Trump Is Charged in Classified Documents Inquiry

I'm so over this game show host.

Why did anyone ever give a fuck about this guy?

He was a bottom of the barrel choice for a gameshow and was super lucky to get the Apprentice.

Any fuckstick could've taken that role and run with it

Why did anyone ever give a fuck about this guy?
It's amazing what 25 years of propaganda will do to people.
Hey now. Calling him a game show host is diminishing his filmography significantly. He was also an extra in Home Alone 2.
- True. He also appeared on Saturday Night Live several times. Definitely presidential material.
The Apprentice did more to convince people he was a brilliant businessman than his work in business ever did.
Totally agree, he's become less and less relevant and I'm tired of hearing about him... sigh

It's important to remember at this point that being bad at crime is not a valid defense.

If you mug a guy and immediately drop the wallet down a storm drain, you've still committed robbery. If you steal a car but lock the keys in it, it's still theft. If you attempt to overthrow your own government and can't organize people to actually pull it off, you've still committed treason.

Trump, despite being a career criminal, is still really shit at being a criminal. Some people will construe his failure to execute with innocence - it is not. It's incompetence.

I'm oh so thankful Trump was both an incompetent criminal and an incompetent tyrant. Competence could have done unimaginable damage to the US and to the world.
- Which is why Ron Desantis terrifies me. It doesn't look good for him right now, but I wouldn't have said things looked good for Trump in the summer of 2015 either. And all it would take is for one of these smart tyrants to win a freak election like 2016 and it would be Trump all over again, but much worse.
Trump is not necessarily the only corrupt president ever, he is just stupid enough to let it get out in public.
Not to say you are wrong with anything you're saying.. But I am asolutely confident that pigs will learn to fly before he gets convicted for treason. Did he commit it? A clear "yes" from me (non-American but I dont think that matters; it is basically an accepted fact among all that understand what "treason" usually means in a country-context). Will the prosecutors be able to prove it through a brigade of lawyers? I dont think so.
- I'm not a lawyer elsewhere in the world, but the United States has a very specific and very narrow definition for what is considered "treason." Article III, § 3 of the Constitution states that
  Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort . . . .
  I'm not an expert in this area, but from some legal analysis I've come across, another hurdle to convicting on treason is that in order to have an "enemy," there needs to be an official declaration of war.
- Hopefully his track record of losing in court holds up.

Honestly, with all the shit this disgusting wannabe dictator has already gotten away with, I'll hold on to celebrations until there is some kind of definitive verdict.

And dont get me started on the sentence even IF they convict him for something. He's old, he's rich, he probably still has some buddies in higher places - I'd be absolutely surprised if he would go to a genpop prison. - Even though thats exactly what he would deserve the most.

Charging him is still a big milestone, and setting the precedent that a former president can be charged is still important. But, yeah, sentencing will be the even bigger milestone.
- What is crazy to me is that everyone is making it out like there HAD to be a precedent set, as if the baseline of being a U.S. citizen was not enough to already imply that they could/should be held accountable for breaking the law. That heavily implies what 99% of us already believed, there are CLEARLY two different standards for the rule of law, one for those with money and power, and another one for everyone else.
- undefined> setting the precedent that a former president can be charged is still important
  absolutely. It is already a win, but I believe the US really need the BIG win which would be to actually sentence him for the serious crimes he commited. Literally every other US citizen would be a prisoner long since for doing a microscopic part of what Trump did. The damage that one person did in 4 years, and not just locally in America but also internationally, is sheer unbelievable.
98% conviction rate. That's for all cases in general and not just the ones where the accused is on tape talking about the fact that he did the thing that's in question.
- It's also not for cases where the accused is an immensely-wealthy former POTUS. I'll be shocked if he suffers any substantial punishment.
Half of me wants to celebrate the small victories, but the other half says "wake me up when he's behind bars and loses all of his appeals".
- Right? Call me a cynic but we all know nothing will actually happen. Dude was impeached twice and has been on record with plenty of crimes and he's still running for president.
  Pretty sure he can run for president from jail. From a. Jail cell he would still be the front runner and his base would be donating to him. So he could pardon himself
I'm cautiously hopeful. I didn't expect him to be indicted in the first place.

Let me know when he goes to jail.

Listening to Youtube, Beau of the Fifth Column, he says the Federal court he's in now in Florida has a 92-94% conviction rate.
- +1 for the Beau of the Fifth Column shoutout. If his listeners are here then I know I'm among good people.
This. Pretty much as soon as he starting running for president there has been talk about illegal operations and trials. But nothing has ever come of it. Even if there's a 98% chance, I'll only really care once a sentence is handed out.
Right? We've been hearing about how it'll happen any day now for uh...6 years?

I’m always hesitant to think anything is going to come out of developments like this - but something might actually come out of this.

yeah, this isn't just some promise to "look into it". he's been indicted on some extremely serious federal charges... something IS finally happening. AT FUCKING LAST. Also, the DOJ will likely be prosecuted in the South Florida District, which means it wall all transpire in Trump's back yard. He'll hate that.
This may finally be what we've all been waiting for.
- The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind fine.
- If it's happening in Florida, won't DeSantis be able to interfere?

I'm of mixed mind about this.

Obviously the course of justice must go forward, and if prosecutors have a strong case, the should pursue it.

On the other hand, given all that he's done to undermine democracy, subvert elections, destroy civility, erode democratic norms and traditions, and find common cause with hostile foreign powers, I'm not really keen on the idea that 30 years later, when people say Trump, they'll think "oh, the guy who mishandled classified documents?"

It would be like if Ted Bundy got caught writing bad checks and was locked up for that.

They famously got Al Capone on tax evasion, and nobody thinks of him as "the tax cheat" first and foremost.
Besides, I suspect that this is a case where the floodgates are going to open up in terms of investigations and charges, once the first set sticks to him. There's also the NY state fraud charges already filed, and the GA state election tampering investigation that is widely expected to lead to charges.
- I suppose that's a good point about Al Capone. Though he famously had people murdered in the streets and everyone knew it. With Trump, he has a whole army of deniers who will try bend history to make him a hero.
  If he were indicted and convicted on his most serious crimes (subversion, bribery, attempted extortion of foreign heads of state, etc), it would be harder for his cultists to rewrite history.
  Either way, I'm glad he's facing the music on something, anything.
Al Capone got nailed because of taxes.
A charge is a charge at days end.
I agree with this to a point. To me the biggest reasons to celebrate world be convictions for conspiracy and incitement of the January 6 insurrection, and election interference in Georgia (and possibly other states that fronted fake electors). Those actions were the most damaging to our democratic process.
However, these charges are also important because they serve as proof that no one in the United States is above the law. I have a glimmer of hope that accountability may help start to heal some of the damage our system has taken in recent years.
Look at Al Capone as others said.. and OJ. OJ got hit extra hard for the charges he finally got, since everyone knows they screwed up with the murder trial

This and Boris Johnson resigning makes my dick hard.

Can we try not to unnecessarily sexualize this? Too much of this and we'll end up a reddit/twitter clone where people are just aiming for quick/easy zingers
- Yeah... sorry that I posted something a bit against Beehaw's ethos.
  I am a British citizen. I have lived under this circus fiesta of a Conservative government for the past thirteen years and watched them slowly erode my rights. They have taken away so much from me and nothing has made my day more than watching Boris resign.
  If anything he and his cronies should be in prison.
- Eh, I think most people are sexual beings. Sexualizing things is a quick route to making things relateable, that being the case. Also, it's funny.

I really can't wait until we stop hearing about Trump.

I hate to say it, but I don't think that day will ever come. Even in death, his die-hards will be slinging conspiracy theories about how he was assassinated or how he was jesus and he'll ressurect soon to take on mega-hillary's doomsday army.
Hopefully we can at least confine it to its own section of the internet though.
- It's an extremely pessimistic future you paint, but you are probably right.
- Damn, that disturbingly possible
- I need to figure out how to create conspiracy theories that are crazier than Qanon. Trump shit on the constitution and did ALL those illegal things to EXPOSE the cracks on the system. He's MAGA one felony at a time. He took the pallets of classified files ON PURPOSE so he could sacrifice himself to start the fall of America and Armageddon. He's bringing Jesus BACK.

surprised_pikachu.jpg

But no really, I get it may seem crazy to those on the right to indict a former president, but I would say it's a good thing given one of the founding tenets of the United States was that the leaders were specifically NOT to supposed to be Gods.

I mean, could you imagine how fast someone other than Trump, like some pleb intern or something, would be thrown in federal prison if they took all of those documents?

- Damn that’s a great point.
  I feel like everyone is so used to Trump violating one sacred cow after another that this isn’t even registering for a lot of the country.
  Even folks who are anti trump have been conditioned to think he’ll just get away with this like always.
I'd argue that, like, most of the presidents who've existed should have been indicted on something or other.

I hope he'll end up in an actual jail, but if he ever gets sentenced, I imagine it'll be house arrest at Mar a Lago. He'll keep living a comfortable life, just with somewhat limited freedom. His kids will continue his grifting empire and make sure daddy is able to keep influencing people.

that seems like the sad truth.
If he was restricted from speaking and posting anything publicly ever again, that would be a great boon to this country, even if justice wasn't really served.

It really feels like we, as a country, are being dragged towards an ugly 2024 crescendo of the Trump era. This espionage case is going to coincide with the 2024 election.

The irony is that he is the one who signed a law making mishandling classified documents a felony.

A leopard ate its own face. That's a new one.
Butter emails!!
- *margarine men!
  :)
This was too good to believe so I had to fact-check it. It's true.

I'm getting a bit worried about Tuesday's arraignment, as he's pretty clearly calling for his cronies to show up to "support" him

I wonder if this time we'll get a mugshot or perp walk out of it? Man, wouldn't that be something?

It would be a weird catharsis for sure. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully supportive of any and all charges against the cretin, but at the same time it's a reminder of just how ridiculous and sad the past 10 years have been.
- Yeah, I think just being able to see the actual visualization of someone not getting away with blatant crimes is very cathartic.

Looking at this as non-partisan as I can... if Hillary wasn't convicted for essentially doing the exact same thing (and deleting the evidence...) then I really don't see any way for Trump to be convicted either.

What she did is not at all "essentially doing the exact same thing". At all. I'm not saying she's not probably guilty of some crime at some point because most of our politicians are corrupt, but you are absolutely misinformed if you think she kept hundreds of classified documents, showed them off to people, and lied to federal investigators about it.
- You're right... it's worse. She covered her tracks by deleting all the data then lying about it.
No evidence of Clinton's alleged misconduct was found. Plenty of evidence of Trump's was found. That's the difference.
Maybe it's because Clinton is innocent. Maybe it's because she did a better job covering her tracks. Who knows? Regardless, you need evidence to convict someone, and I hope I speak for us all when I say the alternative is much, much worse.
- She willingly hid classified documents on a private server and wiped it with BeachBit so investigators couldn’t recover the evidence. Arguably that’s worse since she could also be charged with destruction of evidence. Come on now… either BOTH Hillary and Trump should be in prison or neither of them should be in prison. Any other interpretation is being willfully partisan.
She did not do "essentially the same thing" for multiple reasons.
The emails you're referring to were not classified and went through proper process to get permission to be removed.
Hillary has already been investigated and cleared, including investigations conducted by the Trump administration.
Trump was given multiple opportunities to return documents. He kept lying and keeping things even after saying they'd returned everything. There are still classified docs that haven't been found!
The nature of the material is orders of magnitude different. Nothing that Hillary has been accused of destroying or storing improperly, even if those accusations were all true, even begins to compare to the sensitivity and importance of the kind of information Trump was hoarding.
In addition to simply possessing the material he shouldn't and refusing to give it back, he also breached security by showing sensitive information to people that weren't allowed and, just at a practical level, has no reasonable need to see it in the first place.

Strange as it may sound, the Orange fella is not my first pick for the tumbrel. He is certainly up there in the first 4 or 5. But number one is surely Rupert, followed by the Cock (deliberate misspelling) brothers...

And brought before his good friend, Judge Aileen Cannon, who was “randomly assigned” to the case.

Sigh. He's going to get away with bloody murder again.

Send him to the shadow realm

What'd the shadow realm ever do to you!?
- Fine send him to the next dimension

Man, I really hope something comes of this, but I'm not that optimistic. If it ends up being nothing and they settle or something, it's just going to give him and his people so much ammo going into the election season.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vIBijzg4w

Don't lie to me!