Trump is Toast

[Dave Gray]

Elon has restored the buffoon.

[Nicholas Carey]

This doesn't sound good for donny- https://www.google.com/search?q=cnn+...id:QwB-jiM1ang JayInOz

Just from what's been made public, any half-competent prosecutor could get a conviction.

The wild card would be a MAGA-head nutter or three who would never, ever vote to convict getting on the jury and thus creating a hung jury.

Elon has restored the buffoon.

Maybe Elon is shorting Truth Social stock.

[JayInOz]

Nicholas the number of such nutters is really quite small. The chances of two or three getting onto that jury would be negligible, and the vetting process should weed them out, although, you know- America I personally think that days of liberty are numbered for Little Donny Douche Bag. JayInOz

[skuthorp]

I'm not so sure Jay, remember the National Party plant in Joh's jury?

[TomF]

What concerns me more are the plants on the Supreme Court which will ultimately hear the appeals.

[Jim Mahan]

Which is why it's so important that the Ds have a filibuster-proof Senate. Not that it would be an actually necessary step, but they ought to first impeach Thomas, and then add three or four actually worthy Justices to the SCOTUS.

[StevenBauer]

FEB0DE12-7679-45C4-9AEB-113E19CCDE83.jpg

[johnw]

Which is why it's so important that the Ds have a filibuster-proof Senate. Not that it would be an actually necessary step, but they ought to first impeach Thomas, and then add three or four actually worthy Justices to the SCOTUS.

They don't have a veto-proof majority.

[Nicholas Carey]

Which is why it's so important that the Ds have a filibuster-proof Senate. Not that it would be an actually necessary step, but they ought to first impeach Thomas, and then add three or four actually worthy Justices to the SCOTUS.

McConnell killed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations.

[Dave Gray]

The supremes deal the don another blow- give up them tax returns.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/polit...xes/index.html

[Rich Jones]

The supremes deal the don another blow- give up them tax returns.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/polit...xes/index.html

Good news but it's probably too late. The Dems have only a month to do anything with them and most of that time they will be out of session. Once the Reps take over, those records will get buried.
I wonder, though, if the Dems would still have access to them even though they are out of power.

[Dave Gray]

If congress can see them then New York should be able to as well

[JayInOz]

The decision to make him hand them over was really quick with no dissent- a very good sign. I really hope the orange puke gets caught trying to hide stuff he's been ordered to hand over- or better yet- tries to coerce somebody else into hiding it for him. JayInOz

[gypsie]

Is it still clear that the GOP will stick by him?
If they're damning enough, and are likely to get out sometime in the near future somehow, and the GOP tried to bury them. Is that politically risky when Trumps star is waning?

[Chris Coose]

His insatiable need to be seen will inevitably cause what's left of his powerful supporters to become bored in the coming months.
He's done and I do enjoy watching the agony.

[Figment]

GOP has no objection to the SC decision because it sets a convenient precedent for them to go after absolutely everyone else's records when they hold power. Expect subpoena for the entire Biden family tree in January.

I don't think trump's info gets re-hidden in the next session. The current committee enters the information into the record and then there it is for all eternity.

[Canoez]

GOP has no objection to the SC decision because it sets a convenient precedent for them to go after absolutely everyone else's records when they hold power. Expect subpoena for the entire Biden family tree in January.

I don't think trump's info gets re-hidden in the next session. The current committee enters the information into the record and then there it is for all eternity.

I think that the legality of the House Ways and Means Committee obtaining _anyone's_ tax records has truly never been in question. The law is written that way for a reason. Once T****'s information is out there, the cat is in - or out - of the bag as the case may be.

We know that Republicans will "weaponize" anything they think serves them once the next House is seated. I don't think there is any surprise there. Certainly Joe Biden's taxes were released.

Here's where Republicans will wind up in trouble - the "leak" of private tax information about the Biden family tree - which will then result in other legal action. The committee has the privilege to look at, or act on tax returns of citizens. They don't have the privilege to release them publicly

[TomF]

The other thing is that the GOP fully intends to impeach anyone still alive in the Biden administration, starting January. And what commentators aren't saying is that it's a "feature" for them that there's no actual reason to impeach, no hope of obtaining a Senate conviction.

The purpose is to debase impeachment.

In a weird inversion of "both sides-ism," by launching obviously meritless, partisan, spiteful impeachment processes against Biden and Harris and various Cabinet members ... it "proves" retrospectively that Trump's two impeachments must have also been meritless, partisan, and spiteful.

And that an impeachment of any SCOTUS justice for bad action can only also be partisan hoax territory. For instance, if an investigation of Thomas' behavior shows that he and Ginni were participants in J6 insurrection planning or coverup. Or if an investigation into Alito finds that actually he leaked the Roe decision to lock up the other Conservative judges' positions, and in 2014 had leaked the Hobby Lobby decision.

The objective here is to degrade impeachment as a tool for enforcing accountability for behavior which may or may not also be illegal and thus subject to accountability via prosecution.

[Canoez]

The other thing to consider regarding impeachments is whether or not the GOP will be able to herd the cats necessary to bring proceedings in the House. I'm not sure that all members of the Caucus will want to head down that road.

[TomF]

I think you're right. And if (as it seems likely) Trump's iron grip on the party begins to slip somewhat, they'll not want to have impeachments become de rigeur for every change of administration.

There are some GOP elected members who don't want to burn all institutions to the ground, for a raft of both moral and cynically pragmatic reasons. But they'd acquiesce to the destruction if they didn't feel they had a viable political choice.

[George Jung]

Of late, I get the impression the voters are waking up a bit, repudiating the weaponized USSC and Republicans. Not so sure those folks won't have some blowback, if McCarthy et al go down that road. That'd be a real shame.

[Joe (SoCal)]

Justice Dept. Seeking to Question Pence in Jan. 6 Investigation


Prosecutors want to speak with the former vice president as a witness to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in power, and he is said to be considering how to respond.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/u...e=articleShare

[TomF]

Yeah, this Special Counsel isn't playing touch football.

Good. If Pence was halfway worthy of the office he once held, at a minimum he'd have testified voluntarily 18 months ago. In fact, if he was genuinely worthy of the office he'd once held, he'd have pushed the Cabinet to remove Trump via the 25th Amendment for any of a range of things which had happened while Trump was in office. And testified voluntarily to the House impeachment managers for Trump's 2nd Impeachment proceedings.

Mike Pence is not a patriot, nor even an honest, moral person. As David Rothkopf has said, he puts one in mind of the blow-up "Co-Pilot" in the old movie Airplane.

[Nicholas Carey]

Justice Dept. Seeking to Question Pence in Jan. 6 Investigation

Prosecutors want to speak with the former vice president as a witness to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in power, and he is said to be considering how to respond.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/u...e=articleShare

The article keeps talking about Trump trying to invoke executive privilege.

The discussions about questioning Mr. Pence are said to be in their early stages. Mr. Pence has not been subpoenaed, and the process could take months, because Mr. Trump can seek to block, or slow, his testimony by trying to invoke executive privilege.

Any discussion regarding challenging or dealing with election results or counting/certification of the electoral college votes is manifestly not covered by executive privilege.

That is discussion by Trump and Pence, private citizens and candidates for elective office, and not a part of their official duties as President and Vice-President.

Also not protected by executive privilege is the planning of crimes to ensure continuation in power (e.g., sedition, rebellion, insurrection, coup d'état, etc.).

[Nicholas Carey]

Yeah, this Special Counsel isn't playing touch football.

This apparently pre-dates the appointment as Special Prosector. From the article,

Thomas Windom, one of the lead investigators examining the efforts to overturn the election, reached out to Mr. Pence's team in the weeks before Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel on Friday to oversee the Jan. 6 investigation and a separate inquiry into Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Good. If Pence was halfway worthy of the office he once held, at a minimum he'd have testified voluntarily 18 months ago. In fact, if he was genuinely worthy of the office he'd once held, he'd have pushed the Cabinet to remove Trump via the 25th Amendment for any of a range of things which had happened while Trump was in office. And testified voluntarily to the House impeachment managers for Trump's 2nd Impeachment proceedings.

Mike Pence is not a patriot, nor even an honest, moral person. As David Rothkopf has said, he puts one in mind of the blow-up "Co-Pilot" in the old movie Airplane.

Agreed. Pence is an religious zealot nutter like Dan Quayle, and probably more extreme than Quayle. And the Quayles, Dan and Marilyn, back in the 80s, used to attend a church decorated with weapons and a giant 101st Airborne Division shoulder patch hanging over the altar[1].

[1] From, IIRC, an article in either The New Republic or Atlantic Monthly back in the day. Could have been Harper's Weekly.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
While the rest of us were enjoying turkey and football games on Thanksgiving day, Special Counsel Jack Smith was busy crafting a letter to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rebutting the Trump legal team's nonsense.

[birlinn]

Trump?
Didn't he used to call himself some sort of a President, way back?

[John Smith]

It certainly appears as if things may catch up to him.

[bamamick]

Did anyone hear the NPR interview on Sunday morning with the Australian journalist about Fox and the Murdochs? The gist of it was that the Murdochs are a bit worried now that they are to be called to account for purposely misleading the public about the election, and that there was some concern there about fines and such? There was a bit of an aside in that the current head of the Fox empire has moved himself and his family to Sydney from New York, and the journalist, when asked why he thought that had happened, said something about Lochlan (?) Murdoch being concerned about the lax gun laws in the United States, and that he felt that it was safer for his family in Australia.

I understand that freedom of the press is supreme in a democracy, but could Fox News be forced to run a scroll across the bottom of the screen the whole time you are watching, reminding you that their 'opinions' are just that, and are for entertainment purposes only?

And the saddest thing of all is that it wouldn't matter, would it?

Mickey Lake

[RFNK]

Did anyone hear the NPR interview on Sunday morning with the Australian journalist about Fox and the Murdochs? The gist of it was that the Murdochs are a bit worried now that they are to be called to account for purposely misleading the public about the election, and that there was some concern there about fines and such? There was a bit of an aside in that the current head of the Fox empire has moved himself and his family to Sydney from New York, and the journalist, when asked why he thought that had happened, said something about Lochlan (?) Murdoch being concerned about the lax gun laws in the United States, and that he felt that it was safer for his family in Australia.

I understand that freedom of the press is supreme in a democracy, but could Fox News be forced to run a scroll across the bottom of the screen the whole time you are watching, reminding you that their 'opinions' are just that, and are for entertainment purposes only?

And the saddest thing of all is that it wouldn't matter, would it?

Mickey Lake

Well, some of us have been warning y'all about the Murdoch empire for decades .. Rupert creates chaos because it sells newspapers. Lachlan is more of an ideologue and extremely right wing but, happily, nowhere near as clever as his father. A small media outlet in Australia, called Crikey, is being sued by Murdoch for publishing an article here indicating that Fox/News Corp encouraged the Jan 6 insurrection. Australia's defamation laws are stricter than US's. Some of us have contributed funds to Crikey for their campaign. If anyone is interested in helping, you can go to Crikey.com.
I hope the story about Lachlan moving to Australia is untrue - we certainly don't want him.

By the way, we just had a state election - Victoria, where News Corp have run a major media blitz against the Labor government there. Nasty and personal. Labor won in a landslide

[Dave Gray]

My Pillow guy will set it all straight

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mypillo...n-party-chair/

[sandtown]

Great to see the end of the slow-walking justice.

The Drumph will be in the dock in short order . .

in only a decade or several

[Tom Montgomery]

.
Oops! He did it again.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
And now Trump has lost the support of Pat Boone (I didn't realize he is still walking the Earth). That is like a leading Republican losing the support of John Wayne or Charlton Heston... unimaginable.

Even Pat Boone Is Praying Trump Doesn’t Run Again.

[Jim Mahan]

Have you noticed that when the news has a story about trmp that he has made his office at the fake Florida joint look exactly like the Oval Office? I get the strong impression that it is purely for the staged pseudo photo ops, as if he were still president. He also makes a point of calling himself president without mentioning that it is now former, in his grifting correspondence.

Now, according Heath Cox Richardson's latest letter, he's claiming that all other presidents took more records when they checked out of the White House than he did, and he's calling Jack Smith a hitman for Obama.

He's also claiming that he never knew the nazi kid even though he had dinner with him and said the kid likes him, that he gets him. The ashole was born lying, gaslighting and grifting.

I would think a high energy prosecutor with Jack Smith's record, which includes complicated RICO cases, would love to fast-track a prosecution of such as trmp. I would also think that Smith's enthusiasm for the case would be enhanced by the fact that trmp has been given way more unearned deference due to the fact of his having occupied our White House. In that same vein, and like a current trend I notice in newsworthy prosecutions, such as the recent string of heinous mass shootings, the judge ruling in the case would take the opportunity of a guilty verdict to annouce at the sentencing a penalty at the max end of the recommendations and deliver with righteous condemnation.