Updated 01 Jun 2024:
Mitt Romney has joined the GOP chorus, calling the charges against Donald Trump “political malpractice.” He asserted that DA Alvin Bragg “should have settled the case against Trump, as would have been the normal procedure.”
However, local and superior New York state courts have arraigned 9,794 cases related to “falsifying business records in the first degree” since 2015. Bragg “filed 166 felony counts for falsifying business records against 34 people or companies” in his first 15 months on the job.
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On Thursday, 12 anonymous New York citizens found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts: falsifying business records with the intent to illegally affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Any one of these jurors could have hung the jury, gone public, and been set for life as a right-wing media darling. Book deals, speaking circuit, position in a future Trump admin, whatever they wanted. But all 12 put public service over personal gain.
Not Joe Biden. Not Alvin Bragg. Not Juan Merchan.
Twelve citizens.
It only takes ONE juror to hang a jury. Juror #2 answered that Trump’s Truth Social was their only source of news and not even THAT person voted Not Guilty on even ONE charge.
Please save your rigged/sham/kangaroo takes for your echo-chamber friends & donors. pic.twitter.com/EWvjqeLE8I
— Ryan Silvey (@RyanSilvey) May 30, 2024
We are a land built on law
For almost 250 years, this land has been one of law, not dictator. When the laws were deemed unsupportable, we changed them, sometimes with blood.
Law-and-order politicians urge us to accept the verdict of unanimous juries even when they exonerate cops who murder citizens.
Which makes the stock GOP response to Trump’s verdict so reprehensible.
These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) May 31, 2024
How long can our Republic survive once partisans have taken over the judicial process? This verdict will tragically undermine Americans’ confidence in impartial justice. A sad day for America…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 30, 2024
EVERYONE who calls themselves a leader in our party must stand up and condemn this lawless election interference.
Silence is not merely indifference. It is an endorsement of Joe Biden and the weaponization of our justice system.
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) May 30, 2024
In 2016, the presidential race was decided based on candidates releasing lists of potential Supreme Court nominees.
In 2024, I want to see lists of which Democrat officials are going to be put in prison.
This is what happens when you cross the Rubicon.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 30, 2024
A lot of the people calling the NY prosecution illegitimate also thought the first impeachment, second impeachment, aborted independent commission, special committee, and special counsel investigation were procedurally unsound. A skeptical person might question their sincerity.
— Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) May 31, 2024
Silent on Twitter but not silent: Collins.
Silent: Romney. Arnie. Liz. Pence.
Lawlessness has consequences
As a convicted felon, Trump cannot vote in Florida^. He cannot own a firearm or get a security clearance.
Predictably, the noise machine is in full force, complete with media regurgitation (and little fact-checking).
Some easy predictions for the next 24-48hrs:
– Trump's campaign will announce record fundraising in response to the convictions. No reporter will validate it when the FEC reports are updated.
– A hastily fielded GOP poll will claim the decision had no impact, echoed by the media.— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) May 30, 2024
Across the country, GOP pollsters are scrambling to field a methodologically unsound survey, likely fielded over just one night, hoping to shape a media narrative claiming that Americans just don't care about Trump's conviction.
I beg of the media – don't fall for it.
— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) May 30, 2024
Look. The president of the United States is the chief executive. And although the Constitution does not bar a felon* from running for president, no political party should propose a convicted felon as its candidate for the presidency. No thinking voter should cast their vote for a convicted felon and expect that man to uphold the laws of the land.
But will they think? Frank Bruni thinks not.
[T]he trial and its conclusion slot neatly into the Trump-against-the-world worldview that he has promoted so assertively, so continuously and, as his sustained perch atop the Republican Party demonstrates, so successfully. Indeed, the whole point of promoting it was inoculation against potentially ruinous circumstances like Thursday’s verdict.
Here’s what’s not going to happen: Trump quits the race. However I agree with the Washington Monthly (not mainstream news) assessment of why he should:
A president should be of decent character. A president should be entrusted to faithfully execute the law. The trial made clear that Trump is not of decent character and has no fealty to the law. He is a man who had an extramarital affair while his wife was pregnant. He is a man who used a tabloid newspaper to falsely smear his rivals, skirting campaign contribution laws. He is a man who didn’t think twice about falsifying records to cover up his transgressions.
This case has never been about “hush money” despite that news media framework. It’s not illegal to bribe someone into silence about something legal. Adultery is not illegal. Just immoral.
It’s like Watergate: crime (illegal campaign behavior) plus cover-up (cook the books).
And it’s the result of a lifetime of skating on ever thinning ice.
~~~ Updated: 3:55 am Eastern
^ Under Florida law, felons (not convicted of moral turpitude) lose their right to vote. “A felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted.” New Yorkers incarcerated for a felony conviction are ineligible to vote.
* Until the late 1700s, the penalty for felonies “defined by common law” was hanging. Capital punishment was “an integral part of eighteenth-century city life with the execution day as its pinnacle” in the colonies. Little surprise, then, that the Constitution does not prohibit felons from running for public office.
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com