Monday, June 12, 2023

Trump 2nd Indictment: Two More Possibly Forthcoming & He Has No Remorse

He is correct and he’s in the driver's seat

From THE HILL via Yahoo.news is the below headline that is gaining Republican traction in their attacks saying that the federal government is weaponized.

That seems to be catching on across a wide swath of the GOP giving them more ammo in their months-long crusade against the Biden administration in their support of Trump and his indictment. The story headline:

“Trump’s indictment fuels GOP’s anger over DOJ’s weaponization”

In the eyes of Trump’s staunchest GOP allies on Capitol Hill, the indictment of President Biden’s chief political opponent, and the result of the DOJ’s investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, is the ultimate piece of evidence that the DOJ has been politicized and weaponized.

Examples:

GOP House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in an interview with FOX News: “The indictment of Trump is going to disrupt the nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all which is not being seen today.”

GOP House Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in a statement: “The American people are smart and understand this is the epitome of the illegal and unprecedented weaponization of the federal government against Joe Biden’s leading opponent, President Donald J. Trump.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on Twitter: “A sitting president arresting his political opponent is the ultimate weaponization of government.”

GOP Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) mounted a call to action: We ought to defund and dismantle the DOJ. I stand with President Trump.”

More details from fine article follow at the link above or here: 

Plus these related Trump indictment stories also from The Hill:

1. What’s next with Trump’s indictment & campaign plans

2. DEMS claim indictment shows Trump not above the law

3. GOP sees unequal treatment & conflict of interest in Trump’s indictment

4. GOP Senate leaders break with House members on Trump’s indictment

My 2 Cents: What this “new” owned and now apparently operated and run Trump GOP forgets is while blaming the DEMS and Biden and yes, even Hillary Clinton is that they skip the facts in favor of hype – which is a classic skilled GOP and has been for decades. 

Their tactics has 6-main points that they deploy on any issue of this magnitude and importance and that is to: Duck, dodge, deny, distract, deflect, and deny reality in favor of lies and disproven hype.

Just like the long-forgotten GOP hunt to bring down Hillary Clinton in 2016 while running against Trump – quite long but needed reminder at this time:

Clinton’s email vs. Trump’s docs in an excellent article from SALON and from an excellent writer, Heather Digby Parton, who nails it and the GOP nutcases. Key parts of that article follow in a summary of her fine history lesson with this SALON headline (formatted to fit the blog):

“No, Trump's classified document haul is nothing like Hillary Clinton's emails”

Digby Parton writes: “So when you see these Republicans emitting their epic whines about how unfair all this is because Hillary didn't get indicted because they didn't get the Clinton story right in the first place. A few have since stepped up to point out that Clinton didn't refuse to cooperate with the government, as Trump did, although Trump and his accomplices will no doubt cry inanely about her “bleaching the emails and smashing the phones. That will be enough to sustain their argument. And, Trump might say “Russia, if you're listening again.” 

The History: Clinton copied all work emails at home back to the State Department system so they had them. The DOJ IG issued a report in 2018 about the FBI Investigation and determined that the people tasked with marking documents as classified had not done so clearly. 

Moreover, only three email chains “contained any classification markings of any kind, and they were low-priority call sheets marked with the lowest priority of classification, which had info and details for Clinton to refer to when talking to a foreign leader. 

There were no nuclear secrets or war plans among them, needless to say. 

The State Department under Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo conducted two separate investigations in 2019 and found “there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information and that Clinton bore no individual culpability.” 

Trump’s defense right now: He tried desperately to get the DOJ to investigate Clinton (and many others he considered his political enemies). His White House counsel told him that the DOJ operated independently and if he ordered it there would be tremendous unrest from career officials and massive political blowback. That didn't stop him. 

Trump then conspired with Matthew Whittaker, an assistant to then-AG Jeff Sessions, to get Sessions to assign a Special Counsel to investigate Clinton. In the end, Sessions assigned John Huber, a U.S Attorney in Utah to look into all the allegations against Clinton, including the previous bogus “Uranium One scandal” which had also already been dismissed. That investigation didn't turn up anything either

When Bill Barr became AG he looked into all of it and also came up with nothing as well as the 10 Benghazi investigations which were the genesis of the email scandal — and again he came up empty

When former FBI Director James Comey held that first notorious press conference in the summer of 2016, in which he larded with inappropriate personal judgments about Clinton, he laid out the criteria the DOJ uses when it decides whether to prosecute classified documents cases. 

Comey at the time saidIn looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.” 

Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, and Bill Barr all also couldn't find a way to make it so against Hillary. 

FYI: In case you were wondering, the GOP House Republicans right now are considering a new investigation into — you guessed it — Hillary Clinton emails (again). 

See the pattern of the GOP – raise hell, push hype, and failed investigations and alleged crimes and come up empty handed and never say: “We goofed, we’re sorry and now let’s get back to serious government business” – that is not their nature and not in their DNA. 

Sadly, they aren’t done yet … the Trump documents indictment timeline – his second with two more possibly pending (GA 2020 election interference and the biggie the January 6 insurrection) still hang over Trump’s head. 

More ugliness yet to come – so how the public will react is critical heading in the 2024 election cycle. Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by. 


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