Indictment Enlightment (sic)

There oughta be a rule: No one expresses an opinion on Trump’s indictment before reading the document. It’s relatively short, and very specific. Trump-world claims it’s no big deal, but the criminality and security risks are clear: what he took, what he did about it, what he tried to do about it. 

Same for the Presidential Records Act. Read it. It belies everything Trump and the whole lying lot are claiming about his right to have retained the plunderage. Were they to read them, Trumpists would experience reality, possibly for the first time. Then they could make an informed decision whether Trump and his protectors have a) read them, b) read but failed to understand, or c) are deliberately lying, confident of getting away with it because they know their audience. (Correct answer: c)

Nothing they’re spouting about the indictment, the Presidential Records Act, or, for that matter, the equivalence of “but her emails,” is remotely true. They don’t care, because they don’t have to. Among the many interviews of save-America Trump supporters, none has said they’ve read the indictment. Not one. And they’re aggressively proud of it. “Why would I read a bunch of liberal lies,” they leer. It’s refractory ignorance, groomed, impenetrable, working exactly as designed.

These facts are indisputable: Trump’s stash included highly sensitive military and other secrets, the revelation of which would be extremely damaging to national security: human intelligence, satellite intelligence, nuclear intelligence. War plans. Even if he’d declassified them, which, by his own admission, he hadn’t, they remained the property of the US government and, out of office, per the PRA, possessing them was illegal.

Again and again, he hid them. He lied. He got others to lie. Trying and failing to get his lawyers to lie, he lied to them, too. The turpitude is stark and undeniable. He’s also lying about President Biden’s “1,850” boxes. Donated to a Delaware college, they’re from his time in the Senate, not covered by the PRA. And, contra the emanations from Trump’s disordered mind, President Biden had the FBI search them for classified content. Twice. To defend Trump is to defend rank criminality. Why? 

Realizing Trump was lying about returning them, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago out of concern that government secrets could fall into the wrong hands. In fact, they had already fallen under wrong eyes: the indictment confirms he showed some to people who had no business seeing them, no security clearance. Including, according to America’s greatest patriot, Kid Rock, Kid Rock. Plus he left them in public locations, access to which was unrestricted. One place gives new meaning to the term “document dump.”

Lindsegrahamic claims notwithstanding, the Espionage Act under which Trump is charged does not require evidence of spying, per se. Its scope includes exactly the unlawful possession and mishandling of classified material in which Trump engaged. Even formerly sycofantastic AG Barr agrees. Moreover, Trump’s dangerous disregard for national security was a constant throughout his “presidency.” Don't believe me, just watch.

What we’ve not heard from the reverential right are convincing explanations or defense of hoarding those secrets. Whatever they were, Trump had plans. Delivering them in return for foreign favors, maybe? Extortion? What might he already have done with them? A few months after Trump left office, the CIA sent a memo to station chiefs around the world, reminding them of increased arrest, exposure, and disappearance of undercover agents. Coincidental timing, probably. Right? 

Which is worse, Trump’s crimes or the hingeless, dangerous ways in which he’s being defended, including barely disguised calls for violence by members of Congress? Or the fact that, in the first place, a bereft political party chose as their candidate a man whose sociopathic amorality, dishonesty, law-flouting, tax evasion, fake bone spurs, scams, stiffing contractors, to list but a few transgressions, were well-known before votes were cast. Indicting a former “president” is unprecedented only because “electing” such an inevitable malefactor was unprecedented.

MAGA Republicans are framing the prosecution of Trump’s criminality as President Biden going after his leading political opponent. In fact, as the indictment makes clear, Trump’s own lawyers provided much of the damning evidence. And, unlike Trump during his time, President Biden has maintained the DOJ’s independence from him.

People connected to reality understand that a grand jury, not he, heard testimony and rendered the indictment; and that investigating crimes against the state is among the duties of the Department of Justice. It’s why they call it Justice. The only weaponization is the right’s barrage of untruths, penetrating the heart of America.

Bottom line: Trump illegally removed and retained critical government secrets, lied about it, and lied some more. Why? People defending him must have answered that question and found it satisfying. That’s the most pertinent “why” of all.

Running On Emptiness

 

So Trump was indicted (or, as he spelled it, “indicated”) and now we know the particulars. And we know that he reveled in it, was fundraising over it; even, having been deprived of an official mugshot, created one printed on a t-shirt he’ll send you “free of charge” with a minimum $47 donation. Preferring the spectacle, he declined the opportunity to do it remotely. To his idolaters, he’s more heroic than ever.

The facts are undisputed, which explains the rightwing response. From the outset, they’ve attacked Alvin Bragg, President Biden, George Soros, and the commies behind the prosecution. Filling the air are claims that “This isn’t America anymore,” “We’ve become a banana republic,” “It’s communism.”

In fact, it’s what separates America from dictatorships: Potential crimes were investigated, evidence was presented to twenty-three members of a grand jury, which recommended indictment. The accused was presented with the charges, a generous amount of time was granted before the next court appearance (eight months), and, eventually, in a court of law, appearing before a jury of fellow citizens, he’ll have the opportunity to defend himself; after which he’ll be acquitted or found guilty.

In countries to which Trump et cultum are comparing the process, he’d have been arrested and imprisoned on the spot. Or executed. Our system is one of many things that MAGAlready. It’s “political” or “election interference” only to the extent that he chose to run, hoping to avoid indictments. Too bad Al Capone didn’t think of it.

In other news...

There’s been another demonstration interrupted by rioting, overturned vehicles, broken windows, arson, and multiple injuries. Again, BLM and Antifa... weren’t involved. It was mainly white college kids, celebrating winning the NCAA b-ball championship, to do with which they had nothing. Shall Congress investigate?

Speaking of weaponizing government, following the indictment, Representative Jim “Gym” Jordan (R-OH) of the Weaponization of Government subcommittee, is calling for defunding the FBI and DOJ. He’s forgotten, evidently, how he and all Republicans campaigned on the (very few, not leaders) Democrats who called for defunding the police after the murder of George Floyd. Back home at Mar-a-Lago, Trump called, amongst the usual lies, for the same.

Days after the latest massacre of school children with legally-obtained AR 15s, Ron DeSantis signed a permitless-carry law in Florida. The event was atypically closed to the public and press. Present were legislators who wrote the bill and – get this! – representatives of the NRA. Well, at least Running Ron doesn’t hide to whom he’s beholden and to whose concerns he listens.

Regarding that mass murder in Tennessee, about which the US Representative from the district where it occurred said there was nothing to be done about it, masses of school children and their parents – more than showed up supporting Trump in NYC -- protested at the state capitol, demanding that the overwhelmingly Republican House of Representatives take action on guns. Three Democratic representatives joined the crowd. Comparing the noisy but nonviolent demonstration to January 6, Republicans proceeded to remove those Democrats from committees, deactivate their access cards, and are in the process of expelling them entirely. Such is their love of democracy and free speech. Such is their characteristic abuse of power.

Putting into words the symbolism of DeSantis’ NRA-honoring signing ceremony, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said “We’ve done about as much as we can” about gun control. Left unsaid was the implicit end of the sentence: “... and still collect bribes from the NRA and votes from our gunly-paranoid base.”

In heavily-gerrymandered Wisconsin, where, as in Tennessee, Republicans disproportionately outnumber Democrats in their legislature, a liberal judge just won election to their Supreme Court, decisively, giving it a liberal majority. This will have enormous impact on abortion rights, gun control, and election fairness, as well as national Electoral College prospects.

Gerrymandering doesn’t work for elections in which state-level candidates are selected by all voters. Which is why Democrats still hold the US Senate. But not Wisconsin’s.

Asa Hutchinson, former Republican Governor and Representative from Arkansas, manager of the Clinton impeachment, announced he’s running for president. He’ll lose of course, and not just because he’s the only Republican who dared to defend the process by which Trump was indicted, urging people to wait and see. A definitional conservative, he’s a throwback outlier in today’s Republican party.

Running through it all is a common theme: Trumpism. It’s been systematically tearing down the Constitutional foundations of America, infecting every state, but especially the red ones. Maybe DeSantis’ wildly unpopular permitless carry law and Tennessee’s fascistic, undemocratic legislative bullying will become a bridge for Republicans to cross the Rubicon back in this direction, back to rationality, rejoining the democracy they claim to love, instead of destroying it step by step.

Right. And Trump will stop lying.

Lawnorder

 

Editorial demands being what they are, at the time of sending in this column it was unknown whether Trump had been/will be indicted for, as Trey “Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi” Gowdy put it, “paying for sex.” So far, the only announcement has been from lifelong liar Trump, himself, who then proceeded to denounce “leaks.”

It’s all but certain that indictments are coming, and that Stormy Daniels is merely the appetizer on a comprehensive menu of indelicacies. But we don’t need an indictment to know how Republican leaders and media will respond. They’ve been embarrassing themselves and our country since Trump unbarned the horse.

Certifying his unfitness for the job he bought with what remained of his soul, “Speaker” Kevin McCarthy answered “No one is above the law,” when asked if Trump is. “But no one is under it, either,” he added, signifying nothing.

If the most stupid, that was the least deplorable of his utterances. He made clear what’s been obvious since his party elected a prolific liar, scammer, law-suit-laden, proud tax-evader, suspected launderer of Mafia money, serial adulterer. Namely, that the “party of law and order” cares for neither. Having no idea what, if any, the charges are, or what evidence was presented to the Grand Jury, he nevertheless opined, “Here we go again. An outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.” 

“Vengeance.” A District Attorney looking into possible criminal activity. Doing his job. The way it works. If indicted after Grand Jury consideration, a person is entitled to a trial in which evidence is presented and defense is mounted. He’s convicted or exonerated. It’s the American way, as opposed to how Mussolini’s career ended. For example.

McCarthy wasn’t done. “I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” He said, interfering with a state’s constitutional judicial process. What better example of “weaponizing government” is there than that? Other than Jim Jordan’s committee looking into weaponization of government. Or the endless investigations of Hillary Clinton, which Kevin McCarthy admitted at the time were about ending her political career. Maybe he forgot. Let us not. 

There’s an even better example; namely, the letter sent to NYC District Attorney Alvin Bragg, signed by three of McCarthyism’s committee chairmen: “You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office,” they fulminated, demanding his presence before them. Having no authority to require it.

Well, of course it’s unprecedented. Until Trump, America had never Electoral-Colleged a “president” whose pre-, intra-, and post-“presidential” activities were so deserving of criminal investigation. Clearly, they consider Trump above the law. And, we must infer, no crime or suspected crime, no matter how egregious, by any former president, and no one running for that office, may be prosecuted, or even investigated. (Presumably, there’s an expiration date on that proposition. Instantly, when President Biden is out of office.)

Similar to McCarthy’s rejection of American jurisprudence and due process, Rand Paul offered these self-canceling words: "A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail." Evidently convinced he has a shot at Trump’s old job, not-hung Mike Pence chimed in: "... when there's a crime wave in New York City, the fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority I think just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left." Right. Buttons pushed: the radical left; crime waves. Plus, evidently, Pence believes a DA’s office can do only one thing at a time.

From there, it gets laughable. James Comer, one of the signers of that letter to DA Bragg, said an indictment would be intended to distract from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Makes perfect sense. Possible “presidential” criminality is way below what’s on the unsecured hard drive of a private citizen.

Then Tucker Carlson, causing "irony" to disappear from all dictionaries, said, “You don’t fantasize about your political opponents going to jail.” Really? Has there ever been a rally when Trump didn’t lead cheers of “Lock her up”? Does Tucker not recall when Trump called on Attorney General Bill Barr to lock up Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton? 

Trump and MAGA Republicans will see his indictments as proof of his perfection. Before Reagan and Gingrich, Republicans’ cowardly desperation to protect someone like Trump was unimaginable. Stormy Daniels is prologue. Their reaction to Georgia’s Fani Willis, DOJ’s Jack Smith, and New York’s Letitia James will reveal everything about Republicans’ respect for Constitutional order and their place in America’s future. Not that we don’t already know.