Mike Rounds, Kristi Noem, John Thune, and Dusty Johnson have as much prosecutorial experience as I do, so you have no more reason to accept their assertions that the indictment of Donald Trump is politically motivated than you do to accept my assertion that the indictment is the logical and proper result of an objective review of evidence by a prosecutor and a grand jury.
Actually, if you’re basing your opinion of this somewhat historic development in the American judicial system on your divination of various players’ political motivations rather than legal scholarship, you might have more reason to accept my suggestion that the public statements on the Trump criminal case from elected Republicans who for the last seven years have sustained their wealth and power by making excuses for Trump are politically motivated than you have to accept any claim those Republicans might make that they are offering an objective, disinterested review of the case.
And if you’re basing your opinion on psychological suppositions, is it really that hard to believe that a man who told over 30,000 documented lies in four years might have told 34 more lies in feloniously falsified business records to protect his political career?
But back to prosecutorial experience. Shan Wu, a federal prosecutor during the Clinton Administration and now a criminal defense lawyer, assessed the trump indictment on NPR this morning. Where Mike Rounds divines political motivation from his assertion that its not normal for prosecutors to charge falsified business records as felonies, Wu says, nah, it happens all the time:
There’s nothing novel about it being a felony. That happens all the time with the falsification charge. What could be novel is if the pairing is based on federal campaign finance. That’s what a lot of the controversy has been. If it turns out that the other crime we’re talking about – which they don’t have to prove; it just has to be the intent to cover it up – is the federal campaign violation, which Michael Cohen had pled guilty to, that is a novel part because there’s a question of, can the state crime be connected to the federal crime? And that’s usually what all the commentators have been going back about. But having the falsification bump up to a felony – not at all unusual, happens all the time in New York – and even for New York state election law violations, that being paired to it – that’s been done before. The question is how much will the DA be depending on the federal violation? [emphasis mine, Shan Wu, interviewed by Steve Inskeep and Michel Martin, “Trump Faces 34 Felony Counts of Falsifying Business Records to Cover Damaging Info,” NPR: Morning Edition, 2023.04.05]
Wu says Trump is receiving at as much fair treatment as other defendants, if not a little extra favor:
INSKEEP: …are you confident that you could make the case that Trump is being treated like any other defendant?
WU: Oh, absolutely. In fact, he’s being treated rather deferentially yesterday with there being no mugshot, no handcuffs. I think he’s being treated quite equally at the moment. And also, his remarks, you know, really have been rather outrageous. And the judge is still, at this point, not immediately saying I’m going to impose any kind of a gag order on you. He’s cognizant of those issues [Inskeep and Martin, 2023.04.05].
Wu doesn’t smell political motivation in the charges—and why should he? A prosecutor with political motivations wouldn’t hand Trump the kind of conflict, persecution, and attention that energize Trump and his base, bolster Trump’s campaign, and win Trump more money. Wu certainly doesn’t spotlight political motivations as topline courtroom arguments for the prosecution or the defense. Wu suggests the defense will need to throw lots of smoke—akin to the deflections we’re hearing from Rounds and friends— because the simple facts are on the prosecution’s side:
MARTIN: …if you were the prosecutor here, what would worry you most about trying this case? And then, of course, I want to hear, from the defense side, what would worry you most if you were defending Mr. Trump?
WU: I think, as a prosecutor, the first hurdle is going to be the barrage of legal arguments that Trump’s team is going to make trying to get the indictment dismissed, for example, the issue we’re talking about – if there’s a lot of reliance on the federal charge to bump it up to the felony. Once I got past that as a prosecutor, the factual part would not worry me as much, but, certainly, would have to expect there to be a lot of cross-exam attacks on Michael Cohen’s credibility as well as, we are now learning, David Pecker, the former National Enquirer editor, is going to be a very important witness as well. So I’d expect to be attacked on those fronts.
For the defense, my biggest worry would be this is not a hard case for the jury to understand – very easy to present. It’s a man who wanted to buy silence. That would worry me some ’cause it’s easy for the jury to get [Inskeep and Martin, 2023.04.05].
In attempting to distract us with talk of political motivations, Rounds and the other cheerleaders for the defense bring us back to the root of this indictment. Donald Trump had political motivations to keep his adultery secret. Thus, says the indictment, Trump falsified business records to cover up criminal conduct, which is a felony in the state of New York. So talking about political motivations may only speed a jury toward a guilty verdict.
The next hearing in this case is scheduled for December 4 in New York City.
South Dakotans voted overwhelmingly for Trump (twice), so it should be expected that our senior elected representatives will continue to reflect the views of the electorate.
Few who supported – or continue to support Trump can actually admit to what their eyes see, and to what their ears hear. It is easier to believe what you THINK you see than what you ACTUALLY see.
I am somewhat alarmed there will be fallout from that wacky grand jury foreperson lady. She has done a few interviews that cast illegitimacy on her sanity and the ruling she helped delve. I don’t know if she has anything to do with the charges in NY.
By the way, Congressmen Rounds, Thune, Johnson and Gov. Noem- I know people sitting in county jail for months for not going down to 24/7 to whiz into a jug for the state to sniff because they had a sick mother 80 miles away. Is that politically motivated too? Pry not. Cruel and unusual? Indubitably.
“A prosecutor with political motivations wouldn’t hand Trump the kind of conflict, persecution, and attention that energize Trump and his base, bolster Trump’s campaign, and win Trump more money.”
It’s politically motivated – energizing the base is exactly the point so Trump wins the Republican primary and then the Dems claim the presidency for another four years.
The whole gang is stuck with Trump as the leading candidate for the nomination as their Party’s next presidential nominee. They should be looking for wiggle room and I doubt that all but Noem wiill issue any endorsement of Trump’s candidacy. Johnson, Rounds, and Thune are looking for a dark corner in the room where they can slip into the twilight and hide until Trump explodes.
When is the last time anyone got any interesting or truthful information from the three stooges or a tap dancer?
Ron, there are much more direct ways to affect the outcome of a Presidential election. Getting people excited about coming out to vote for the candidate you oppose is a very risky gamble.
Cory, a very risky gamble that I wish people had the integrity to not do but the midterms proved otherwise. The Dems did that exact thing. No one should be surprised that breaking norms begets more breaking of norms. For example, Trump brought these “on less than firm ground” charges on himself by being who he is.
All prosecutions and non-prosecutions are political in some way. Putting criminals in jail is why we elect state’s attorneys. Trump is serial lawbreaker, but he’s a rich lawbreaker who has gotten away with a lifetime of crime. Trump’s lifetime of crime was encouraged by a political system that ignores, even rewards, the crimes of the elite.
Rounds and Thune could have ended Trump’s crimewave through impeachment, but they decided to be political and let the criminal walk.
Republican former Governor now US Senator Mike Rounds began courting Chinese money in 2004 but escaped a thorough probe of his part in the racket or in Rich Benda’s death because in South Dakota local control is Republican control.
In concurrence with and furtherance of Donald’s take, all laws are politically motivated. Therefore, all prosecutions (or not) are political acts.
The genius GOP:
2016: LOCK HER UP!
2017: LOCK HER UP!
2018: LOCK HER UP
2019: LOCK HER UP!
2020: LOCK BIDEN UP!
2021: LOCK BIDEN UP!
2022: LOCK BIDEN UP!
2023: It’s really an unprecedented travesty to see the justice system being used for political purposes against an opponent.
The GOP is trying to soften its complicity with Trump. An underlying fact in his indictment is that Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg have been convicted of crimes they committed at Trump’s direction. This might not be the most serious felony that Trump is so far charged with, but it provides a way to get him before the courts to account for his actions. It also gives the GOP occasion to explain why they fawn and coddle the shyster who has taken over their party. What the GOP fears is the encouragement this indictment gives to other grand juries which are examining Trump’s efforts to overturn an election. The recent elections in Wisconsin and Chicago show a strong desire to move away from anyone who associates with, let alone coddles, Trump. The more serious the charges facing Trump, the more the GOP has to answer for.
Politics? You betcha. The kind that can restore some health to a sick system.
President Obama is shocked that it has taken this long to see indictments.
Herr Trump is under four felony investigations that we know about but since Kleptublicans have no shame or allegiance to the US Constitution anything goes in the Greedy Old Party.
In 1980 Mitch McConnell ditched his feminist first wife vowing to marry a rich woman and now he is one of the wealthiest white men in Congress while Kentucky remains one of the poorest states. He loathes Donald Trump but like John Thune, Mike Rounds and Dusty Johnson sees plutocratic populism as the ticket for tapping into the Kochtopus for campaign cash — same with Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
This stuff isn’t rocket science, folks.
Prosecutors, DOJ, and congress had less on Nixon, Agnew, and both Clintons. All prosecutions are “selective”.
The republicants FAILED to discipline their party, their electoral college selected president – and are now stuck pretending to back a horse as dead as the one found in the Godfather. As shown in the mid-terms, in Wisconsin, in Kansas – republicants will continue losing until they change. The party of law and order is anything but. The party of family values is anything but. The party of “freedom” is anything but.
Ike nailed them:
“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” – 1956
And I suppose there was no political motivation when Sen. Rounds and his fellow Republicans in the Senate voted to ignore the evidence and not take action on the two impeachments of Donald Trump. I have seen purely political motivation in action — that was our Senators protecting the leader of their party from the accountability of his actions. Clean your on house before casting aspersion on others’.
The absence of any prosecution, political or otherwise, in the Denny Sanford child obscenity case might take place anyway after the South Dakota Supreme Court ordered the unsealing of records.
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/04/06/supreme-court-release-t-denny-sanford-court-records/
Let’s see if the knewly found moral high horses of thune, rounds, and johnson proceed with the impeachment of Clarence Thomas. Or, are they implicated by similar trespasses? Inquiring minds want to know.
National democrats MUST discover opposition research. And use it. The Fourth Estate is capable of doing little more than reading press releases and parroting talking heads. Investigative journalism is dead. Thomas’s graft should have been discovered and revealed about 20 years earlier. The US doesn’t have nation press corp. The US has national advertising agencies captive to the corporations.
If “political” is defined as “relating to, affecting, or acting according to the interests of status or authority within an organization rather than matters of principle,” Rounds, Thune, Noem, et al. are guilty as charged since they do nothing but use their office to continue to keep themselves in office as careerists in order to enjoy the perks thereof. Talk about political.
Lincoln, “four score and seven years ago.” Washinton: ” every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country” Jefferson: “we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.” Kennedy:”ich bin ein Berliner.” Trump: “grab them by the pussy”
John,
“The US doesn’t have nation press corp. The US has national advertising agencies captive to the corporations.”
Yet another artifact of the worst ever US President – R Reagan. The end of the fairness doctrine meant no further “news” research beyond market appeal is ever needed.
Richard,
Saturday Night Live released this Media Opoly quip in 1998, and never released it again – even expunged it from reruns.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/12dnuea/conspiracy_theory_rock_aired_on_snl_back_in_1998/
Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson has never stopped raising money so the SDDP needs to hound the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for cash and start running opposition ads on every commercial radio station in South Dakota. My party can recruit some respected Democrats to record radio spots then bombard the airwaves paving the way to 2024.
Johnson needs to be held accountable for coddling a would be dictator and building a war chest on the Big Lie, for his failures to support Medicaid, for voting against marriage, for not moving on immigration reform and for his culpability in driving talent from South Dakota. But he certainly knows which side of his bread gets buttered so the extreme white wing of the Republican Party owns him lock, stock and schlock. Johnson went from being a likable moderate to becoming just another tool of the oligarchs who hoard trillions in South Dakota’s banks and trusts because, hey, that’s where the money is.