Sunday, 3 March 2024

Trump legal problems

In a desperate effort to avoid a trial in Washington on charges of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, Trump has been claiming US presidents must have total immunity for crimes committed while they were in office. The issue has already been tried in the Washington appellate court which found that he isn’t immune. His legal team then applied to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) and many observers thought they wouldn’t look at it since the issue was so blindingly obvious. However, as so often in America things aren't always logical.

The SC has decided to hear the bizarre claim, but they won’t do it quickly. Oral arguments are expected to begin on 22 April with no guarantee when a ruling will be made. One is expected perhaps by June or July.

This is all of a piece with Trump’s MO over decades. He is well used to dragging legal cases out to wear down the other side, forcing them to drop out or make concessions. At the moment he’s facing four trials and his legal costs are in the multi-millions but he’s using money raised from his crazy MAGA supporters, who are happy to give it, to pay his many lawyers, who are happy to take it.

Trump rallies are just an opportunity for him to play the victim and bilk thousands of simpletons out of millions of dollars - something he’s very good at, as his chequered business career shows.

Trump faces a four-count indictment in Washington DC brought by the Department of Justice (DoJ) that charges him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct the congressional certification of the election results, and violating rights.

Many commentators believed that if the SC delayed making a ruling until the summer, the DoJ would be unable to proceed with the prosecution of Trump before the election campaign and the voting in November, and if he won, he would somehow get off Scot free.

The fact the SC took the case at all is a measure of how politicised the US legal system has become. Trump himself appointed three of the nine judges that sit on the court. They are Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanagh, and Amy Coney Barrett. There were other Republican judges before that so the SC is now heavily tilted in Trump’s favour.

Worse, one judge, Clarence Thomas, has been accused of corruptly accepting expensive holidays and gifts from wealthy right-wing Republican supporters. Thomas for years accepted dozens of trips from megadonor and property developer Harlan Crow, including on his private jet and superyacht, without disclosing them on financial disclosures as federal law requires. The full list (and it’s simply stunning) is listed in an article in Forbes magazine HERE.

You would think Thomas would resign but he's shown no sign of doing so.

As if that wasn’t enough, his wife Ginni, also a lawyer and well-known Republican activist, has been accused of being involved in the 6 January insurrection! She attended the rally and exchanged emails with Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to keep up the effort to overturn the election results:

Now her husband is set to hear Trump’s immunity case. You would expect him to recuse himself but again it doesn't seem that he will. It’s really incredible.

In another twist, the rule in the DoJ that cases shouldn’t go ahead if they happen within 60 days of an election, which a lot of legal commentators thought would mean Trump’s trial wouldn’t be able to go ahead this year, only applies to cases where the defendant hasn’t been indicted. But Trump's problem is he has. The DoJ was absolutely clear on this in a court submission this week. 

So the trial could start In September or October bang in the middle of the election campaign. Whether that will help or hurt Trump remains to be seen, but it's going to be a fascinating year.

If you've been following events in America you'll also know that both potential candidates have been attacking each other as being too doddery to be POTUS.  They both seem to have difficulty in keeping a train of thought going, but Trump seems worse.

Here is a selection of tweets where he appears to be unable to pronounce his words. Remember this guy could be the leader of the free world next January. Don't laugh, the joke's on us.

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