Second Update and hopefully the last on this subject:
This update from Raw Story.com comes just as Trump issues a threat to the country in a furious flurry of posts over 40 minutes on his Truth Social platform early Sunday (December 18). He raged at Democrats, the FBI, the DOJ, and then he warned that a “dark period” is coming as the House select committee investigating January 6 prepares for one last public hearing.
My notes:
All of that is based on what we’ve seen and heard over the
past 18 months not only Trump's ranting, but the excellent January 6 committee live
public hearings (10 of them) and the thousands of documents. So, how strong is
this threat from Trump?
I suggest people read Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) that simply
states: In Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S.
444 (1969), the Supreme Court established that speech advocating
illegal conduct is protected under the First Amendment and: “Advocacy could be punished only where such advocacy is
directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to
incite or produce such action.”
I further ask:
Does anyone doubt after we watched the January 6 insurrection to overturn the
2020 election designed to keep Trump in office illegally after he lost to Joe Biden
that his words didn’t matter then, or that they now again don’t matter?
Trump passes the Brandenburg test fully: His words did incite January 6, and they still incite lawless action now today as he promises.
Remember what he said when he told
the “Proud Boys to Stand back and Stand by.” Remember that and what followed on
January 6? In the AP photo note that the Proud Boys accepted Trump's words to stand by as tacit approval for their actions no matter what that would be in the future.
FYI: “Stand by” is
a unique military phrase that means: “Stay ready, be prepared, new orders
forthcoming.”
Ergo: Donald J. Trump must be punished.
---------------------------------------------------------
First Update: This short extract from VOX.com just in refreshes the following main post that follows vis-à-vis the January 6 committee final hearing on Monday, December 19.
Recall that federal district court Judge David Carter ruled (in March 2022) that documents the committee subpoenaed from John Eastman, an outside Trump lawyer, were not protected by attorney-client privilege because Eastman and Trump were acting as criminal co-conspirators.
Judge Carter wrote: “That it was more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021 and more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
Note: That 44-page case is here (.pdf) from the Central District of CA.
Politico also reported that the committee is expected
to recommend that the DOJ charge Trump with at least three crimes: (1) insurrection, (2) obstruction of an official proceeding, and (3) conspiracy to defraud
the United States government.
Eastman, the outside lawyer who pushed for then Vice Mike President Pence to unilaterally overturn the election, also could face a criminal referral for his efforts to push false claims about election fraud and disrupt the process of certifying the 2020 election.
Other potential targets for criminal referrals could include Trump former lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as Jeffrey Clark, former DOJ official who was briefly poised to become Trump’s acting attorney general and weaponized the DOJ to attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Clark you may recall repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment when questioned by the committee, and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Chairman Thompson also told reporters that there will be “five or
six” categories of referrals and also include Trump, which means those involved
in the effort to overturn the election could face referral for bar discipline
if they are lawyers, or to the House Ethics Committee if they are members of
Congress (e.g., Reps. Jim Jordan; Marjorie Taylor Greene just to name two at the
top, and any others now serving in Congress).
Original post follows:
We need to see Trump taken off the national scene and sent to prison based numerous crimes now pending. The January 6 evidence is expected to result in criminal referrals of him and those close to him (pictured below). Trump is a public menace and as the expression says: He is a “clear and present danger” to our entire democracy.
This
Washington Examiner article outlines what I mean with this headline (all
formatted to fit the blog):
“Trump likens U.S. to a ‘person
dying of cancer’ in fiery tirade against the FBI”
First watch below this
excellent 7-minute interview with Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, who talks
with Alex Wagner a MSNBC host about three potential charges (see chart above) against
Trump that the January 6th Committee is considering referring to the DOJ and
the likelihood of those charges being prosecuted are addressed:
Talking about Friday's fresh revelations from the Twitter
Files that the social media giant had constant and pervasive communications with the bureau,
Trump declared: “Such thugs and tyrants must be dealt with, or else, the
country could meet its demise.”
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: “Our
Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI,
the so-called Department of ‘Justice, and Intelligence,’ all parts of the Democrat
Party and System, is the Cancer. These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be
dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Country will die!!!”
Journalist Matt Taibbi revealed that the FBI often flagged content for Twitter to review for content moderation purposes, and he underscored that there had been over 150 emails between the bureau and former Twitter trust and safety chief Yoel Roth between January 2020 to November 2022.
At one point, Twitter
executives had near weekly meetings with law enforcement officials, Taibbi noted.
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk has given sprawling Twitter access
to Taibbi, journalist Bari Weiss, and author Michael Shellenberger, who have
released the so-called Twitter Files outlining internal company deliberations
on content moderation and key flashpoints such as the suspension of Trump's
account following the January 6 Capitol riot.
Trump also wrote earlier: “This (the FBI’s wild and crazy
relationship with Twitter) is absolutely a coordinated effort to change
Election Results! It worked, but they got caught. This is why people protested
in Washington. Our 2020 Presidential Election was Crooked, Rigged, and Stolen,
and yet the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks & Thugs didn’t spend any
time investigating this outrage!”
Then earlier in the week, Trump vowed to ban the federal government from colluding with any organization if he retakes the White House in 2024.
He further laid
out a litany of measures he would pursue in a hypothetical second term as
president to counter the concerns conservatives have raised about censorship in
light of the Twitter Files.
Side Note: Trump’s policy announcement came on December 15 which was slightly overshadowed by the debut of his Digital Trading Card collection, in which his followers could pay $99 for a digital card bearing his likeness.
Some of his closest allies, including Steve Bannon, criticized Trump’s NFT move.
Nevertheless, the collection reportedly sold out and amassed $4.5 million.
I add this: Another
Trump “Art of the Con” – perhaps his biggest to date?
My 2 cents: I can’t wait to see and hear the January 6 final committee hearing December 19 when they address criminal charges they may forward to the DOJ on Trump and others (pictured above).
DOJ action is long overdue. Trump faces indictment, trial, and serious
jail time with Mar-a-Lago documents most serious; January 6 insurrection is
next serious; then others pending as well.
Trump deserves swift justice.
Stay tuned and watch the final J-6 presentation.
Also, check out my my earlier post here and the post that follows this one.
Thanks for stopping by.
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