The Omnibus P01135809 Criminal Investigation Thread

Christ it's so lucky they were too incompetent to pull it off.

I'm seeing a number of legal experts speculating this.




Indictments for the rest can come later.

Makes sense. All that really matters is Trump. It also lessens the chance of muddying the waters to the point where a jury gets confused.

those six are potentially great witnesses too.

Whoops, I got Clark mixed up with Eastman. Clark is 4, Eastman is 2, Chesebro is 5.

... but his son's dick pics

The Sheriff of Fulton County has stated they are ready to process Trump for any indictments coming down in Atlanta, and that he will be handled like any other perp, including mugshots.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mugshots-ready-georgia-sheriff-says-200308283.html

I do sometimes wish I knew a conservative honest and smart enough to give a reaction to news like this that was more than silence or "TEH DEEP STATE!"

Perhaps when certain You Tube commentators speak up or the Joe Rogan Experience covers the indictment, we will hear from other posters on the matter.

While each case is it's own and this one in particular is unprecendented, the federal conviction rate is staggering.

Of those that went to trial, 99.6% of defendants were found guilty last year.

Of all indictments, 91.6% ended up in convictions. ~8% had their charges thrown out or dropped, only 0.4% were found innocent at trial.

90% plead guilty before the trial.

It seems extraordinarily unlikely that this judge and special prosecutor are going to let the charges be dropped.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-r...ederal-criminal-cases-were-acquitted-in-2022/

What would happen if the trial were ongoing and he were to be elected president? Theoretically would the trial continue?

Constitutional crisis. He might be able to pardon himself from any federal convictions - but then he might not, as the DOJ stated that Nixon did not have that power in 1974.

He couldn't pardon himself from the state charges in NY and GA, but he would no doubt argue that those would have to wait until after his presidential term as they would interfere with his ability to do his job as President.

Which of course would incentivize him even more to make himself President for life.

It will be a complete shit show and might even cause the long awaited civil war 2.0.

That being said, I'm very dubious he'd be successful in another run. Let's hope this question doesn't matter.

Keep in mind that a) there really isn't any precedent for this situation and b) I haven't done any legal research/this isn't my field: theoretically, yes, the trial would continue but of course the second he actually got into office he could pardon himself, even pre-emptively. He could probably install an Attorney General lackey who would fire the independent counsel/abandon the prosecution, or take any number of steps to make it so the outcome of the trial would be moot.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/02/politics/trump-indictment-lies/index.html

A breakdown of 21 of Trump's lies, from the indictment.

It's fairly clear that Trump would not abide by the DOJ's non-binding sentiment from 50 years ago, and that if/when anyone with standing challenged Trump's ability to pardon himself, Trump's Supreme Court would likely find that he does have that power, IMO.

“Can we all agree that Jack Smith is the biggest scab of this strike because god damn that man knows how to write a story.”

Me paraphrasing from memory Jon Lovett.

He seems nervous.

Six full lifetimes. Trump's probably only got 5-10 years left given his hamburger habit.

The one concern I have is that Trump can - accurately - say that he was receiving mixed legal advice and doesn't have the legal expertise to know which of his advisors was correct as to whether or not the election was stolen, whether he was able to use alternate electors, etc.

That argument invites the counter that Trump should not have taken any actions that might incite violence, or even told the public a version of events he knew was debatable, but that's getting fairly murky from a jury's POV.

A taxidermist will be hired to ensure he serves the full sentence...

Shouldn't be much work. His hide is already tanned and he's already stuffed.

The later part I'm not so sure on. They were pretty explicit about Texas case over the election, and stated in a sidebar that not a single one of them would have ruled for Trump on the merits of the case even if they did find Texas had standing.

I think that SCOTUS is ideologically in the tank for big business and the far right, but they do seem to care about democracy itself.

If you are referring to the stunt lawsuit by Texas challenging the results in other states, that involves way different issues and has far less ground to stand on than the question of how unchecked a president's pardon power is.

Enough of the Supremes generally think that there are few if any meaningful checks on presidential power, and there's apparently a Civil War era case on which they can build an edifice to say that it includes the power to self-pardon according to this relatively recent article:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/02/donald-trump-pardon-00094636

The one chance IMO that SCOTUS would not find that Trump has the power to self-pardon lies in Roberts desperately not wanting to seem like a partisan hack and could wrangle one or two of the other conservatives to join the liberals. I would probably bet all the quatloos that Thomas, Alito and Comey Barrett would sign onto an opinion that the presidential power to pardon is unlimited except for impeachment.

The new president would be sworn in on the first Tuesday in January, so there's a bit of a gap.
There is a hint (just a hint) that the suckers are catching on to at least one part of his grift.
Trump's trend of using his criminal hurdles to "turbocharge" his donor base "may be ebbing," Politicoreportedon Tuesday, citing newly filed Federal Election Committee data that showed "the former president's fundraising did not spike as high after his second indictment in June compared to his first one in the spring."

Still, NBC News noted, despite that drop between the first and second spikes, the "single best fundraising day of his entire campaign was the day he was arraigned in New York state," while "the second best day was the day he was arraigned in Miami." To the extent that those peaks may be fading with each successive indictment, they are still sizable peaks in Trump's larger fundraising arc.

"Whether that life cycle continues tosustain itself remains to be seen,"cautionedU.S. New & World Report. The fact that Trump's second indictment — for mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — "is widely considered to be more serious than the first," the outlet pointed out nevertheless, "his campaign saw only about a third of that fundraising power" from the first to the second. "Trump's joint fundraising committee is outperforming his rivals among small-dollar donors," Politico said. "But the new data is a warning sign that further legal jeopardy for Trump may not be the fundraising savior it once was as his committees burn through cash."

His billable hours are piling up on multiple fronts and even the sleazy, second rate lawyers he's hiring through Fiverr (or wherever) can burn through a lot of cash in a hurry.

I can imagine them ruling against him.

They're appointed for life, so even if Trump feels they owe him he has no leverage now, and with the debates over the legitimacy of the court, it's a great way to try and appear fair and independent.

It's not so much a question of leverage. It's a question of being true believers. I think that in particular Thomas and Alito just naturally would think in a vacuum that a president has the power to pardon himself and/or would be willing to rule that way for a Republican and would be shameless about the obvious problem it presents.

I'm So Excited!
He's Re-indicted!
He's about to go to jail
And I think I like it!

As my vet told me about my dog, he's one potato chip away from a heart attack.

I think they saved the good stuff for last.

When you're done but they keep indictin'.

I am glad they are doing this, and I am glad this jack guy is moving it along. Garland took way too long to appoint a special counsel, and he was Biden's pick to do nothing and drag his feet.

This is at least a year too long, and the reasons we even have the question of whether or not trump can become president while charged is because these charges were dragged out for a performance. I could get the classified documents delay because it was standard practice to ask politely and wait for classified documents to be returned, and it took time for trump to actually withhold them. The delay in this is not the fault of Jack Dorsey, but is firmly on Merrick Garland, and on the guy who appointed such a weak little bitch.

As we can see, even if Obama did get that appointment to SCOTUS through Alito and Thomas would have bullied his worthless ass into submission.

I am still not there in thinking Trump will ever land in jail, but Dorsey is doing his job and I am gaining confidence that he is the shark that is not going to let trump go. If trump does get away it is because the dems and repugs pulled him out of the water.