No Warning Needed: Just Pull the Trigger

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There are people we see on television who talk about the possibility of the former guy getting indicted …I’m not really on board with the giddiness some of them exhibit. Most news people try to (and often succeed at) hold back any emotional response. It might be for this reason: Donald J. Trump has built a career out of getting away with it, “ii’ being a multitude of illegal activity. Until one of these attorneys general, federal and state, gets in front of a bank of microphones and says Donald J. Trump has been charged with felonies, I don’t believe it.

Steve Bannon was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress and was sentenced to four months … That’s it? Sheesh, and the judge said Bannon could go free while his attorneys appealed his sentence. If Trump’s lead co-conspirator gets to walk free, I’m not the least bit convinced DJT will even see the inside of a holding cell, let alone a courtroom where a jury of his peers will decide his fate.

Roughly 300 2020 election deniers are running for public office across the nation. Even after the Select Committee on January 6 Insurrection proved Trump knew he was lying about the 2020 election, that is was was rigged and fraudulent. Trump and his allies have convinced their base the Select Committee is a witch hunt.

That crazy Trump Cult.

If one of those attorneys general who are investigating the “alleged” crimes of Donald J. Trump doesn’t pull the trigger soon, I fear Trump will weasel his way out of his legal troubles. The state of Georgia has audio evidence of Trump committing the crime of attempted election fraud. The state of New York has the evidence to prove he committed financial crimes and the Department of Justice has the election fraud claims in Georgia, but they also have a slam dunk, open and shut case of Trump stealing U.S. documents, including classified information about China and Iran’s nuclear status.

We can also say the Select Committee on the January 6, 2021 Insurrection has proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Donald J. Trump — while a sitting president — fomented and participated in a failed coup d’état that attempted to steal the election results of 2020 and supplant the legally elected president with an orange-faced autocrat (Trump, if you were wondering).

Hundreds of the criminals that crashed into the capitol pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. Hundreds more are waiting to be tried, including the leaders of the Oath Keepers who were recently indicted for seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the January 6, 2021 failed insurrection.

That’s fine, needed and appropriate even, but if the DoJ is going to prosecute the rank and file seditionists then they need to start dropping indictments on the leaders — including Donald J. Trump. The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, has mountains of testimony and evidence that shows a consciousness of guilt for all the top criminals in that conspiracy — especially Donald J. Trump. In their latest public hearing the committee showed evidence and testimony that Trump was told — by his own advisors — he had lost the 2020 presidential election and he chose to spread the Big Lie instead, using it to whip up his cult so they would lay siege to the U.S. capitol in a failed coup.

The committee has the evidence Trump broke the laws.

Then of course there is the issue of the stolen documents.

Who knew the Florida golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, could be such a target rich environment for unsecured classified U.S. documents? Foreign spies knew. The information could (probably does) expose the U.S. intelligence gathering methods and sources, compromising just about all of our nation’s foreign intelligence agents.

The question is: Will Attorney General Merrick Garland pull the trigger on any of these possible charges? The Mar-a-Lago stolen documents seems like the easiest because the evidence can’t be explained away — they were stolen from the National Archives. The ex-president has no case, no legal reason for those documents to be in his golf resort. The best his lawyers can do is delay — which they are doing right now —  and then eventually go for a settlement … although there is that pesky Espionage Act. Would the attorney general accept a plea agreement for violating the Espionage Act?

Before the Department of Justice consider the espionage charges they may want to see if Trump and his cohorts gave away — or sold — any of that information.

Yes, we can be encouraged by all the information related to Trump’s alleged crimes, but I’m not ready to celebrate, not until I see DJT is indicted for at least one of those crimes. Attorney General Merrick Garland has made this statement several times: No one is above the law. The time is coming for him to prove it.

My short post script: I watch Showtime’s The Circus for a variety of reasons not really related to politics. It’s a show about politics that comes with a TV-MA rating, i.e. adult language and content.  Somewhere at the beginning of the show that start at one or more fabulous restaurants. In this latest episode they met at a barbeque in New York City, Mable’s Smokehouse and Banquet Hall.

Also, I like John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon mainly because they drop a lot of F-bombs. I fucking love that. I would drop a lot more … well, I don’t use the F-word as often as I like. Jen Palmieri has proven to be a very effective interrogator. She is definitely a character. You should see her interview with Margorie Taylor Greene.

One last Post Script: Filmmaker and progressive provocateur Michael Moore has predicted the Democrats will win the 2022 mid-term elections in a landslide. He predicted the unthinkable would happen in 2016 before Hillary Clinton lost the general election to the Orange Buffoon. Is Moore right about 2022?  His prediction gives me hope. The worst thing that could happen is watching MAGA Cult members like Margorie Taylor Greene and Gym Jordan becoming part of the house leadership.

Maybe if I posted a warning.