Donald Trump has been indicted on criminal charges related to the classified documents he withheld from investigators after taking them to his home in Mar-a-Lago when he left office:
The Justice Department took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, multiple people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, following a lengthy investigation of his handling of classified documents that he took with him upon leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to reclaim them.
....Two people briefed on the charges say the indictment includes seven counts. We don’t yet know the full nature of the charges.
That's two indictments so far this year. Georgia is yet to weigh in.
UPDATE: From the Washington Post: "The charges include illegal retention of government secrets, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter."
Good
They keep slipping their schedule.
DOJ J6 investigation has yet to weigh in, too.
The "conspiracy to obstruct" seems like the mens rea centerpiece that supports all of the other charges.
Hopefully we'll actually get to trial in a couple of years.
Trial could be next year.
Go Georgia. Go Georgia. We wanna nuther indictment.
I would think what is desired is a conviction. Nice as they are, indictments get one little more than a ham sandwich…
The lawyers on CNN were just saying this trial probably would not begin until after the election. If Trump happens to win the election then he would just have the charges dismissed.
If any Republican becomes President Trump will be pardoned. It doesn’t matter how clear it is that he has committed serious crimes. That is clear. Republicans only believe in “law and order” when it applies to “those people”.
If the trial hasn’t started yet he doesn’t have to be pardoned. They can simply dismiss the charges.
But I’m not convinced every other potential Republican President would do that.
I’ve never heard of a President dismissing charges as if he were the judge. I suppose a corrupt Attorney General could order charges to be dropped. I suppose if Trump wins a Presidential election again we will be effectively a dictatorship and there will be hell to pay for those who he perceives as his enemies.
Will you really be surprised if a litmus test for any Republican candidate would be the pardoning of Trump?
Yes, it would be the AG, not the president himself. Anyway, that’s what the panel on CNN all agreed would happen.
As for the litmus test, I don’t know. A lot of republicans, myself included, have no love for Trump. Personally, I don’t really care if he’s pardoned or not, as long as he’s not president.
I bet a pardon comes up in the Republican debates. He'll probably self-pardon if he wins.
IIRC the president can pardon for federal offenses, not state convictions. Governor in Georgia may be Trump's last lifeline if an indictment on the blindingly obvious election interference case actually comes through.
Lock him up!!
Last year, Georgia passed a law allowing the state government to remove elected district attorneys from office if the state judges they have done something wrong. This was targeted specifically at Fani Willis.
I've suspected for a while that Willis was waiting on a federal indictment to give her cover. It is hard to make a case she overstepped her bounds if the feds get there first. But that requires the other federal case to drop, not this one.
I've forgotten how exhausting Trump is, even out of office.
Regardless, happy day, indeed.
It's the Capone play, but it'll do.
Billy Joel needs to enforce his copyright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQCWY5ynBaw
Hey, tv newspeople,
he's just a guy!
We're all equal before the law, and that means
he's just a guy.
Republican leaders have responded with reckless irresponsibility. Expects calls for violent protests by the crazier right-wing propagandists.
Interestingly, no one has ever seen those "absolutely damning and credible allegations regarding Joe Biden’" ... and never will, because there are none. However, saying it is now all that it takes.
Remember "journalism" (or as we called it back in the day, "reporting") back during Watergate? Where everything reported had to have at least two corroborating pices of evidence, otherwise it would not be printed? Now, any rando "tweet" is top of the website, breaking news.
The Republican Convention wants to know: Prison does have Zoom for the nominee to give his acceptance speech, right?
Not enough. The whole Trump gang need to be hunted down like a dog... or better yet, Gaddafi.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/10/16/death-dictator/bloody-vengeance-sirte
Now that's justice.
So you want the US to be more like Libya?
I wouldn't put much weight on Justin's "insights" such as they are. The question I have for you is what is up with your party ? You say you are a Republican who doesn't want Trump to be President but with almost no exception leaders in your party repeatedly rationalize and excuse Trump's behavior. They are doing it again now. As many people have pointed out all he ever had to do was return the documents when it was requested from the folks at the Naitonal Archives but Trump, for reasons I can't explain, did not do that. Then he lied about what he had and then apparent;y obstructed the efforts to get these documents back. The DOJ has every right to charge him as best I can tell and they would not be doing their job if they didn't. Trump is a man who has spent his entire life lying and cheating and likely abusing and raping women and while President committed multiple acts that got him impeached and no these were not trumped (sorry) up charges. and yet once again your party leaders are lining up to make excuses and do stupid whatabouism (what about the documents in Biden's garage ?) . What would make you say enough is enough, the GOP is no longer my party ?
I can still be a republican and not agree with everything every republican does. I would definitely not fit in with the democratic party. (Not that I view dems as enemies of the state.) It is very sad that so much of the base has proven vulnerable to believing all this nonsense and conspiracy theories. And some of the leaders and elected officials feel they have to stay "in character" and appease these idiots because being reelected is their primary concern. There might be a few that really believe the nonsense but I think most of them are just in character to garner support from the ignorant base who really does believe.
Hey, I get it. What's not to like about today's Republican party. You've got the taking away healthcare for women, censoring history and libraries, trying to eliminate transgender people from society, coup attempts, defending coup attempts, massive corruption (see Jared Kushner among far too many to list), ensuring any nutjob can get weapons of war, and just general fascism at this point.
Oh, but you'll always, of course, have the tax cuts. I can see the anguished conflict that "reasonable" Republicans must have to suffer today.
So you’re basically a like a “good” or “reasonable” member of the Nazi Party? The Republicans are a party of white supremacy, Christian nationalists, authoritarians. That’s today’s Republican Party. How can you remain a member of that party without at least implicitly endorsing those ideas?
I’d like to see Trump executed! 😂
No need to make a martyr out of him.
He’s already that. Better he be a dead one!
one regular commenter here flat out said prosecutors wouldn't have the guts to indict trump out of fear for their personal safety. he's 0 for 2 now. may he soon be 0 for 4 soon.
Evidently Trump’s natural advantage in being tried in Florida has just been amped up considerably. He’s likely as good as acquitted now. Case has apparently been assigned to “judge” Aileen Cannon.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-aileen-cannon-trump-appointee-initially-assigned-oversee/story?id=99956910