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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 17:35:03 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 17:37:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump indicted in 2020 election interference probe - summaryA grand jury has indicted Donald Trump for multiple alleged crimes in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in federal district court in Washington DC. It accuses the former president of charges including conspiring to defraud the United States government, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiring against rights, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. The 45-page indictment lays out in stark detail how Trump knowingly spread false allegations about fraud, convened false slates of electors, and attempted to block the certification of the election on January 6. Federal prosecutors said Trump was “determined to remain in power” in conspiracies that targeted a “bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”. Prosecutors said that for two months after his election loss, Trump spread lies to create an “intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger” and “erode public faith in the administration of the election”. They cited an example in Georgia, where Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in four days even after the state’s top elections official told him that was not true. The indictment included six un-indicted co-conspirators as part of Smith’s probe, including four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election results, as well as an unnamed justice department official and an unnamed political consultant. While unnamed in the document, the details in the indictment show that those people include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Jeff Clark, a former Department of Justice employee. The indictment filed this evening is the third criminal case filed against the former president and current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential race. In a lengthy statement issued as the indictment was released, Trump’s campaign called the indictment “nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter” in what it characterized as a politically motivated “witch hunt”.
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 17:39:15 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 17:42:23 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 20:13:08 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, issued a joint statement characterizing this indictment as “the most serious and most consequential thus far”. “The third indictment of Mr. Trump illustrates in shocking detail that the violence of that day was the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people,” they said. “This indictment is the most serious and most consequential thus far and will stand as a stark reminder to generations of Americans that no one, including a president of the United States, is above the law.”
Here’s some more reactions. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker: “The charges alleged in this indictment are very serious, and they must play out through the legal process, peacefully and without any outside interference. Like every criminal defendant, the former President is innocent until proven guilty. Our Founders made clear that, in the United States of America, no one is above the law – not even the former President of the United States.Michael Fanone, the former DC Police officer injured in the January 6 insurrection: “I saw the Trump-fueled MAGA attack before my eyes. It was calculated, premeditated, and malicious. It disgusts me that House Republicans are heinously coming to the defense of Trump’s criminal behavior while putting up the foundation of our democracy as collateral.”
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Post by Webster on Aug 1, 2023 20:14:03 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 6:34:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump charged over attempts to stay in power despite election lossDonald Trump has been indicted with several crimes in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a frenzied attempt to stay in power. The indictment, filed in federal district court in Washington, charges Trump with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. In short (and avoiding legalese) the charges relate to Trump’s alleged effort to deny the American people their democratic right to choose their own leader. There are now a dizzying number of legal cases swirling around the Republican leader, but I promise to try to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible. The stakes are high. Tuesday’s indictment marks the first time a US president has faced criminal charges for trying to overturn an election. And next year, Americans will vote in an election where Trump looks set to be the Republican candidate. Indictment says Trump knowingly 'spread lies'The case against Trump was announced last night by special counsel Jack Smith. He is a federal prosecutor – a government lawyer who is tasked with prosecuting criminal cases. When announcing the charges, Smith encourages everyone to read in full the 45-page indictment. The document is written in quite a straightforward, readable way, and it packs a punch, calling Trump a liar. You can read it in full here, but here are parts of the introduction: “The Defendant [Trump] lost the 2020 presidential election. Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day … the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.” (Note: “outcome-determinative” means that the alleged election fraud was so big that it would have changed the outcome of the election ie mean Trump had won)
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 6:35:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump summoned to court on ThursdayThe former president has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington DC on Thursday. Things are moving relatively fast. Jack Smith, the special counsel, said he would seek a “speedy trial”, and stressed that Trump was entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Trump is expected to be arraigned – a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant – at the DC district court before magistrate judge Moxila A Upadhyaya.
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:04:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) This is now the third indictment Donald Trump has faced this year alone, but historians who spoke to the Washington Post say this one is more serious than the rest. “Just as the tearing down of the Berlin Wall showed the weakness in the former Soviet Union, the mob on January 6 trying to use force to overturn the will of voters shocked the world and showed our democracy’s weakness,” Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Post. Here’s more from their story on the indictment’s historical significance: Historians and legal scholars say the new indictment, brought by federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, is fundamentally more consequential than the earlier ones, which related to hush money paid to an adult-film actress and the mishandling of classified documents.
While those are serious allegations, Tuesday’s indictment accuses a former president of the United States with attempting to subvert the democracy upon which the nation rests. And with Trump again running for the White House, the charges he faces pose an extraordinary test to the rule of law, experts say. “This gets right to the question of how elections work, how power is transferred peacefully,” said Jon Grinspan, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. “This is really a question about the functioning of American democracy.”
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University legal scholar, said, “The crimes indicted are an order of magnitude beyond anything that has been committed against this country by any American citizen, let alone a former president.” “This is essentially an indictment for an attempt to overturn the Republic and its most crucial process of preserving democratic governance, the process of peaceful and lawful transition of power,” said Tribe, who taught Barack Obama and advised his presidential campaign and administration.
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:05:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports, reactions to Trump’s indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election have thus far fallen mostly along partisan lines: While Democrats and progressives welcomed Donald Trump’s federal indictment on four charges relating to his attempted election subversion, the former president’s chief rival for the 2024 Republican nomination rallied to his defense.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is a distant second to Trump in primary polling, swiftly issued a statement that notably did not mention Trump by name. “As president,” DeSantis said, “I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans.”
DeSantis, who has indicated he will pardon Trump if elected, said he had not seen the indictment handed down by the special counsel, Jack Smith, regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020. Nonetheless, DeSantis complained that the charges were brought in Washington DC, a Democratic city.
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:05:42 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:06:21 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:10:21 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:10:58 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2023 14:14:32 GMT -5
(The Guardian)[/ Guardian) A lawyer for John Eastman, one of the co-conspirators named in Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump, said he would decline a plea deal if offered one by federal prosecutors. In a statement, Harvey Silverglate said Eastman has not and will not be engaged in plea bargaining in the case with state or federal prosecutors. -- With respect to questions as to whether Dr. Eastman is involved in plea bargaining, the answer is no. But if he were invited to plea bargain with either state or federal prosecutors, he would decline. The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal. The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter.The statement claimed the indictment relies on a “misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges against Presidential candidate Trump and to cast ominous aspersions on his close advisors.”
Donald Trump had a private dinner with Fox News executives shortly after learning that he would be indicted a third time, according to a New York Times report. The two-hour dinner between Trump, Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the paper said, citing sources. During the dinner, the Fox executives lobbied Trump to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate later this month, the report said. The event will be hosted by Fox News with the Republican national committee in Milwaukee. -- The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Mr. Trump to attend the debate, two of the people familiar with the dinner said, telling the former president that he excels on the center stage and that it presents an opportunity for him to show off his debate skills.According to the paper, Trump told the Fox executives he had not yet made a decision and would keep an open mind.
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