Witnesses in the various criminal cases against the former president
have gotten pay raises, new jobs and more. If any benefits were intended
to influence testimony, that could be a crime.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Nine witnesses in the
criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received
significant financial benefits, including large raises from his
campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash
from Trump’s media company.
The benefits have flowed
from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a
ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities
filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from
$26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package
barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one
of the campaign’s top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign
staff, where she is now the fourth-highest-paid employee.
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These pay increases and
other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings
against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of
Trump’s social media company, for example, got the seat after he was
subpoenaed but before he testified.
Significant changes to a
staffer’s work situation, such as bonuses, pay raises, firings or
promotions, can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal
course of business. To prove witness tampering, prosecutors would need to show that perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony.
White-collar defense
lawyers say the situation Trump finds himself in — in the dual role of
defendant and boss of many of the people who are the primary witnesses
to his alleged crimes — is not uncommon. Their standard advice is not to
provide any unusual benefits or penalties to such employees. Ideally,
decisions about employees slated to give evidence should be made by an
independent body such as a board, not the boss who is under investigation.cinvestigation.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
All of these prominent Republicans linked Donald Trump’s rhetoric to the potential for political violence. Then we saw such violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Despite the predictability of it — and indeed, the fact that it was predicted — Trump has wrangled control of the Republican Party again, and he continues to not-at-all-subtly raise the specter of unrest and violence as a political bargaining chip.
The most recent example: In his first interview since being convicted on 34 felony counts in Manhattan, Trump this past weekend addressed the possibility of being imprisoned or put under house arrest by saying, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it.”
“I think it would be tough for the public to take,” Trump told Fox News. “You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
This is vintage Trump. He’s not explicitly advocating unrest. He’s not even explicitly mentioning unrest in this case. But he is suggestively pointing to something very bad around the corner if he doesn’t get what he wants.
And as with his recent “bloodbath” comment, the point is not that this comment is a particularly egregious example of a dog whistle to his supporters; it’s that it’s merely the latest in a long line of suggestive comments. The context is key, and the track record is unmistakable.
Trump wants his foes to worry about things getting ugly — and to perhaps adjust their behavior accordingly. The problem is that we’ve seen how supporters can take his comments as a call to action. (And Trump’s comments, crucially, almost never come with an admonition to stay peaceful.)
Let’s recap that long line.
March 2016 (warning about being denied the Republican nomination)
“I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. … I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
August 2016 (warning about Hillary Clinton picking judges)
September 2020 (when challenged to condemn white supremacists and militia groups threatening violence)
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what: Somebody has to do something about antifa and the left.” (The Proud Boys later led the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, with several being convicted of seditious conspiracy.)
November 2020 (responding to an adverse ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court)
“The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”
August 2022 (after the search of Mar-a-Lago)
“People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.” (Even Fox News’s conservative hosts were skepticalthat Trump was in fact interested in taking down the temperature.)
February 2023 (amid talk of disqualifying Trump from holding office)
Reposts a supporter who warns that advocates of disqualification “will have to figure out how to fight 80,000,000 + it’s not going to happen again. People my age and old[er] will physically fight for him this time. … They got my 6 and we Are Locked and LOADED.”
“I think they feel [prosecuting Trump] is the way they’re going to try and win, and that’s not the way it goes. It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.” (A Washington Post reporter asked Trump as he was walking away if he would tell his supporters not to get violent. Trump ignored the question.)
April 2024 (on whether there will be violence if he loses)
“I don’t think we’re going to have that; I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
Trump added to his lengthy resume of presidential firsts last week: first president to be impeached twice, first president to refuse to concede an election loss; first president to try to overturn the results of a democratic election; first modern president to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration; first former president to be indicted on 88 felony counts. And now, he’s the first president to be criminally convicted on 34 felony charges by a jury.
So Trump was giving bonuses and severance pay for those that were favorable witnesses for him. I mean is there anything that this guy doesn't that isn't a scam and fraud?
So Trump was giving bonuses and severance pay for those that were favorable witnesses for him. I mean is there anything that this guy doesn't that isn't a scam and fraud?
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
I think you meant, “you know he’s going to be pardoned. His dad is POTUS.”
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
The amount of knots you people twist yourselves in is quite extraordinary. Seems exhausting.
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
Nothing is more wrong with our "injustice" system than your fate being decided by a jury of your peers. It's time we follow China and Russia and let judges make all of the calls! MAGA
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
Nothing is more wrong with our "injustice" system than your fate being decided by a jury of your peers. It's time we follow China and Russia and let judges make all of the calls! MAGA
"we should execute people first then investigate and ask questions. that will show these illegals we mean business."
-some maga ghoul with a podcast probably.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Hypocritical Felonious Fraud who never brandished a gun in his life yet, magically, is the NRA's biggest proponent will be losing his ability to pack heat in NYC.
I love irony.
Maybe Hunter will hold it for him. You know he's not getting convicted in Delaware. He's a Biden.
Nothing is more wrong with our "injustice" system than your fate being decided by a jury of your peers. It's time we follow China and Russia and let judges make all of the calls! MAGA
"we should execute people first then investigate and ask questions. that will show these illegals we mean business."
-some maga ghoul with a podcast probably.
MAGA ghoul? Yes indeedy Katarina Bandini. With a podcast? That and a whole lot more. “Water boarding isn’t torture, it’s ’enhanced interrogation’.”
You’re watching a slow swirl.
Opinion
Trump wants retribution. That’s dangerous, unlawful and un-American.
This eye-for-an-eye justice is real and dangerous.
Reasonable people can differ about the wisdom of prosecuting Donald Trump. Reasonable people can differ about the justice of the guilty verdict in the Manhattan hush money case against the former president.
But we are not dealing with reasonable people in the Trump-fueled reaction to his conviction on 34 felony counts. We are dealing with dangerous people — and a dangerous assault on the rule of law in the call for state-level officials to launch revenge prosecutions and the threat of federally directed retribution against President Biden and other Democrats if Trump returns to power.
This is so unhinged it is tempting to ignore it as overheated bloviating. That would be a mistake. The individuals inciting this prosecution-as-payback approach sit at Trump’s elbow. And they appear incapable of grasping the essential flaw in their reasoning: that, even assuming the basest partisan motives on the part of Trump’s pursuers, the proper response is to retaliate in kind.
Yes, this eye-for-an-eye justice is precisely what they are advocating.
Listen to Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who wrote in a text message to the New York Times, which assembled a chilling montage of such exhortations. “There are dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys who need to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history,” Bannon wrote.
Listen to Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now?” he asked on Fox News. “Is every Republican DA starting every investigation they need to right now. ... Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe-to-toe with Marxism and beat these communists.”
Listen to almost-attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who called for “brave district attorneys in the United States to step forward and to take aggressive action … just for starters, as soon as possible,” filing civil rights lawsuits against those who prosecuted Trump.
Listen to Mike Davis, a former Republican Senate aide, who is pressing a similar strategy. “The Republican attorneys general in Georgia and Florida and the county attorney in Maricopa County, Ariz., need to open investigations” into those pursuing Trump and his allies, he said. “Then on Day 1, when he wins, President Trump needs to open a criminal civil rights investigation.”
And listen to John Yoo, who served in George W. Bush’s Justice Department and who had the audacity to cast his argument as a defense of the rule of law, not its dismantling.
“Repairing this breach of constitutional norms will require Republicans to follow the age-old maxim: Do unto others as they have done unto you,” Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote in National Review.
“In order to prevent the case against Trump from assuming a permanent place in the American political system, Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents,” Yoo continued. “A Republican DA will have to charge Hunter Biden for fraud or corruption for taking money from foreign governments. Another Republican DA will have to investigate Joe Biden for influence-peddling at the behest of a son who received payoffs from abroad. Only retaliation in kind can produce the deterrence necessary to enforce a political version of mutual assured destruction.”
In other words, Yoo suggests, we must destroy the rule of law to save it.
And, of course, there is Trump himself. “So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” Trump told Newsmax. “Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question.”
One response to this demand for organized retribution is that it exposes the folly of seeking to use the criminal justice system, not electoral politics, to hold Trump to account. As I wrote nearly a year ago, when special counsel Jack Smith filed the election interference case against Trump, “The risks of charging Trump include inflaming even more distrust of what his allies will claim is a partisan ‘weaponized’ Justice Department; injecting more turmoil into an already inflamed and divided electorate; and, most frightening, unleashing a punitive cycle of prosecuting political opponents.”
But prosecutors and the criminal justice system more broadly shouldn’t be held hostage by fears over the consequences of their actions, whether the fallout is riots in the streets or retaliatory lawlessness by rogue prosecutors. Elections are the ultimate expression of the public will, but prosecutors play a different, and also essential, role, in protecting the public interest. They should exercise that power carefully, but they should also not be scared off by the potential fallout.
Rather, it is incumbent on responsible public officials, journalists, citizens to call out this for what it is: dangerous, unlawful and un-American.
This guy needs to be under house arrest at Trump Tower. No phone. No internet. No golf. No going outside. A whole lotta monitored conversations and a whole lotta fucking ZIP IT. Bring the hammer down.
Can anyone anywhere ever imagine POOTWH giving a speech like this, never mind carrying himself in such a way? From Letter From An American:
Echoing FDR’s chat about the fall of Rome, Biden attributed D-Day’s success to ordinary people. “Every soldier who stormed the beach, who dropped by parachute or landed by glider; every sailor who manned the thousands of ships and landing craft; every aviator who destroyed German-controlled air fields, bridges, and railroads—all—all were backed by other brave Americans, including hundreds of thousands of people of color and women who courageously served despite unjust limitations on what they could do for their nation,” Biden said.
The story of the veterans “has always been the story of America,” Biden said. “Just walk the rows of this cemetery…. Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side, officers and enlisted, immigrants and native-born. Different races, different faiths, but all Americans. All served with honor when America and the world needed them most.”
“Millions back home did their part as well. From coast to coast, Americans found countless ways to pitch in. They understood our democracy is only as strong as all of us make it, together.”
“The men who fought here became heroes not because they were the strongest or toughest or were fiercest—although they were,” Biden said, “but because they…knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for.”
“Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it. America is worth it. The world is worth it—then, now, and always.”
“Here we proved the forces of liberty are stronger than the forces of conquest,” Biden said. “Here we proved that the ideals of our democracy are stronger than any army or combination of armies in the entire world.”
D-Day also proved that alliances make us stronger, Biden said, a principle that after the war led to the creation of “the greatest military alliance in the history of the world,” NATO. He continued, to applause: “America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an…undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today.”
“The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending,” he said, and he vowed that the U.S., NATO, and allied countries will not walk away from Ukraine in its fight to resist Russia’s assault. “[T]o bow down to dictators,” he said, “means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.”
“History tells us freedom is not free,” Biden said. “If you want to know the price of freedom, come here to Normandy…and remember: The price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave.
“In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours?
“We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point…since these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist?
“Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together?
“My answer is yes. And it only can be yes.”
“Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time—in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now—it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well.”
During the ceremony, the past and the present came together. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky shook the hand of a U.S. veteran in a wheelchair. When the man tried to kiss Zelensky’s hand, the Ukraine president instead stooped and hugged him. “You’re the savior of the people,” the man said. Zelensky answered, “You saved Europe.” The exchange continued: “You’re my hero.” “No, you are our hero.”
As the crowd cheered, the old man turned to look at the younger one and said, “I pray for you.”
Comments
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Trump’s many dog whistles about unrest and violence
The former president’s post-conviction comment about a “breaking point” follows a long line of suggestive comments. The thrust is unmistakable.
Before the 2016 election, Marco Rubio warned about it. Ted Cruz warned about it. Nikki Haleywarned about it. Rick Perry even previewed it in an eerily prescient way.
All of these prominent Republicans linked Donald Trump’s rhetoric to the potential for political violence. Then we saw such violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Despite the predictability of it — and indeed, the fact that it was predicted — Trump has wrangled control of the Republican Party again, and he continues to not-at-all-subtly raise the specter of unrest and violence as a political bargaining chip.
The most recent example: In his first interview since being convicted on 34 felony counts in Manhattan, Trump this past weekend addressed the possibility of being imprisoned or put under house arrest by saying, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it.”
“I think it would be tough for the public to take,” Trump told Fox News. “You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
This is vintage Trump. He’s not explicitly advocating unrest. He’s not even explicitly mentioning unrest in this case. But he is suggestively pointing to something very bad around the corner if he doesn’t get what he wants.
And as with his recent “bloodbath” comment, the point is not that this comment is a particularly egregious example of a dog whistle to his supporters; it’s that it’s merely the latest in a long line of suggestive comments. The context is key, and the track record is unmistakable.
Trump wants his foes to worry about things getting ugly — and to perhaps adjust their behavior accordingly. The problem is that we’ve seen how supporters can take his comments as a call to action. (And Trump’s comments, crucially, almost never come with an admonition to stay peaceful.)
Let’s recap that long line.
March 2016 (warning about being denied the Republican nomination)
“I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. … I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
August 2016 (warning about Hillary Clinton picking judges)
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”
March 2019
“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
May 2020
Amid racial justice protests, tweets a video featuring a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” (the supporter clarified he wasn’t being literal). A day later, tweets, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
September 2020 (when challenged to condemn white supremacists and militia groups threatening violence)
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what: Somebody has to do something about antifa and the left.” (The Proud Boys later led the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, with several being convicted of seditious conspiracy.)
November 2020 (responding to an adverse ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court)
“The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”
August 2022 (after the search of Mar-a-Lago)
“People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.” (Even Fox News’s conservative hosts were skepticalthat Trump was in fact interested in taking down the temperature.)
February 2023 (amid talk of disqualifying Trump from holding office)
Reposts a supporter who warns that advocates of disqualification “will have to figure out how to fight 80,000,000 + it’s not going to happen again. People my age and old[er] will physically fight for him this time. … They got my 6 and we Are Locked and LOADED.”
March 2023 (before his Manhattan indictment)
“What kind of person can charge another person … with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?”
Trump added, “OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”
January 2024
“I think they feel [prosecuting Trump] is the way they’re going to try and win, and that’s not the way it goes. It’ll be bedlam in the country. It’s a very bad thing. It’s a very bad precedent. As we said, it’s the opening of a Pandora’s box.” (A Washington Post reporter asked Trump as he was walking away if he would tell his supporters not to get violent. Trump ignored the question.)
April 2024 (on whether there will be violence if he loses)
“I don’t think we’re going to have that; I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/03/trumps-many-dog-whistles-about-unrest-violence/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Trump added to his lengthy resume of presidential firsts last week: first president to be impeached twice, first president to refuse to concede an election loss; first president to try to overturn the results of a democratic election; first modern president to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration; first former president to be indicted on 88 felony counts. And now, he’s the first president to be criminally convicted on 34 felony charges by a jury.
So much winning!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/03/opinions/trump-conviction-former-press-team-grisham-farah-griffin/index.html
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Another SIR story...STAGGERING
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
I love irony.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-some maga ghoul with a podcast probably.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
that term applies to anybody convicted of a felony, whether they are in jail or not. someone convicted is called a convict.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
don the con is a con. vict
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
You’re watching a slow swirl.
Opinion
This eye-for-an-eye justice is real and dangerous.
Reasonable people can differ about the wisdom of prosecuting Donald Trump. Reasonable people can differ about the justice of the guilty verdict in the Manhattan hush money case against the former president.
But we are not dealing with reasonable people in the Trump-fueled reaction to his conviction on 34 felony counts. We are dealing with dangerous people — and a dangerous assault on the rule of law in the call for state-level officials to launch revenge prosecutions and the threat of federally directed retribution against President Biden and other Democrats if Trump returns to power.
This is so unhinged it is tempting to ignore it as overheated bloviating. That would be a mistake. The individuals inciting this prosecution-as-payback approach sit at Trump’s elbow. And they appear incapable of grasping the essential flaw in their reasoning: that, even assuming the basest partisan motives on the part of Trump’s pursuers, the proper response is to retaliate in kind.
Yes, this eye-for-an-eye justice is precisely what they are advocating.
Listen to Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, who wrote in a text message to the New York Times, which assembled a chilling montage of such exhortations. “There are dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys who need to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history,” Bannon wrote.
Listen to Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now?” he asked on Fox News. “Is every Republican DA starting every investigation they need to right now. ... Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe-to-toe with Marxism and beat these communists.”
Listen to almost-attorney general Jeffrey Clark, who called for “brave district attorneys in the United States to step forward and to take aggressive action … just for starters, as soon as possible,” filing civil rights lawsuits against those who prosecuted Trump.
Listen to Mike Davis, a former Republican Senate aide, who is pressing a similar strategy. “The Republican attorneys general in Georgia and Florida and the county attorney in Maricopa County, Ariz., need to open investigations” into those pursuing Trump and his allies, he said. “Then on Day 1, when he wins, President Trump needs to open a criminal civil rights investigation.”
And listen to John Yoo, who served in George W. Bush’s Justice Department and who had the audacity to cast his argument as a defense of the rule of law, not its dismantling.
“Repairing this breach of constitutional norms will require Republicans to follow the age-old maxim: Do unto others as they have done unto you,” Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote in National Review.
“In order to prevent the case against Trump from assuming a permanent place in the American political system, Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents,” Yoo continued. “A Republican DA will have to charge Hunter Biden for fraud or corruption for taking money from foreign governments. Another Republican DA will have to investigate Joe Biden for influence-peddling at the behest of a son who received payoffs from abroad. Only retaliation in kind can produce the deterrence necessary to enforce a political version of mutual assured destruction.”
In other words, Yoo suggests, we must destroy the rule of law to save it.
And, of course, there is Trump himself. “So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” Trump told Newsmax. “Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question.”
One response to this demand for organized retribution is that it exposes the folly of seeking to use the criminal justice system, not electoral politics, to hold Trump to account. As I wrote nearly a year ago, when special counsel Jack Smith filed the election interference case against Trump, “The risks of charging Trump include inflaming even more distrust of what his allies will claim is a partisan ‘weaponized’ Justice Department; injecting more turmoil into an already inflamed and divided electorate; and, most frightening, unleashing a punitive cycle of prosecuting political opponents.”
But prosecutors and the criminal justice system more broadly shouldn’t be held hostage by fears over the consequences of their actions, whether the fallout is riots in the streets or retaliatory lawlessness by rogue prosecutors. Elections are the ultimate expression of the public will, but prosecutors play a different, and also essential, role, in protecting the public interest. They should exercise that power carefully, but they should also not be scared off by the potential fallout.
Rather, it is incumbent on responsible public officials, journalists, citizens to call out this for what it is: dangerous, unlawful and un-American.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/05/trump-verdict-bannon-retribution/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
This guy needs to be under house arrest at Trump Tower. No phone. No internet. No golf. No going outside.
A whole lotta monitored conversations and a whole lotta fucking ZIP IT. Bring the hammer down.
He's a fucking convict. Treat him as one.
Echoing FDR’s chat about the fall of Rome, Biden attributed D-Day’s success to ordinary people. “Every soldier who stormed the beach, who dropped by parachute or landed by glider; every sailor who manned the thousands of ships and landing craft; every aviator who destroyed German-controlled air fields, bridges, and railroads—all—all were backed by other brave Americans, including hundreds of thousands of people of color and women who courageously served despite unjust limitations on what they could do for their nation,” Biden said.
The story of the veterans “has always been the story of America,” Biden said. “Just walk the rows of this cemetery…. Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side, officers and enlisted, immigrants and native-born. Different races, different faiths, but all Americans. All served with honor when America and the world needed them most.”
“Millions back home did their part as well. From coast to coast, Americans found countless ways to pitch in. They understood our democracy is only as strong as all of us make it, together.”
“The men who fought here became heroes not because they were the strongest or toughest or were fiercest—although they were,” Biden said, “but because they…knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for.”
“Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it. America is worth it. The world is worth it—then, now, and always.”
“Here we proved the forces of liberty are stronger than the forces of conquest,” Biden said. “Here we proved that the ideals of our democracy are stronger than any army or combination of armies in the entire world.”
D-Day also proved that alliances make us stronger, Biden said, a principle that after the war led to the creation of “the greatest military alliance in the history of the world,” NATO. He continued, to applause: “America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an…undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today.”
“The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending,” he said, and he vowed that the U.S., NATO, and allied countries will not walk away from Ukraine in its fight to resist Russia’s assault. “[T]o bow down to dictators,” he said, “means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.”
“History tells us freedom is not free,” Biden said. “If you want to know the price of freedom, come here to Normandy…and remember: The price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave.
“In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is: In our hour of trial, will we do ours?
“We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point…since these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist?
“Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together?
“My answer is yes. And it only can be yes.”
“Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time—in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now—it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well.”
During the ceremony, the past and the present came together. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky shook the hand of a U.S. veteran in a wheelchair. When the man tried to kiss Zelensky’s hand, the Ukraine president instead stooped and hugged him. “You’re the savior of the people,” the man said. Zelensky answered, “You saved Europe.” The exchange continued: “You’re my hero.” “No, you are our hero.”
As the crowd cheered, the old man turned to look at the younger one and said, “I pray for you.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7662GDOR_z/?igsh=MWNtbTQ3dWZib3N1Ng==
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
VANCE
BURGUM
RUBIO
SCOTT
CARSON
STEFANIK
DONALDS
COTTON
Fucking yuck. My money's been on Stefanik for a while though. She's probably his best option out of all of these garbage humans.
www.headstonesband.com
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/politics/video/dr-phil-trump-retribution-interview-newsnight-digvid
www.headstonesband.com