I confess to a great personal sorrow connected with the 2024 election, in addition to the collective sorrow that we’re all a part of. And that is, that I was so looking forward to writing about the criminal trials that Donald Trump would have been the star of. The man loves being the center of attention but he would not have loved being the center of this attention.
I feel personal loss that I never get to see these court transcripts or read the journalists’ social media accounts live from the courtroom, or listen to Trump lie like a rug outside the courthouse, none of that. Fate in the form of a dumbed down, easily duped electorate intervened and so we will never know what might have been. But Jack Smith’s report does indicate that what we knew so far was accurate and Trump would not have gotten off. New York Times:
Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted President-elect Donald J. Trump on charges of seeking to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, said in a final report released early Tuesday morning that he believed the evidence was sufficient to convict Mr. Trump in a trial if his success in the 2024 election had not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.
“The department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,” Mr. Smith wrote.
He continued: “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Magical words. “Sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.” Will this do us any good now? Or will the guiltiest person in history, who managed to escape the law and waltz right back into power, go scot free?
For more than a week, Mr. Trump’s lawyers — who were shown a draft copy of Mr. Smith’s report in advance of its release — denounced it as little more than an “attempted political hit job which sole purpose is to disrupt the presidential transition.” At least one Trump ally, the former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, has come forward to complain that he, too, might be implicated in the report as an unindicted co-conspirator in the election interference case.
This is a developing story. The Times broke this story that you’ve read shortly after 10:00 p.m. Pacific, so we will be reading a lot more detail about the Smith report and find out what the disposition of the matter will be as to Trump’s employees, Walt Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira.
Justice was delayed and justice has been denied. This is the biggest tragedy in American history, right here. We have a man in the Oval Office who not only is a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist, but one who stole classified documents and incited a riot at the Capitol — not to mention overtly intefering with the election in Georgia and demanding of its secretary of state that over 11,000 votes be “found.” Yet he’s on his way back to power. And justice and truth be damned.
My heart breaks. I know yours does, too. If you can’t get a case to trial, it can be the best case in the world. But it doesn’t matter. We have all lived long enough to see the textbook example of justice shat upon because wheels were put in motion too late.
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Thanks is due to Merrik Garland for his timid foot-dragging.
Trump’s success is largely due to his cowardice.
Why can’t a felon in the white house be prosecuted>>? why does ill-gotten power confer immunity?
Merrick is a timid church-mouse.
When people show you who they are…believe them.
Maya Angelou
That goes for the ballyhoo about equal justice. The LAW has shown us the truth…it’s a sham. Set up by the rich for the rich. It’s a boys club. Anyone who thinks otherwise…really? REALLY? I’m afraid the evidence doe not support your belief system.