Charges

[jfish26]

They broke into the US Capitol with aims to overthrow our election and were looking to murder elected officials, including our Vice President and Speaker of the House. Fuck that. Enough is enough. This isn't a game.

Hey, I am with you....but Trump didn't break into the Capitol and do those things.

Although I don't think the vast majority of the people there on Jan 6 aimed to "overthrow" the government. I think the extremists should be (and have been/are being) prosecuted and punished accordingly.

Either way, probably a moot point as I find it unlikely Trump is removed from ballots entirely. Maybe a blue state or two he'd have lost anyway.

I also think completely removing him could backfire for Dems, as it opens the door for a more reasonable/appealing R to be on the ballot. Then that extra % of people (who could perhaps be largely undecided voters) who feel it was unfair to remove him might be more inclined to vote for whoever the R candidate ends up being. And the die hard Trumpers aren't voting Dem no matter what. It allows the Rs to consolidate when they won't be able to with Trump in play. A large majority of the country will NEVER vote for Trump because of what he's done. Many Rs included.

It's definitely a complicated situation. No easy solution. I am as ready for the Trump era to be over. We are toeing the line of disaster.

1. "Trump didn't break into the Capitol and do those things" - miss me with this mob boss stuff. The physical breaking into the Capitol was really a quite minor part of the overall attempt to illegally avert the Constitutional transfer of power.

2. There is ZERO doubt that the best thing that could happen for the Rs, politically, would be for Trump to disappear from the 2024 ballot. However, even if you guaranteed me that Trump would lose to Biden in 2024, I would still support disqualification. Because it's the law, and the law should be enforced even where doing so is against my personal, short-term interests.

You are correct that we are toeing the line of disaster.

I would argue things now are SIGNIFICANTLY more dangerous than they were in the run-up to the 2020 election, because now Trump/MAGA know how to surround Trump with the "right" people (instead of the right people). And we KNOW that Trump would rule unconstrained by ANY fear of consequences, even at the ballot box.

In the run-up to the 2020 election, if you said that Trump winning might be the end of democracy in the United States, you woulda sounded a little nuts.

Now, in my opinion, one would be a little nuts to NOT think those are the stakes.

It can happen here.

[Shirley]

Who could have ever guessed? Not one member of the "Law and Order Party":

It's beautiful. The Rs are stuck supporting Menendez because...well because they're doing their best to nominate a known corruptee (and corruptor, but who's keeping score) for the presidency!

It's past time for Menendez to resign:

erica orden
@eorden

SDNY has filed a second superseding indictment against Sen. Robert Menendez, this time adding charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for taking action to benefit the government of Qatar.



Richard W. Painter
@RWPUSA

This crook should've been booted out of Congress long ago.

US Senator Bob Menendez took bribes to help Qatar and a New Jersey developer seeking millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund, prosecutors said in a revised indictment https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/202 ... gn=twitter via
@bpolitics

[DeletedUser]

The physical breaking into the Capitol was really a quite minor part of the overall attempt to illegally avert the Constitutional transfer of power.

I totally agree.

[jhawks99]

Who could have ever guessed? Not one member of the "Law and Order Party":

It's beautiful. The Rs are stuck supporting Menendez because...well because they're doing their best to nominate a known corruptee (and corruptor, but who's keeping score) for the presidency!

It's past time for Menendez to resign:

erica orden
@eorden

SDNY has filed a second superseding indictment against Sen. Robert Menendez, this time adding charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for taking action to benefit the government of Qatar.



Richard W. Painter
@RWPUSA

This crook should've been booted out of Congress long ago.

US Senator Bob Menendez took bribes to help Qatar and a New Jersey developer seeking millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund, prosecutors said in a revised indictment https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/202 ... gn=twitter via
@bpolitics

Asking because I don't know, but isn't this considered treason? Dude should suffer some serious punishment.

[Sparko]

Menendez is hoping to retain enough power to trade his vote for maybe a sweet pardon. The Trump playbook. But not likely. He is trying to buy time out of jail at this point. But he is more toasted than a KSU bowl game.

[Shirley]

Asking because I don't know, but isn't this considered treason? Dude should suffer some serious punishment.

It doesn't rise to that level, as far as I know:

Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance.[1] This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.[2]

[jhawks99]

Selling information and influence to a foreign country doesn't get there?

[jfish26]

Probably not. This isn't a hanging crime. It very much could be an institutional-living-for-the-rest-of-your-days crime.

[jhawks99]

That works for me.

[KUTradition]

On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/donald- ... ry-6-media

[twocoach]

On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/donald- ... ry-6-media

This is why it is so mind boggling to watch our resident trolls continually repeat all these BS lies because they think it's funny to get Dems riled up. They casually lie with no thought or conscience. It seems to be amusing to them that we're in this situation as if continuing to repeat the same lies enough time will somehow change reality as if the pure number of times a lie is repeated will elevate it to being the truth. "Anything that so may people believe must be true" is the logic of idiots but it seems to be their best plan to create their alternate reality.

[jfish26]

Rots from the damn head.

https://x.com/bidenhq/status/1744527680 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

https://x.com/ronfilipkowski/status/174 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

https://x.com/ronfilipkowski/status/174 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

https://x.com/adamkinzinger/status/1744 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

https://x.com/ronfilipkowski/status/174 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

[jfish26]

Telling you, out loud.

https://x.com/ronfilipkowski/status/174 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

Trump: “Doing what they did - using the DOJ & FBI to go after their political opponent .. that means that I can do it too. In other words, the Pandora’s box is open, and that means that I can do it too.”

[japhy]

Nothing really novel to see here folks, just more harassment of judges trying to do their job and hold a cult leader accountable.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump arrived for closing arguments Thursday in his New York civil fraud trial after authorities responded to a bomb threat at the home of the judge who moved this week to prevent the former president from delivering his own closing statements.

Authorities responded to the threat at Judge Arthur Engoron’s home on Long Island, a court official said. The proceedings were not delayed.

Trump, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly disparaged the judge in the case, accusing him in a social media post Wednesday night of working closely with the New York attorney general “to screw me.”

“At this moment the judge is not letting me make the summation because I’ll bring up things he doesn’t want to hear," Trump said as he walked into the courtroom, characterizing the decision as “political interference.”

“This is a case that never should have been brought," he said.

At 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, hours before the trial’s final day was set to begin, Nassau County police said they responded to a “swatting incident” at Engoron’s Great Neck home. Nothing amiss was found at the location, officials said.

The false report comes days after a fake emergency call reporting a shooting at the home of the judge overseeing Trump’s Capitol attack criminal case in Washington, D.C. The two incidents follow a spate of similar false reports at the homes of public officials in recent days.

On Wednesday, Engoron had nixed an unusual plan by Trump to deliver his own closing remarks in the courtroom, in addition to summations from his legal team, after lawyers for the former president would not agree to the judge’s demand that he stick to “relevant” matters."

Stick to "relevant" matters? I suppose it doesn't hurt to ask.

But if a cult leader can't talk about how magnets don't work underwater, or how Abe Lincoln should have negotiated a settlement of the Civil War as part of his testimony in a business fraud case, you have to admit there can be no justice in this country until a violent government coup takes place and a crazy wannabe dictator who talks about wanting to fuck his own daughter is put in charge.

Just ask the rubes wandering around the mall, if you can find one that is still open. They will tell you in straight talk.

[jfish26]

Nothing really novel to see here folks, just more harassment of judges trying to do their job and hold a cult leader accountable.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump arrived for closing arguments Thursday in his New York civil fraud trial after authorities responded to a bomb threat at the home of the judge who moved this week to prevent the former president from delivering his own closing statements.

Authorities responded to the threat at Judge Arthur Engoron’s home on Long Island, a court official said. The proceedings were not delayed.

Trump, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly disparaged the judge in the case, accusing him in a social media post Wednesday night of working closely with the New York attorney general “to screw me.”

“At this moment the judge is not letting me make the summation because I’ll bring up things he doesn’t want to hear," Trump said as he walked into the courtroom, characterizing the decision as “political interference.”

“This is a case that never should have been brought," he said.

At 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, hours before the trial’s final day was set to begin, Nassau County police said they responded to a “swatting incident” at Engoron’s Great Neck home. Nothing amiss was found at the location, officials said.

The false report comes days after a fake emergency call reporting a shooting at the home of the judge overseeing Trump’s Capitol attack criminal case in Washington, D.C. The two incidents follow a spate of similar false reports at the homes of public officials in recent days.

On Wednesday, Engoron had nixed an unusual plan by Trump to deliver his own closing remarks in the courtroom, in addition to summations from his legal team, after lawyers for the former president would not agree to the judge’s demand that he stick to “relevant” matters."

Stick to "relevant" matters? I suppose it doesn't hurt to ask.

But if a cult leader can't talk about how magnets don't work underwater, or how Abe Lincoln should have negotiated a settlement of the Civil War as part of his testimony in a business fraud case, you have to admit there can be no justice in this country until a violent government coup takes place and a crazy wannabe dictator who talks about wanting to fuck his own daughter is put in charge.

Just ask the rubes wandering around the mall, if you can find one that is still open. They will tell you in straight talk.

If an aging loved one (of an R voter) talked directly to that R voter the way Trump talks, the R voter would be having conversations along the lines of those in a heartfelt thread on the Off Topic board.

And yet.

[Sparko]

I tell you Mich and Randy are stubborn. They still check their gasoline levels with an old-fashioned friction match.

[jfish26]

Speaking of flailing.

https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/174575 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

NEW: In his fight for immunity from prosecution, Donald Trump’s latest refrain is that the campaign was ‘long over’ by the time he pressured states to overturn the results.

But that’s not what he told supporters — or the Supreme Court — at the time.

I said at the outset of all of this, right when the document charges came out, that the single most important person on Trump’s legal team was going to be the person in charge of managing and coordinating the case-specific teams.

Time and again they’ve stepped in it by making contradictory arguments.

Of course that’s what happens when neither the facts nor the law are on your side.

[Overlander]

Speaking of flailing.

https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/174575 ... q_-8Yt1KMA

NEW: In his fight for immunity from prosecution, Donald Trump’s latest refrain is that the campaign was ‘long over’ by the time he pressured states to overturn the results.

But that’s not what he told supporters — or the Supreme Court — at the time.

I said at the outset of all of this, right when the document charges came out, that the single most important person on Trump’s legal team was going to be the person in charge of managing and coordinating the case-specific teams.

Time and again they’ve stepped in it by making contradictory arguments.

Of course that’s what happens when neither the facts nor the law are on your side.

Impossible to keep track of all of those lies

[Shirley]

Lol, you go, Fani!

Jan 14, 2024 DA Fani Willis defends her decision to appoint Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, without naming him, while speaking at Atlanta's Big Bethel AME Church. This comes after allegations that the two formed an "improper" relationship, among other allegations.

Fani Willis defends hiring special prosecutor in Trump election case | FOX 5 News

[Shirley]

(Hard to believe this was the next to last thread on the first page.)

@judgeluttig
The brilliant Roger Parloff of
@Lawfare
may well have blown Trump v. Anderson wide open.

What Justice Scalia Thought About Whether Presidents Are “Officers of the United States”

In a 2014 concurrence and a short letter elaborating on it, Scalia indicated that the president was an “officer of the United States.” [...]