What PR wall you are asking? This morning’s raid on onetime ally turned fierce critic John Bolton is more than another episode of the Trump Reality TV Retribution show. It’s my belief he fears he will live long enough to no longer be President. Even worse a Democrat will win in 2028. So he’s engaged in going after as many people as he can to give himself, MAGA and the GOP grounds to claim “retribution” against HIM when he no longer holds Office.
Think about it. John Bolton is one of a growing number of people on Trump’s enemies list (I call bullshit on him, Bondi, Patel and others who say there isn’t one) who will now have to spend more on lawyer fees than most people earn in a lifetime. You can read about this morning’s raid at Bolton’s home in this article from Alternet. It’s a short read but makes an important point. It quotes defense attorney Joey Jackson speaking on CNN at the time of the raid. He said best case scenario was the FBI was just doing its job. (Trump long ago revoked Bolton’s security clearance as he’s done to others) Basically there might have been credible information Bolton had kept some classified material after his clearance was revoked.
However Jackson continued and spoke to the worst scenario. Trump’s vengeful nature is well known. He has bragged about it for chrissakes and long before he got into politics. One could make a case (I’ve done so more than once) it’s that vengeful nature that got him to run for President in the first place. The humiliation Obama heaped on him at the White House Correspondent’s dinner will stick in Trump’s craw till his last breath. Getting payback is in his DNA and he’s abusing the powers of the Presidency in increasingly breathtaking ways. Jackson sums it up well:
But Jackson said Trump is a vengeful president who likes to pull the levers of government to hurt his perceived enemies, and Bolton — a former Trump advisor — has criticized Trump on national television and in writing.
“Worst case scenario: this is political retribution,” said Jackson. “And if his attorney in front of the cameras, I’m going to say so. Everybody who criticizes the president, if you do it publicly, he’s going to tweet about it, and then you’re going to get your house raided.”
“What does that say to everybody else? If you speak against me, I’m coming to your home. If you speak against me, you may end up in jail. If you speak against me, you’re going to incur millions of dollars in legal fees, so keep your mouth shut,” Jackson said.
That last sentence jumped out at me. Back in his first term when he got Barr to appoint Special Counsels I’m sure Barr told him it was doubtful a case would even make it to court, much less end in a conviction and jail time. I can easily see Trump responding with ‘So what? They’ll have to devote all their time and spend more than they can afford defending themselves. If someone doesn’t go to jail I’m fine with breaking them financially.” That same thing is now on steroids with a pass to do whatever the hell he wants from SCOTUS and an Attorney General and FBI Director who think their mission in life is to do whatever the hell Trump tells them.
As for Bolton he’s pretty damned arrogant so I wouldn’t discount the possibility he had some classified information at his home or office. If only as was mostly the case with Biden it being journal entries about sensitive matters. Putting people through the legal wringer and forcing them to spend huge amounts of money on lawyers is pure Trump. However I truly think there’s an aspect to all this that’s not being talked about.
Trump has committed crimes in his life. Some Civil and some Criminal. He’s mostly gotten away with it. Each time he’s escaped real consequences for his actions he’s gotten bolder. However the fact remains he committed crimes that had the justice system been allowed to properly function he would have been convicted for and right now the only question would be whether he’s under house arrest pending appeal. But the theft of a trove of highly classified documents Trump STOLE and refused to return, and his inciting a riot to stop certification of the 2020 election were crimes he could have and WOULD have been convicted of.
There was ample legal reason to investigate and given the evidence obtained secure indictments of Trump. He only escaped in Georgia by playing the race card to taint THAT state level prosecution. Despite SCOTUS’ almost blanket immunity gift (something they’ll revoke as quickly as they can if a Democrat retakes the White House) Trump fears future prosecution. With each bogus/bullshit investigation and indictment of critics he’s insulating himself. His and his minion’s mealy-mouthed protestations will be Trump is being ‘persecuted’ for his attempts to ‘drain the swamp.’
The fact TRUMP created that swamp/cesspool wont matter. It will be a case of some spoiled kid killing parents then saying the court should be merciful because he’s now an orphan. The thing is, despite the Epstein scandal gouging a hole in his armor Trump just might get away with it. IF the economy keeps getting worse and especially if it tanks even among MAGAs his popularity might get so low as to make this tactic laughable. Maybe.
The point is that Trump is intentionally flouting norms, abusing power and breaking laws. He knows Democrats will have no choice but to again try and hold him accountable. When they do Trump will whine that HE is the one being retaliated against. He’s shameless and part of him knows he’ll never get unending adoration from the masses. Even most MAGAs will lose their fervor over time after he’s gone. As happens with most cults. I think Trump is trying to set himself up for martyrdom. There’s probably twenty-million plus MAGAs that will fall for it and force history (which won’t be kind) to at least make mention of him having had a strong well of support long after his time is up. Yes it’s outrageous but tell me that’s exactly what will happen. Assuming mother nature finally does her job and he’s pushing up daisies.
However major news outlets don’t seem to want to address what I’m suggesting here on PZ. If we survive the difficulties so many progressive blogs/outlets have been going through and we see Trump whining about being persecuted for his second term abuses of power and crimes I ask one thing of you. Remember you first saw the notion raised here on Politizoom, the ‘Little Engine That Could.’
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“Despite SCOTUS’ almost blanket immunity gift (something they’ll revoke as quickly as they can if a Democrat retakes the White House) Trump fears future prosecution.”
Well, for what it’s worth, SCOTUS cannot simply “revoke” a decision. A case has to be brought (and given the current court’s realization that they’ve issued a number of decisions based on cases that had ZERO merits and have expressed some regrets over those decisions–again, you’ll notice they couldn’t and didn’t simply say “Our bad; that decision’s now overturned” because that’s not how the law and court cases work) and argued, and it’s one thing to overturn a decision made decades or centuries ago but it’s the proverbial horse of another color to overturn a decision made just a few years ago. Doing so makes SCOTUS into nothing more than a political, partisan tool with NO real respect for the law (which is their job, after all).
In an already dense article I didn’t want to bog it down further with “process” stuff but I’m well aware as are our readers SCOTUS can’t simple pull out a decision they’ve made and say “We thought about it, or we see there are bad unintended consequences so it’s null and void. Or revised to….” Dude, we all know that. Yes, they’d have to accept a case close enough to “on point” to revisit the immunity decision.
Guess what? The very bullshit Trump is up to is going to include prosecutions of Biden and statute of limitation issues be damned Obama too. So there WILL be cases in the pipeline SCOTUS can take to revisit the issue. Hell, they knew when the six Federalist Society (GROOMED) Fascists handed down that appalling ruling in the first place!
Yes, it would be embarrassing for basically the same people to admit to an “Oops” but here’s the thing. If we can get control of the House and Senate in 2026 and hold or increase our margins in 2028 while retaking the WH it’s a different situation. I’m appalled by this whole gerrymandering war but it seems like Democrats have finally realized they are in a fucking biker bar fight. I don’t know if you’ve ever been caught up in a bar fight in some dive but if you have then you know even if you had NOTHING to do with it all getting started all bets are off. To find safety you do whatever you have to. Trying to reason with others, or fighting fair will only leave you bleeding or worse. No, you kick and gouge and bite and use bottles (including broken ones), chair or table legs, anything you can as a weapon.
If Democrats have finally gotten into that mode, then one thing they’ve resisted by ‘respecting norms’ is the issue of the size of SCOTUS. It’s currently at nine but there’s nothing in the Consitution that sets the number of Justices. It’s had less, and more in our history. Currently there are 13 Federal Circuits (given the workload at least two of them should be split making it fifteen) and a Congressional Act (along with a Constitutional Amendment to send to the states) to set the number of SCOTUS seats at the same number there are federal Circuits is something Democrats can ram through.
AND ram through new Justices just like the GOP has done. When they howl our leaders, at least in Congress should with cameras rolling tell them to fuck off with their whining and remind them of GOP antics with Gorsuch and Barrett. And toss in Kavanaugh. Throw it right back in their faces!
Reform of the courts including SCOTUS is desperately needed and a set of well-reasoned and bases in the actual law and Constitution that point out how several Roberts Court decisions ignored those very things gets us back on the right track.
Let us not forget that the entire “immunity” ruling was based on Roberts, alone, putting up a question to the Court that WAS NEVER A PART OF THE CASE that they were supposedly reviewing!
Both the District Court and the Appellate Court discussed THE LAW and found THE FACTS.
Roberts ignored everything they’d written, and came up with his own question and the six idiots just published what the Federalist Society had written for them.
What was the question Robert’s came up with? I missed that!