Trump Indicted for Conspiring to Overturn the 2020 Election

[Frelga]

If I'm reading this correctly, one of Donald Trump's attorneys said in court this morning that a president who assassinates his political opponent can only be prosecuted for that crime if he's first impeached in the House and convicted in the Senate for it.

What Trump's attorneys fail to consider is that if they were to prevail with this argument in the end (i.e., at the Supreme Court), President Biden would be legally permitted (and arguably morally obliged*) to have Trump arrested and shipped off to Guantanamo, or worse.

*If Republicans succeed in changing the U.S. executive from a presidency to a dictatorship, better that it start as a benevolent dictatorship. "But it would stop with that, alas!"

I saw a screenshot and was really hoping it was another hoax or a joke account. But nope, this is where we are now, ok.

[N.E. Brigand]

In a press conference following Donald Trump's appearance in New York today, he was asked about this case.

A reporter asked, "Do you agree with what your lawyers said on Tuesday: that you could not be prosecuted if you ordered Seal Team 6 to kill a political opponent?"

And Trump replied, "I say this: on immunity, very simple. If a President of the United States does not have immunity, he'll be totally ineffective, because he won't be able to do anything, because it will mean he'll be prosecuted, strongly prosecuted perhaps, after he leaves office by the opposing party. So a President of the United States -- I'm not talking just me, I'm talking any President -- has to have immunity."

In other words, yes.

Maybe a reporter should ask Trump whether Joe Biden could order his death and not be prosecuted for it.

[N.E. Brigand]

Courtesy of Jed Shugerman, dig this 1788 commentary on the new U.S. Constitution by James Iredell, who would become a Supreme Court justice two years later and serve in that role until 1799. Note particularly where Iredell writes of the U.S. President that:

"If he commits any crime, he is punishable by the laws of his country, and in capital cases may be deprived of his life."

[N.E. Brigand]

Mediate has a recording of Donald Trump's sometime advisor Roger Stone in fall 2020 saying this to a NYPC police officer:

"It’s time to do it. Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it. Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either [Rep. Jerry] Nadler or [Rep. Eric] Swalwell has to die before the election. They need to get the message. Let’s go find Swalwell and get this over with. I’m just not putting up with this shit anymore."

Stone is also heard saying this about Aaron Zelinksy, a member of Robert Mueller's team:

"He needs to be punished. You have to abduct him and punish him. That has to be done. It will be easy to abduct him because he is a weakling."

Stone claims these recordings are AI-generated "deep fakes".

Mediate has now released the recording. (This comes after two days of Stone saying that they hadn't done so because the recording doesn't exist.)

[Sunsilver]

If I'm reading this correctly, one of Donald Trump's attorneys said in court this morning that a president who assassinates his political opponent can only be prosecuted for that crime if he's first impeached in the House and convicted in the Senate for it.

What Trump's attorneys fail to consider is that if they were to prevail with this argument in the end (i.e., at the Supreme Court), President Biden would be legally permitted (and arguably morally obliged*) to have Trump arrested and shipped off to Guantanamo, or worse.

*If Republicans succeed in changing the U.S. executive from a presidency to a dictatorship, better that it start as a benevolent dictatorship. "But it would stop with that, alas!"

I saw a screenshot and was really hoping it was another hoax or a joke account. But nope, this is where we are now, ok.

I recently bought the Kindle edition of Michael Cohen's book, Disloyal. The first sentence in the book is "The President of the United States wanted me dead." So, more proof this is not a hoax, but the way Trump (and his cronies) think of someone who no longer is willing to toady to him.

The book is dedicated to his family, whom he said had to endure death threats and abuse as a result of him breaking with Trump.

[N.E. Brigand]

I recently bought the Kindle edition of Michael Cohen's book, Disloyal. The first sentence in the book is "The President of the United States wanted me dead." So, more proof this is not a hoax, but the way Trump (and his cronies) think of someone who no longer is willing to toady to him.

The book is dedicated to his family, whom he said had to endure death threats and abuse as a result of him breaking with Trump.

Speaking of which, earlier today, Donald Trump posted on his social media network to say: "Thank you to Sammy the Bull. I hope Judges Engoron & Kaplan see this. We need fairness, strength, and honesty in our New York Courts. We don't have it now!"

Sammy "the Bull" Gravano is a notorious mobster who personally killed at least 19 people. Now 78 and presumably retired, he was convicted but only served five years in prison because in 1991 he testified against John Gotti and Frank LoCascio, the boss and consigliere, respectively, of the Gambino crime family (both of whom received life sentences). Trump here is nominally referring to Gravano once supposedly saying that he was never able to entangle Trump in mob grift because he was "incorruptible" and a "legitimate guy."

First of all, Gravano's word (not under oath) counts for very little!

Second of all, if you watch a fuller clip of Gravano's interview (from a few years ago?), he actually says that Trump was always surrounded by ex-FBI agents, so that the mob couldn't actually approach him. (This, by the way, almost certainly made it harder for the Dept. of Justice to prosecute Trump: he had too many connections. And he had probably given the information on a few low-level mobsters and thus benefited form some FBI/DOJ good will.)

Third and most importantly, by mentioning two judges in the context of a mob killer's endorsement, Trump is basically threatening them.

[Sunsilver]

Cohen compares Trump to a mob boss:

The president of the United States wanted me dead.

Or, let me say it the way Donald Trump would: He wouldn't mind if I were dead. That was how Trump talked. Like a mob boss, using language carefully calibrated to convey his desires and demands, while at the same time employing deliberate indirection to insulate himself and avoid actually ordering a hit on his former personal attorney...

[N.E. Brigand]

Cohen compares Trump to a mob boss:

The president of the United States wanted me dead.

Or, let me say it the way Donald Trump would: He wouldn't mind if I were dead. That was how Trump talked. Like a mob boss, using language carefully calibrated to convey his desires and demands, while at the same time employing deliberate indirection to insulate himself and avoid actually ordering a hit on his former personal attorney...

Cohen also made that point when testifying last month in the New York civil fraud trial of Donald Trump and his company.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The full D.C. circuit has denied Trump's petition to rehear the decision allowing the SCO to obtain his twitter records en banc.



Of note, and slightly concerning, is that Judge Henderson, one of the judges on the panel hearing the immunity appeal, joined the strongly worded statement opposing the decision to deny rehearing.

[N.E. Brigand]

Donald Trump strongly suggests that he engaged in illegal activity as president in a social media post where he says that "even events that 'cross the line' must fall under total immunity" and analogizes his situation to that of the need for law and order (in hiw view) outweighing the need to punish "the occasional 'rogue cop' or 'bad apple'" in law enforcement, before he adds, "sometimes you just have to life with 'great but slightly imperfect.'"

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Unlike most of the comments that I have seen about that motion, I think it has a fair amount of validity. I don't think Judge Chutkan will hold them in contempt or sanction them, but I do think she should and will order them to stop making filings and taking other actions while the stay is in place.

And ... that is exactly what she did.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that tomorrow is the day that the DC COA panel issues its opinion(s) in the Trump immunity appeal. I wanted to get that on the record now.

[N.E. Brigand]

A prediction! I like it, and I hope you're right.

Just glanced at your Twitter feed and scanned your most recent posts. Saw that you tagged Adam Klasfeld (and others) in a tweet on Tuesday. Did you see that he lost his job yesterday when The Messenger suddenly shut down? (Something Klasfeld and others learned from other news outlets rather than from their employer. And today we learned that the company's CEO had an annual salary of $900,000.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Looks like I was wrong, if Josh Gerstein is correct (and it looks like he is). [ETA: I assume that "no opinions have been released today" probably also means "no opinions are going to be released today." But I don't know that for sure.]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Just glanced at your Twitter feed and scanned your most recent posts. Saw that you tagged Adam Klasfeld (and others) in a tweet on Tuesday. Did you see that he lost his job yesterday when The Messenger suddenly shut down? (Something Klasfeld and others learned from other news outlets rather than from their employer. And today we learned that the company's CEO had an annual salary of $900,000.)

I did see that, and it really sucks! But isn't at all surprising.

[N.E. Brigand]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that tomorrow is the day that the DC COA panel issues its opinion(s) in the Trump immunity appeal. I wanted to get that on the record now.

Apparently Judge Chutkan had the same expectation and disappointment as you because she's just postponed the trial.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Judge Chutkan has officially vacated the March trial date.

I'll make another prediction. This trial is not going to happen before the election (and probably ever).

x-posted with N.E.B.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Kyle Cheney did add following the post that you and I both saw "STAY TUNED: I was the only reporter in Chutkan's courtroom earlier today when she made some comments about her upcoming trial calendar. Details to come shortly."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here are Cheney's additional comments, for what they are worth:

In a lightly attended proceeding Friday, Chutkan tacitly acknowledged the lingering uncertainty the case had caused for her schedule.

“I do not know what my schedule will be in mid-April,” the Obama-appointed judge said at a brief conference attempting to schedule the sentencing of a Jan. 6 defendant who was convicted last year of breaching the Capitol.

At the short conference, Chutkan didn’t explicitly mention Trump’s case. But she made clear that she’s keeping her calendar flexible in the event she is able to reschedule it.

Chutkan recently scheduled the trial of Anthony Mastanduno, another Jan. 6 defendant, to begin on April 2, prompting inferences that she doesn’t anticipate Trump’s trial occurring before the latter half of that month. On Friday, she said she had already told Mastanduno that his trial “may have to be moved depending on other matters.”

For now, evidentiary motions and other typical pretrial proceedings are on hold in Trump’s case while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals mulls the immunity question. The D.C. Circuit’s eventual ruling will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, prompting further delays.

Until those higher courts resolve the issue, Chutkan is unable to move Trump’s case forward. She has suspended key pretrial deadlines that she will need to reschedule if the proceedings get back on track. Nearly 60 days have elapsed since Trump’s immunity claim paused the proceedings, suggesting that even if Chutkan received a green light to restart the case immediately, she would likely set his trial in late April or early May.

Chutkan acknowledged Friday the intense scrutiny applied to her scheduling decisions of late. “My words are always subject to interpretation,” she said.

Chutkan’s comments came as she attempted to schedule the sentence of defendant Antony Vo, who was convicted by a jury last September for breaching the restricted Capitol building on Jan. 6. She ultimately set his sentencing date for April 10, even though she acknowledged she would likely be in trial — the only question, she said, was which trial it would be.

“We’ll make it work,” Chutkan told Vo’s attorney Carmen Hernandez. Acknowledging Hernandez’s own busy trial calendar, Chutkan added, “Mine is a little less certain.”

“I will probably be in trial,” Chutkan said, “one way or the other.”

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm going to try something different. I am not predicting that the DC COA panel hearing Trump's immunity appeal will release their decision tomorrow (the next day that the DC Circuit regularly releases opinions). In fact, I am predicting that they will not release their decision tomorrow.