As you know Trump, like his Mini-Me Vance won’t shut the hell up about Springfield Ohio and the LEGAL Haitian immigrants who’ve settled there. The lies have come at a tremendous cost to the Haitians, other residents and even the state of Ohio. Both emotional and financial. It was briefly mentioned in the news recently that a group has gone to court requesting Trump and Vance be arrested and to face criminal charges. Well, a court ruling has just declined to issue arrest warrants. However the court DID refer the matter to prosecutors.
Let’s go back a bit to this whole thing becoming an actual court case. As reported in this article from The Columbus Dispatch in the state of Ohio private citizens and/or groups can in fact go to court to file for an arrest or prosecution of someone. In fact that’s how the prosecution in the case of Cleveland Police shooting 12-year-old Tamir Rice began. The question here is whether the Trump/Vance lies and what they’ve led to, AND their refusal to back down despite the lies being debunked and even please from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine have broken any laws. Trump (and Vance) of course say no. Trump of course will be the first to tell you any statements he’s made are ‘Perfect’ as is anything he has ever said or done.
The Haitian Bridges Alliance begs to differ:
“Trump and Vance falsely claim Haitians are a danger to Springfield. Now, many in Springfield face actual harm from threats that have even resulted in closures and lockdowns of government buildings, hospitals, schools, and colleges,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridges Alliance said in court documents. “Trump and Vance caused a massive disruption to a community and city that deserved better.”
They also note in their filing that not only have Trump and Vance have met the threshold for ‘probable cause,’ but that if it were anyone else  “police and prosecutors would have filed charges by now.” So what are the charges?
- Disrupting public service by “causing widespread bomb and other threats.”
- Making false alarms by “knowingly causing alarm.”
- Committing telecommunications harassment “by spreading claims they know to be false.”
- Committing aggravated menacing “by knowingly making intimidating statements” and “knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of the Springfield, Ohio Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others within the Springfield, Ohio community.”
- Violating the complicity statute by “conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.”
Seems like there’s a lot there to dig into. And it’s not like Trump or Vance haven’t been out there publicly fanning the flames both in speeches and statements on social media. Even ads I believe. The evidence is there. Now, with an election a month a way and Ohio being a GOP state I didn’t expect arrest warrants to be issued. According to this article from USA Today a ruling came down that did indeed deny issuing arrest warrants. However, Trump is likely freaking the hell out because the judge referred the case to prosecutors for investigation! Uh Oh. Especially since this is all going down in Springfield itself. It’s not just Haitians there who are dealing with the fallout from the lie Vance started and Trump has amplified.
What happens next likely won’t happen for a bit. My guess is that serious investigation won’t take place until after the election. And then only if Trump loses. However, should Trump lose all bets are off. If Trump loses ‘bigly’ this could be the case where the GOP collectively goes ‘all-in’ on starting to flush Trumpism/MAGA down Trump’s fake gold Mar A Lago toilet. I think Ohio would find more than the Liz Cheney’s and Adam Kinzingers voicing support for prosecuting Trump and Vance over this. It could make for quite the war in the GOP but it’s one that at some point they’re going to have to have.
In the meantime the question will be whether journalists will push Trump and Vance on this. Vance in particular since he’s (in name at least) a Senator from Ohio. However, there’s a tight Senate race going on and this could factor in there too. A lot of regular, hard-core but still regular (by GOP standards) Republicans, are sick and tired of all the Trump crap. If the GOP Senate candidate gets pressed on the matter he’s in a helluva fix. Either he backs Trump/Vance and probably costs himself a chunk of votes OR he says Trump and Vance are wrong about Springfield and his state. You know what THAT will lead to. Hey, as long as he’s in a no-win situation I’m cool either way.
The main thing though is that if Trump goes down on November 5 he could find himself in yet another courtroom facing yet another set of criminal charges!
How weird is it that he’s campaigning on law and order when, all by himself, he’s a one man crime wave?
It seems to me that what they (45 & Vance) doing amounts to terrorism. It may not fit the legal definition, but it certainly feels like it.
beg to differ. don’t think prosecutors in Ohio will go after Trump or Vance. But the people will file a class action lawsuit against them but the judge will probably dismiss it. That’s just how Ohio rolls.
Well, usually the MAIN person heading up a state or county prosecutor’s office is an elected official and they do tend to pay closer attention to what their constituents want over the wants or needs of politicians. Conflicts usually only come up when constituents have issues with local politicians.
We may not hear of any decision being made regarding prosecution before the election but the more that Trump and Vance continue going forward with their lying, the more likely it becomes that the citizens of Springfield press for a decision to prosecute. And I’d be surprised if Trump loses the election that the first bit of non-election news we hear is “Prosecutors in Springfield are filing charges against former President Donald Trump and Senator J D Vance in connection with their malicious attacks against the City of Springfield and its Haitian immigrant community in particular . . . .”
I’m glad you caught that this is going to be decided in Springfield itself. That’s huge and bad news for Trump and Vance if they lose. I think the whole thing will come down to whether the local DA/prosecutor has federal political ambitions. If he/she has dreams of being a Congress Critter and getting the GOP nomination then this will fizzle out. If they like the life they have/are building and more “homebody” and content to live life right where they are it’s another matter. First things first though. Trump (and Vance with him) have to go down and go down hard next month. I’m sure they’ll carry Ohio but getting whupped nationally and a lower than expected margin even in Ohio will signal to authorities in Springfield that Trump is politically mortally wounded. Gov. DeWine can’t actually encourage them to take a legal meat cleaver to Team Trump. What he can however do is quietly make clear that if asshole MAGA keep coming to town to make trouble state resources will be readily available to help out.
Anyone else would be in jail now. We all know it. I hope that there is such a large Democratic voter turn out that there is no way that VP Harris can lose in any way, shape or manner, despite the magats messing with the results. We need to purge the political system of this rot known as maga.
The one constant in all this political chaos, is the Original Republican GOP has already left town … It obviously has become a very large cow pie … That awful smell coming from Congress is permeating every neighborhood in the country …
Trumpism is a near fatal disease, once you have it, lord help you find a cure before your ship of lies runs aground in Russia or other flailing Trump-friendly country, tainted by his, “Great Deals”, that seem to cost us a comfortable life ,,,
A VOTE for Kamala is the gift of life without the stench of Trump …