grand jury indicts on 7 charges, multiple counts, including espionage, obstruction, and making false statements
Trump will be arraigned in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday _ _ _
point of clarification
Although, some Republicans, cry foul, and suggest that Trump is being treated differently in his case, than the other high-profile investigations into retained government documents by former elected officials, such as Biden and Pence, however, the indictment explains clearly the difference between his case and the others, to wit:
The Trump case is not about what government documents were taken per se, it concerns what Trump did with the documents he retained after the government sought to have him return the documents, he retained.
In fact and in law, had Trump returned all the documents he retained to the archives, when requested to do so, it is highly unlikely that he would have been charged with any crimes, whatsoever.
He did not, and has been charged, accordingly.
Nothing more, and nothing, less.
_ _ _ _
Trump indicted, 30 March 2023
... arraigned and arrested, Tuesday, 4 April, in New York City
... daughter Ivanka, who billed the federal government nearly 10 million dollars, for consultancy services, while she was a federal employee working in the White House, which is illegal, said that she was pained, after she learned that her father had been indicted, while her own indictments, loom
... comments by senator Lindsey Graham, and former vp Mike Pence are simply non-sensical, and are analogous to Bill Barr's interpretation of the Mueller report, before what it actually contained was known
... the evidence presents a case against Donald Trump, not Michael Cohen, who has already been indicted, arraigned, arrested, tried, convicted and jailed, for actions he undertook in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1, Donald J Trump
_ _ _
wacko Trump, in Waco, Texas
... wacko* Trump, in Waco of all places, speaks of death and destruction, unhinged, does not begin to describe the mental aberration on display here
E LaMont Gregory MSc Oxon
In 1872, President Ulysses S Grant found himself on the wrong side of the law for speeding, Trump, in second place, yet again
... only the likes of Fox News, little-Fox News, CNN, and sly-Fox News, MSNBC, what accounts for the largely Republican broadcast media, could try and make Trump's visit to Waco, Texas, an important news story, without calling attention to his suborning violence and his overt nationalist appeals to racial resentment.
Trump called upon his supporters, as he had on the 6th of January, to protest, against duly elected and confirmed officials, who loyal to their oaths of office, without malice, and with the facts of Trump's unlawful behavior, for which there is prima facie evidence that Trump had committed criminal violations, prepared indictments against him. Trump describes these officials in racist and in de-humanizing terms, none of which alters their often slow, but progressive march to charge, indictment, arrest, and trial.
How pathetic it is to watch the same media, who took an uncritical view of the weapons of mass destruction, as they did the racist and anti-Semitic rants that emanated from the Trump White House, and his supporters in the House and Senate, and from the judicial branch, and lately from the judiciary committee of the House.
And, as they watch the glow of their star illiberal fading into ignoble obscurity, these same presenters are quick to overlook the racist rants of a Florida contender.
Historians have recently pointed out to the loser Trump that he will not be, as he claims, the first president or former president to be arrested, that dishonor belongs to President Ulysses S Grant, who was arrested, by a police officer, an American of African origin, and veteran of the Civil War, William H West, for speeding through the streets of Washington DC on his horse-drawn carriage.
Grant could not speed through the streets of Washington DC, and Trump cannot shoot someone on 5th Avenue, without being brought to book. * wacko - an irrational person
... those who are not bound by the rules, are not protected by the rules, they break
prima facie, Trump used his attorneys to commit criminal violations, when he knowingly and deliberately misled his attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office US District Judge, Beryl Howell
Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, was ordered to appear and answer fully, questions about his discussions and communications with his client, former president Donald Trump, including contemporaneous notes and audio recordings, under the - crime-fraud exemption to the otherwise sacrosanct and inviolable principle of the attorney-client privilege.
Corcoran testified in federal court, under oath, for three and one-half hours, on Friday the 24th of March.
The crime-fraud exemption states that conversations and other communications between a client and an attorney, which involve the commission of a crime negates the attorney-client privilege.
In other words, those who are not bound by the rules governing the attorney-client privilege, are not protected by the rules governing the attorney-client privilege.
Beryl Howell, a US District Judge, signed off on a request by special counsel Jack Smith to compel Corcoran to testify, after the judge found that the special counsel had presented sufficient evidence to establish that - Trump committed a crime through his attorneys.
In June, before the FBI served a search warrant on the Mar-a-lago property some two months later, Christina Bobb, another Trump attorney, signed a statement declaring that all the materials in the DOJ request for the return of government documents, had already been turned over by June in accordance with the request presented to Trump in May.
Bobb, later, told federal investigators that the statement she signed had been prepared by Corcoran.
This is one aspect of the assertion by federal officials that Trump had used his attorneys to commit crimes, the crimes of obstruction and providing false statements to federal authorities.
This is Trump modus operandi, a pattern of criminal conduct and behavior that he has employed for decades.
Corcoran prepared a statement for the DOJ, because Trump told him that someone else would actually sign the statement, once they confirmed that all the documents requested by the DOJ had, in fact, been returned.
Trump then took that written statement to another attorney, Christina Bobb, and told her that his team had made a thorough search, and that he wanted to get the statement to the DOJ as soon as possible, its author Corcoran was unavailable, but she could rest assured that a thorough search for the all documents had been conducted, and that the matter would be closed, once the DOJ received the statement prepared by Corcoran that he wanted her to sign.
And, Christina Bobb, signed it, including a statement that the signatory, under penalty of perjury, attested to the truthfulness of the claims made in the written statement.
Bobb signed the statement prepared by Corcoran that asserts that the signatory had exercised due diligence to ascertain that the statements contained therein were true, under penalty of perjury.
There are a number of names for what this behavior by Trump, Corcoran and Bobb is, but the DOJ and the courts have their own terms for it, which are summed up by the statement that Trump used his attorneys to commit criminal violations, crimes.
The lawful and duly authorized search of the Mar-a-lago properties was to recover - all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071, or 1519 ... Section 793, is that part of the Espionage Act which applies to anyone who steals US secrets for another country.
Trump is suspected, and soon to be charged with violating, paragraph (d) of the Espionage Act, which states that -
Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document ... relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation … who willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it ... in violation of section 793 of the Espionage Act, can be punished by fines and/or imprisonment for up to 10 years.'
It should be considered that the FBI also found thumb drives with copies of some of the documents on them.
This is why Trump tries every means, no matter how divisive or debasing, including the invocation of civil unrest, to protect himself from fair and equal justice under law.
Trump's fear of his impending indictment and subsequent trial, his Battle of Waterloo, is so great that without regard for even the feeble minded who will heed his calls to violence, like the January 6 mob, whose lives and those of their families lie in ruins, Trump persists with the lie that there was no evidence for the issuance of a warrant for the search of Mar-a-lago.
It is interesting that Trump would use a crime scene as the venue to announce another run for the White House, ostensibly, acting under the self delusion that such a run would shield him from the long arm of the law, which it will not.
There was evidence to warrant a search, and as a direct result, there is now evidence to warrant an indictment.
Trump's claims will now be tested in a court of law.
The ultimate legal reckoning for Trump, advanced a significant step forward, as the result of a 28th of March ruling by a federal judge stipulating that - special counsel had presented prima facie evidence that Trump had committed criminal violations.
Specifically, that Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office.
And, concerning the insurrection the court ruled that former vice president Pence must testify before a grand jury investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
A ruling that signals the courts will not allow the former president or his erstwhile vice president to delay judgement with endless motions to postpone court proceedings.
The truth is marching on.
perception, that is, sentiment, is everything
... In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.
Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.
― Abraham Lincoln
In Waco, Texas, Saturday, the 25th of March, before a crowd of some 3000 persons (in Trump's mind, 8,000) Trump called for -death and destruction, while his present-day minions, House Republicans, Greene and Gaetz, relished in the glorification of violence.
And, death and destruction came, in Nashville, at yet another school.
Perhaps, a visit to Nashville is on the cards for Trump, Vance can show off his big gun, and Boebert can continue her Annie Oakley act, but alas, Nashville parents need time to bury their dead children, and children their slain mothers and a father.
Morning Joe, with the daughter of a former US official who believed that America was too democratic at his side, aired an onsite interview by one of their presenters of some (a very few) of the Trump sign-laden wacko-in-Waco rally attendees, which to be generous, was absolutely sickening.
But alas, it is the affable Joe, along with his ethnically pure cast of Republican sympathizers, who cater to the perception that the sentiments expressed are geared to pandering to the Trump crowd of gun-loving, illiberal, and high racial resentment bearing racialized-community haters.
And this, Joe does very well.
This is what death and destruction looks like, Joe.
... Trump, railroads, banks, and severe storms
E LaMont Gregory MSc Oxon
the fate of a disgraced former president, and his impending arraignment, arrest, trial and possible conviction, is the least of the problems that America is saddled with, due and resulting from, the legacy of the utter incompetence of the Trump administration
... the Trump administration, rescinded rail safety rules, partied as they announced removal of core Dodd/Frank regulation of financial institutions, and removed air-quality regulations.
Our rail network is a very dangerous system, high-risk-taking financial institutions are failing hard and fast, and industry has poured pollution into the air at a rate not seen since the industrial age of the 1800s.
Rain and snow form around tiny particulates that are suspended in the air, and there is so much of it, thanks to the Trump administration, that atmospheric rivers are falling from the sky.
It must also be considered that those tiny (and deadliest) particulates in the air - smog, kill people.
In fact, there is a 1 percent increase in deaths, for every extra 10 micrograms of tiny particulates in the air, above a more or less safe concentration of 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air.