Summary
Special counsel Jack Smith dropped 44 federal charges against Donald Trump, citing DOJ policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference and classified documents retention, could be refiled after Trump’s presidency.
Critics, including Rep. Dan Goldman and former Capitol officer Aquilino Gonell, decried the move as a miscarriage of justice, asserting it places Trump above the law.
Trump and allies celebrated the decision as a victory, with Vice President-elect JD Vance vowing to prevent similar prosecutions.
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
If only we still had another month with a Dem president and his AG controlling the DOJ…
I mean a month is a short time, ideally we’d have had that the last four fucking years and had plenty of time to handle this.
If only the AG didn’t waste 3 years before filing charges.
How about 2.5 years in which everyone held off because they didn’t want to step on the FBI’s toes, and it turned out that they weren’t doing anything?
You’re talking about a criminal case, what does a month do for you? At every turn, Trump has consistently tried to delay the process. It has nothing to do with the DOJ or AG, they are working the system to intentionally delay everything until now. Why proceed either, he’s going to be president in two months.
He’s making a facetious point about the huge quantities of time Merrick Garland had to waste to create this outcome.
This is just like Obama giving Bush and Cheney a pass for war crimes and starting a war based on complete lies.
Yep. None of this is new, it’s the same song and dance.
I’ve criticized both parties for acting like voters have the memory of goldfish, but it’s getting harder and harder to argue they’re wrong.
People don’t remember the shit they literally lived thru already.
The Russia/Republican propaganda has been too strong to make anything stick. If you try to arrest Trump while he has enough followers to win an election then you’ll get a mob like Jan 6th storming whatever prison he’s held in.
It’s not as simple as you’re trying to make it sound.
Give me a break. These charges could have been pursued on day one, in Washington DC.
The administration sat on their hands.
Why do you think they “sat on their hands”? Do you think they are conspiring to help Trump? Do you think your internet armchair analysis of the situation is better that the entire DOJ and they just aren’t as smart as you?
Or is it the obvious answer that Trump has been able to get away with corruption time and time again due to Russian/republicans? And their control of our government and justice system? And the DOJ knows that if they try to prosecute Trump and the charges don’t stick that they won’t get another try.
Sounds to me like a perfect recipe to round up and arrest a bunch of traitors to American principles. Was the thought trump would just shut up and quietly go away if we kept biding time or he lost another election. What, if anything, about trumps character would make anyone think that. 100% the government just dropped the ball on this. They won with trump in the opposition and wanted to time it well enough to win again and have him divide and weaken the republicans.
The United States is a fucking joke. The nation supposedly founded on the rejection of a king believes that one person is literally not subject to US law. I could not have more contempt for, or feel more shame about being an unwilling participant in the unprincipled hypocrisy of this absolute shit hole of a country.
Fuck the oligarchs that run this place. Fuck the fascist Republican Party. Fuck the cowardly Democrats. And fuck the moronic, fear-riddled people.
That is the biggest and most obvious show of the corruption of the US American “justice” system. It was long known as the best “justice” money could buy, but this is open disregard of any legal principle.
Well it’s still the best justice money can buy, just in a twisted, sinister kind of way and with a big emphasis on the money part
Strictly speaking, it makes sense that you don’t ask the DOJ to prosecute their boss, considering if DOJ threw the case, he could not be prosecuted again later due to double jeopardy.
Instead, presidents are to be judged by Congress through impeachment, since Congress is supposed to be independent.
Does not really change anything since congress is too broken by partisan politics to do anything, but I just wanted to point out where the issue really is.
sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference
🤡
Election interference is legal if you do it so well you win.
This is honestly the biggest joke of them all.
Get ready for way, way more election interference.
If it prosper, none dare call it treason.
Wow I’m so shocked
Had 4 years to sort this and out the fucker in jail for treason and decided to dick around doing fuck all til a few months before the election.
Biden has the blood of 100,000 on his hands and the death of democracy in his lap. That’s his legacy.
Once again, Biden sticking to “policies” and “traditions” that are not law and facilitating terrible outcomes for the USA
Personally, I think the administration dragged its heels because it was stupid enough to want to run against Trump again. After all, if they had the bogeyman incarnate to run against, they could move to the right and still be second worst. And second worst wins elections, right?
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
No, it’s not a fear. It’s an acknowledgement of exactly what he has said he will do:
Trump has said repeatedly he will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
This feels like a joke from Portal
“Test subjects fear I will kill them with turrets and fry whatever is left, even if it’s still alive. Mostly because of my plans to kill them with turrets and fry whatever is left even if it’s still alive.” - GlaDOS probably
English person here: I didn’t think he was classed as ‘sitting’ until he was officially voted in with the Electoral College and sworn in. Surely there’s still time to prosecute.
You’re right that he’s not sitting yet, but wrong in that there’s not time to prosecute before he is sworn in. And anyway, he’d be the boss of the prosecutors against him so he can retaliate with no fear of consequence.
Thank you for clarifying
I told my wife 4 years ago when these charges came in “If this becomes more than a slap on the wrist I will be amazed”, I am not amazed.
I’m actually kinda OK with this considering the circumstances.
With the republican’s capture of the presidency, congress, and the SCOTUS, there’s no way he’s going to suffer a day for his charges if the court pursued them.
The main problem was not sentencing him quickly when they had the chance. That’s the major fuckup.
Anyway, the dismissed charges are without prejudice. Which offers the opportunity (assuming trump survives his presidency, we don’t end up with a de facto republican dictatorship, etc) that he can be sentenced after his presidency.
But we all know how the courts love sentencing rich old white dudes.
I see it as a white flag. It’s not gonna happen now, and it isn’t going to happen later either. This battle they lost and that’s that.
Democrats need to start worrying less about Trump the person and more about the potential ramifications we will face in the near and farther future. It seems Democrats have a 5 year plan and Republicans have a 50 year plan, that’s why they keep gaining power and favor.
How so. Legally he can’t take office according to the constitution. And thereby his charges in Georgia and NY would hit him still, as Vance couldn’t pardon state charges. But yeah, we knew this would happen
deleted by creator
Merrick Garland needs to be remembered by history as an all time coward. The way we use Machiavelli to label a traitor, we need to use Garland to denote the most limp, failed and feckless human being.
Here’s everything you need, press this one button and the majority of the country will celebrate you perpetually and history will call you a hero… Doesn’t lift a finger, throws up down the front of his shirt, falls asleep.
Fuck Merrick Garland, without qualification.
The blame is squarely at the feet of McConnell, Obama, Biden, Orrin Hatch, and finally Merrick Garland.
A timeline:
In 2010 Obama nominated Kagan to SCOTUS. A nomination criticized by Hatch as blatantly partisan. Hatch said that he had known Garland for years. He added that, if nominated, he would be a “consensus nominee” and that there was “no question” he would be confirmed.
Then in 2016 with the Scalia vacancy, McConnell made up the fictional “Biden rule” to refuse seating or even hearing a nominee. Hatch then claimed that this process could proceed if an uncontroversial nominee was proffered. He again mentioned Merrick Garland:
"The president told me several times he’s going to name a moderate [to fill the court vacancy], but I don’t believe him. [Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man. He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.”
Then of course, Obama caved to Hatch’s public request further elevating Garland in the public eye and to the approval of centrists and liberals. McConnell still refused to acquiesce, and dragged it out into the next presidency.
Then with Trump’s electoral win, and some backroom dealing to get Kennedy to retire, the federalist society and the heritage foundation got their 40+ year wish. A conservative court, despite the rules, the circumstances, the math being otherwise. And all with zero fight from the Obama Administration.
Fast forward to the Biden administration in 2021, FOREVER still entertaining the notions of bipartisanship. Even while the GOP will offer a handshake while donning a Freddy Kruegeresque sharpened gauntlet of knives.
So of COURSE Biden nominated Garland to AG in the foolish hope that Americans and the GOP would somehow view this move as apolitical, above the frey, etc.
Garland is a symptom just like Trump is a symptom. They both stem from the same problem. That problem being a new aristocracy, a political class that seeks to simply preserve their places in power, and completely purge the citizenry from the body politic. A new Jim Crow, but one of bureaucracy. One that exclusively values the opinions of the political class over the wishes of the people. Garland is the example of this system as is Obama/Biden and many others. Meanwhile men like McConnell will easily exploit this system, and men like Trump will gain power as a reaction TO this system.
Power has been removed from the people (what little we had) and now the GOP and the majority of the DNC seek to keep it that way as it keeps them in power.
If you think I’m wrong about the DNC, just look at their actions. They’re floating Rahm Emanuel to head the DNC. They’re already talking about a Harris/Buttigieg ticket in 2028 (because you know, fuck the voters, their primaries, their caucuses. Who needs a Democratic process?)
And it’s not a nobody saying this. It’s guys like David Axlerod saying it on the LibDem mouthpiece network MSNBC.
Went from oligarchy to patriarchal oligarchy reaaal quick there lmao
Everyone’s going to shrug it off like they did in russia when putin was beginning to spread his roots. Then they’ll cry 'it’s not the people’s fault, it’s him!".
That was always the plan
Here comes 4 years of dem finger wagging
Lot of good that decrying’ll do now.
Democrats are done, elect a progressive party
Dems are too coward to vote anything else than blue no matter who
Their blues are just republican lite, we need actual progressives. Bernie was blue and they burned him, like every progressive. So it does matter who
It’s third party time
"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet – yet.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on February 13, 2021, arguing against the need to impeach Donald Trump.
More like fear of retribution from the orange felonious madman
See Americans, this is the type of shit you should invade gov buildings for, that type of shit is for when the institutions don’t work, not for when they are doing their job
