is, the right to vote , and to have one's vote counted. (violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section241)

This charge is NOT citing the insurrection law that would have included a ban from federal office for conviction. That charge is completely legitimate given the facts but may have been viewed by Smith as a more precarious case to make in front of a jury. The full text of the statute cited by count #4 is still worth reading:

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Note that sentence emphasized in bold... and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section (snip) they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Winning a conviction under this statute would give latitude to the judge to impose a significantly longer sentence, given that deaths did result from the actions taken by Trump. It is also important to point out that this statute does not require the effort undertaken to SUCCEED. Smith alludes to this in references to states where electors were tricked into submitting fake ballots under the premise they would only be used IF the Trump campaign won litigation in the state's courts when in fact those fake ballots were collected and submitted all the way to Pence as part of the scheme, even though Pence ultimately rejected them.

Takeaways

This indictment doesn't set limits on future expansion of charges against Trump or anyone else. It explicitly references efforts undertaken in SEVEN STATES -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin -- to cause their legislatures to reject legitimate voting results providing elector votes for Biden and allow those legislatures to arbitrary submit an altered set of electors -- a set which would vote for Trump in contradiction to the legal selection of its voters. Besides the six co-conspirators named by role, this portion of the indictment means there are elected officials and private Republican Party operatives and leaders in these states who could likely get pulled in for similar conspiracy charges. But that is not Smith's focus. He knows the fate of the country requires a conviction of the head of the plot before it becomes even remotely possible for him to become President a second time.

Reading the entire narrative of the 45 page indictment requires grasping one inescapable point.

The very nature of the legal mechanics of the plot attempted by Trump resulted in all of the evidence of the crimes involving Republican figures. The scheme argued that a state legislature could arbitrarily toss the legitimate electoral slate determined by its voters with one selected by a committee chosen by the legislature. The scheme was only attempted in states with Republican controlled legislatures whose results were close enough to allow the false fears of fraud to make it plausibly palatable to its power brokers to attempt the fraud. As a result, all of the EVIDENCE cited in the indictment and will prove pivotal in the trial comes from REPUBLICANS.

Is that a point of pride? That, in such a dire constitutional crisis initiated by a Republican President, it was REPUBLICANS that put a stop to it? Anyone coming to this conclusion need to move a few feet back from the canvas and look at the ENTIRE picture. Powerful elected officials and state Republican National Committee leaders in SEVEN states pursued these actions as requested by a Republican President. It was a narrower set of Republicans in some of these states that ultimately nixed the attempt. Trump had no problem attracting fringe / wack-job "counsel" from people identifying as Republican stalwarts to originate this scheme and file the dozens of bogus court filings to pursue it. The criminality and sheer lunacy of the ideas behind this plot are not EXCEPTIONS in the Republican Party, they now PREDOMINATE, in every state operation and in the vast majority of candidates put forth by the party.

Americans are astounded that despite three sets of criminal indictments and another one looming in Georgia, Trump is not only leading all of his contenders for the Republican nomination for 2024 in the dust but is TIED with Joe Biden in some head to head polls. Trump's dominance within the current Republican Party is easily explained -- the core base of the Republican Party has continued moving to the fringe and that contingent is perfectly happy with Trump's bullying style and willingness to abuse the law for personal benefit because they think they're on his side and he'd do the same for them. They don't understand his willingness to do the same TO them, whenever it suits his purposes.

The window of time for traditional Republicans to gain their moral bearings and respond accordingly is dwindling rapidly. The biggest problem facing contenders is not that Trump is leaving them all in single-digit numbers. Their biggest problem is that he keeps pulling in millions of dollars in donations from potential backers and shifting it to legal defense efforts. Every dollar Trump collects is a dollar that will never flow back to any other Republican. In essence, the continued presence of Trump is acting as a black hole for cash any other Republican candidate will need if voters become Trump-fatigued and eventually abandon him. Even if that happens, the Republican base will be tapped out leaving an alternate nominee broke.

The fact that Trump and Biden are currently TIED in popularity is far more troubling for American democracy. For that to be possible, a large portion of the voting public must still be mentally locked into a simple two-party, two-dimensional view of their choices. If there are things they dislike with "Democratic" policies, they are using a 1970s mind map of politics to conclude those policies can only be thwarted by voting Republican because "Republican" is the opposite of "Democratic."

NO IT IS NOT.

In reality, "Republican" today is something else entirely, on a different dimension than traditional "left / right" dynamics. Unfortunately, our political processes at the federal and state level have been corrupted by rules which protect a two-party scheme. Those rules assume the two parties were roughly equal in power and roughly balanced in their policies with the average being BETWEEN them. The policies coming out of that altered dimension of the current Republican base bear no resemblance to anything experienced in America in its entire history and, if allowed to take root, may literally bring about the end of that history as we currently know it.

Every American needs to read the August 1, 2023 indictment. The crimes described within are not mere traffic violations or tax dodges reflecting individual foibles aimed at creating individual benefits. The crimes involve interference with the core machinery of our democracy. That interference is aimed at preserving access to public power to abuse it for private gain and inflicting punishment on opponents. The concept of "teachable moments" is used frequently in these writings. The indictment of a former President on charges related to thwarting the operation of a Presidential election to retain power is the MOTHER of all teachable moments for Americans of all stripes.

WTH