As a Fulton County resident, I would happily do my civic duty to be in the jury to convict Trump et al. I would suck up to the lawyers in the screening and everything.
Convicting Trump would be a once in a thousand lifetimes proposition. And then I’d get to go into hiding in Ecuador for a few years so I don’t get murdered by Trumpkins!
Supposedly lawyers and judges are careful to weed out people like that. I don’t know if they are actually good at it. Good luck, though.
I would just be honest so wouldn’t be picked, probably. I’ve been called a few times. Just sat there till they let me go.
Last one may was surprisingly riveting
Velshi indictment reading is
two hours. Gonna save it for an extra long walk tomorrow. And this is just part 1/2!
This is all getting to be too much. Maybe I’ll just come back in a year and see how things are going.
Many people have conviction on this. People that believe that the legal system cannot fail so obviously as to allow someone like Trump to get away with trying to end democracy in the US, they believe that pretty firmly. People that believe the legal system is simply too tilted toward protecting the rich will believe that pretty firmly as well.
My take on it is that the legal system probably has enough juice to actually send Trump to prison here, and enough decent people with courage in the system to make it happen, but the political dynamics are troubling. I am not convinced centrist Dems won’t somehow leap in to negotiate against themselves for a settlement For The Good Of The Nation and in the spirit of Bipartisanship. I am scared that they won’t be able to help themselves, that they’ll see the opportunity to fulfill their lifelong dreams of saving a big West Wing Moment to save the country and usher in a new day of Clinton/Bush era common sense centrism. I hope I’m wrong.
Counterpoint - rich white boomers live in a reality of their own making that exists entirely in their rapidly degenerating minds, and Trump is their God-Emperor. He believes a lot of obviously made up nonsense. They all do.
My concern is more for him to spend time in jail the following has to happen
No plea is offered
He has to be convicted by a unanimous jury
He has to be sentenced to prison
He has to not be elected president
He has to exhaust all appeals
He has to not be successful at SCOTUS
He has to live through all this
Then he ends up in jail
To think that is all greater than 50% probability seems well bold.
Same I’m more excited for this than Oppenheimer. A great story and you know it’s true AND it may yet have a happy ending.
Just finished the federal indictment, the GA one is huge so I guess I’ll have to power through.
My feeling is that sending Trump to jail is impractical because of Secret Service details etc. I think if laws have to be passed or executive orders made such that he can serve any sentence at home, it will be done.
I very much doubt he will be pardoned though. Perhaps by an R governor if that is possible, but not by any D. The thing is that The System, writ large, does not give a shit about him and would be happy to see him buried.
Are secret service details ever practical? I’d rather be the schmuck sitting around Jimmy Carter’s house 365 days a year than the one in a federal prison sitting outside Trump’s cell, but these guys are paid well enough to deal with it or find another job. I’m sure there’s some cheesy low-security prison they send mob bosses and rich people to that Trump can chill at.
Another wrinkle is that it simply isn’t GA’s problem how the Secret Service will be able to do their job. That’s good old-fashioned federalism for you.
I think keeping him out of an actual prison would be less about accommodating him and the secret service, and more about not completely changing an entire prison’s operations. They could probably handle him at ADX Florence but the crimes of which he could be convicted wouldn’t justify that.
The thing is, I could easily see the Dems going hard on pushing some deal that lets him fuck off to Mar-a-Lago but includes him agreeing to be banned from holding office forever.
Especially if he easily wins the nomination as expected, doing this, say, a few weeks out from the election would massively take the wind out of the GOP’s sails. They’d have to throw in some emergency candidate that’s been out of the news cycle forever, a zillion MAGA slappies would stay home, hell there’s a chance it would even depress Republican turnout enough to save the Senate for the Dems this cycle.
I don’t think it would be a smart thing to do a year out from the election, but it could be a good strategic move right before it, even if Trump is ~5% to win based on polling.
eDems want to run against Trump.
Why would Georgia offer him a plea?
What can the us Supreme Court do to a Georgia sentence?
To prevent a civil war is just the first thought. Imagine violence starts breaking out if the trials are going bad. Not too hard to imagine tons of political pressure to “punish him symbolically” but end the trial.
As for scotus I am not a lawyer but given the basis of most of their recent major decisions is 100% made up bullshit (historical tests for guns, major questions doctrine for regulatory questions) its not too hard to imagine a world where they don’t put a billionaire, ex-president, gop leader-who is loved by the wife of a member - in jail.
Dems biggest fear is that every president will end up being prosecuted after their term is up. Trump goes to jail then Biden will have some trumped up charges thrown at him by a slanted judge and jury and end up facing prison on some bullshit. This will incentivize all future presidents to rig elections to avoid prison.
This is 100% going to happen.
I agree, but I think the probabilities shift if centrist Dems continue to push a political narrative of healing and bipartisanship, etc., and not whip up initiative to put him in jail. They say things like it’s essential for America to come together as a nation and set aside our differences and work together, but (so far) I haven’t heard a lot of talk about how it’s essential to put Trump behind bars for the good of the country.
