The 1/6 Select Committee told a federal judge in California yesterday that there was enough evidence to conclude that former President Trump and his allies may have committed not one, but three federal crimes. In a filing opposing a motion by former Trump lawyer John Eastman to claim executive privilege, the Committee alleged that Eastman and others may have conspired with Trump to interfere with an official proceeding of the government, defraud the American people, and commit common law fraud by repeatedly lying that the election of 2020 had been “stolen.”
First time commenter... will be back, with on-point comment for future posts. But I must lead with a shout out to Lucian: I literally may not have made it through Trump's presidency alive had it not been for your weekly articles in Salon. I called your name aloud each weekend, hoping for your good insight on that site. I am 68 years old, on a very limited income. Finally bought a subscription to this newsletter because...reasons 😉. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sustaining me (and I'm sure thousands of others) with your insights, experience, analysis, and excellent writing through this horrific time. I apologize to the other commenters on this entry, I just didn't know where else to thank Lucian directly.
Deborra, you nicely and succinctly expressed what most of us feel in reading LKTIV's postings. welcome to this communty of comments where certainly i have found varying and interesting views, opinions, ideas, and supportive information.
Thank you for saying! Actually, I'm also glad you wrote because somehow that got me to the comments section - which I cannot figure out how to find just from the newsletter itself...
It would be poetic justice if he's finally held accountable because his malignant narcissism won't allow him to admit defeat.
My fervent hope is that the entire gang of dishonorable deplorables - Giuliani, Powell, Meadows, Eastman, Flynn, Jordan, etc., etc. etc. - goes down with him
The walls supposedly have been closing in on t-RUMP for so long, with no discernible damage to his person, that I have to wonder how far out from him those walls actually are.
You have to admit that he has been on a massive losing streak since the election. And he no longer has the shield of the presidency to protect him.
I'm betting on people like Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. Don't know about Merrick Garland but I'm sure he knows a lot more than we do about what happened and what's going to happen next.
from your mouth...but haven't I said this before? in today's Times there was a major article about how difficult it would be for DOJ prosecutors to prove their case because they would have to demonstrate "intentionality" on his part. now, if DOJ people are saying that it must be true, but doesn't make a lot of sense. aren't people guilty for what they've DONE? if you recklessly fire a pistol out a window and kill somebody, isn't that manslaughter? but the article even made the point that if the defense were to demonstrate convincingly that TFF is so narcissistic that, despite being repeatedly told that he had no case and would lose, he actually continued to believe the bullshit, then he wouldn't be found guilty. am I getting this wrong, or is something profoundly wrong with this whole burden-of-proof thing? and in the same paper, there's a story about that psychopath Eastman asking the proverbial "wheels of justice" to be deliberately slowed down because if the committee had all his evidence, it would be an unprecedented thing to actually charge an ex-president with a crime and the results would be momentous and create a bad precedent for future administrations. I was sort of under the impression that we don't have kings in this country and nobody is supposed to be above the law (and most people don't think Eastman's shtick is going to work) but it could take years to play out.... frankly, I don't especially care at this point if TFF ever sees the inside of a jail cell as long as he is no longer a viable presence in American public life and loses any influence he may have. I would be delighted to see him in some sort of prison, but mainly, I want him out of our collective consciousness. but....this is starting to be depressing all over again. have I gotten any of my facts wrong? am I not understanding things correctly?
Trump’s “lawyer” John Eastman is being investigated by the California State Bar into whether he violated laws while advising Trump on how he could overturn his election defeat. Attorney-client privilege does not include advising a client on how to commit a crime. The 1/6 Committee is also investigating Eastman for engaging in criminal and/or fraudulent acts.
I wrote a comment about this elsewhere on this the page. With any luck, the judge hearing the case will incorporate the facts and legal theories proffered by counsel for the House Select Committee into a formal ruling by the court that the witness subpoenas issued by the committee must now be enforced.
As I mentioned below, the legal brief that accompanies the enforcement petition serves also as a signpost, informing the public of the nature of the dispute and the relative merits of the parties' respective cases. The facts and legal conclusions cited by committee counsel make a compelling case that will show President, Donald J. Trump as fully aware of objective evidence that negated his claims of election fraud, and that his continuing to pursue that avenue of disputing the legitimacy of the election outcome constituted 'common law fraud' within the meaning of the federal statute punishing fraud against the United States, Title 18, section 371. That statute does not specifically define what fraud against the United States needs to include in order to be prosecuted; rather, it adopts the common-law rule enunciated by courts over the centuries, to attack fraud in all of its various permutations. What is important is that the culpable acts subject to prosecution involve misrepresentations, falsehoods, mischaracterizations, or anything that would bury the truth in a mountain of lies, which is precisely what Trump and his co-conspirators did.
In order not to get my hopes up I maintain the belief that Trump won’t go to prison. I’d be more than happy, and pleasantly surprised, to be proven wrong.
OK, there is no suitcase, but there also is no patrol car and no handcuffs in sight, nor is there any likelihood that they will EVER be in the vicinity of t-RUMP. These findings are a LONG way from putting t-RUMP in the stone dungeon where he deserves to spend the rest of his life chained to a wall and fed moldy bread and polluted water while rats gnaw off his toes.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Garland and the DOJ to do anything meaningful. Bunch of chickenshits. Trump will skate, and at that point, will have an unimpeded road to a second term, which will be the end of democracy for all of us.
My response to the MAGA hat was to wear one that read, "Make Lying Wrong Again." The culture of lies didn't begin with Trump; rather it has been normalized by recent Republican history: swift boating of John Kerry, Obama wasn't born here, Hillary eats babies. Putin's transparently false claims to justify invasion of Ukraine is only the most horrific immediate result of populations swayed into following liars. Appeasement of these scoundrels has brought us to the situation, IMHO, where Merrick Garland and others see a populace so divided, that they fear an armed uprising if Trump is prosecuted even for his recorded and broadcast attempt to stuff the ballot box in Georgia. If there ever was a cuff him and read him his rights moment, that was it. The longer is languishes, the harder it becomes to act. If the fear of uprising is justified, that is all the more reason to move now, before our own Ukraine-like conflagration gathers more steam.
Decades from now high school students will read that one by one Mr. Trump infuriated Republican Senator's and Congressmen and various big donors to the party and that one day enough of the power brokers said, 'Enough' Maybe Mr. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Mr. Trumps endorsement of him was too much and the traditional Republicans made a brief phone call. The endgame is coming into focus.
I'm not too hopeful that Trump will be held accountable--at least criminally--for anything that happened related to January 6. We have been disappointed too many times. The most we can hope for is that the civil suits against him do some damage.
All the tRump did for two solid months in late 2020 was work to subvert the election for his own personal gain. Someone needs to just come out and speak this simple truth. Preferably in front of a judge and jury, with tRump looking on in a striped uniform.
I hope the committee does refer the whole thing to the DOJ, and that someone takes the initiative to actually start a criminal case against Trump.
I want him in prison so badly, as do so many others.
He is simply a criminal. Criminals belong in prison.
First time commenter... will be back, with on-point comment for future posts. But I must lead with a shout out to Lucian: I literally may not have made it through Trump's presidency alive had it not been for your weekly articles in Salon. I called your name aloud each weekend, hoping for your good insight on that site. I am 68 years old, on a very limited income. Finally bought a subscription to this newsletter because...reasons 😉. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sustaining me (and I'm sure thousands of others) with your insights, experience, analysis, and excellent writing through this horrific time. I apologize to the other commenters on this entry, I just didn't know where else to thank Lucian directly.
Deborra, you nicely and succinctly expressed what most of us feel in reading LKTIV's postings. welcome to this communty of comments where certainly i have found varying and interesting views, opinions, ideas, and supportive information.
looking forward to seeing your on-point comments.
Thank you for saying! Actually, I'm also glad you wrote because somehow that got me to the comments section - which I cannot figure out how to find just from the newsletter itself...
Deborra, you just have to reopen the newsletter and qwikscroll down to "comments" and that will open up more than you could hope for
Thank you!!!
The walls are closing in on fat Donny.
It would be poetic justice if he's finally held accountable because his malignant narcissism won't allow him to admit defeat.
My fervent hope is that the entire gang of dishonorable deplorables - Giuliani, Powell, Meadows, Eastman, Flynn, Jordan, etc., etc. etc. - goes down with him
The walls supposedly have been closing in on t-RUMP for so long, with no discernible damage to his person, that I have to wonder how far out from him those walls actually are.
You have to admit that he has been on a massive losing streak since the election. And he no longer has the shield of the presidency to protect him.
I'm betting on people like Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. Don't know about Merrick Garland but I'm sure he knows a lot more than we do about what happened and what's going to happen next.
Trump will go down when the Oligarchs go down...
from your mouth...but haven't I said this before? in today's Times there was a major article about how difficult it would be for DOJ prosecutors to prove their case because they would have to demonstrate "intentionality" on his part. now, if DOJ people are saying that it must be true, but doesn't make a lot of sense. aren't people guilty for what they've DONE? if you recklessly fire a pistol out a window and kill somebody, isn't that manslaughter? but the article even made the point that if the defense were to demonstrate convincingly that TFF is so narcissistic that, despite being repeatedly told that he had no case and would lose, he actually continued to believe the bullshit, then he wouldn't be found guilty. am I getting this wrong, or is something profoundly wrong with this whole burden-of-proof thing? and in the same paper, there's a story about that psychopath Eastman asking the proverbial "wheels of justice" to be deliberately slowed down because if the committee had all his evidence, it would be an unprecedented thing to actually charge an ex-president with a crime and the results would be momentous and create a bad precedent for future administrations. I was sort of under the impression that we don't have kings in this country and nobody is supposed to be above the law (and most people don't think Eastman's shtick is going to work) but it could take years to play out.... frankly, I don't especially care at this point if TFF ever sees the inside of a jail cell as long as he is no longer a viable presence in American public life and loses any influence he may have. I would be delighted to see him in some sort of prison, but mainly, I want him out of our collective consciousness. but....this is starting to be depressing all over again. have I gotten any of my facts wrong? am I not understanding things correctly?
Trump’s “lawyer” John Eastman is being investigated by the California State Bar into whether he violated laws while advising Trump on how he could overturn his election defeat. Attorney-client privilege does not include advising a client on how to commit a crime. The 1/6 Committee is also investigating Eastman for engaging in criminal and/or fraudulent acts.
I wrote a comment about this elsewhere on this the page. With any luck, the judge hearing the case will incorporate the facts and legal theories proffered by counsel for the House Select Committee into a formal ruling by the court that the witness subpoenas issued by the committee must now be enforced.
As I mentioned below, the legal brief that accompanies the enforcement petition serves also as a signpost, informing the public of the nature of the dispute and the relative merits of the parties' respective cases. The facts and legal conclusions cited by committee counsel make a compelling case that will show President, Donald J. Trump as fully aware of objective evidence that negated his claims of election fraud, and that his continuing to pursue that avenue of disputing the legitimacy of the election outcome constituted 'common law fraud' within the meaning of the federal statute punishing fraud against the United States, Title 18, section 371. That statute does not specifically define what fraud against the United States needs to include in order to be prosecuted; rather, it adopts the common-law rule enunciated by courts over the centuries, to attack fraud in all of its various permutations. What is important is that the culpable acts subject to prosecution involve misrepresentations, falsehoods, mischaracterizations, or anything that would bury the truth in a mountain of lies, which is precisely what Trump and his co-conspirators did.
as usual, Arthur, you helped to clarify things a lot. now we wait and hope....
thank you, Arthur, for the clearest description i've yet read on this issue.
i am willing to admit that when it comes to understanding matters of law my mind stumbles in fog.
In order not to get my hopes up I maintain the belief that Trump won’t go to prison. I’d be more than happy, and pleasantly surprised, to be proven wrong.
OK, there is no suitcase, but there also is no patrol car and no handcuffs in sight, nor is there any likelihood that they will EVER be in the vicinity of t-RUMP. These findings are a LONG way from putting t-RUMP in the stone dungeon where he deserves to spend the rest of his life chained to a wall and fed moldy bread and polluted water while rats gnaw off his toes.
Or, hamberders...
only those made with meat that has already started to rot and turn green.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Garland and the DOJ to do anything meaningful. Bunch of chickenshits. Trump will skate, and at that point, will have an unimpeded road to a second term, which will be the end of democracy for all of us.
Sad...BIGLY!
My response to the MAGA hat was to wear one that read, "Make Lying Wrong Again." The culture of lies didn't begin with Trump; rather it has been normalized by recent Republican history: swift boating of John Kerry, Obama wasn't born here, Hillary eats babies. Putin's transparently false claims to justify invasion of Ukraine is only the most horrific immediate result of populations swayed into following liars. Appeasement of these scoundrels has brought us to the situation, IMHO, where Merrick Garland and others see a populace so divided, that they fear an armed uprising if Trump is prosecuted even for his recorded and broadcast attempt to stuff the ballot box in Georgia. If there ever was a cuff him and read him his rights moment, that was it. The longer is languishes, the harder it becomes to act. If the fear of uprising is justified, that is all the more reason to move now, before our own Ukraine-like conflagration gathers more steam.
Decades from now high school students will read that one by one Mr. Trump infuriated Republican Senator's and Congressmen and various big donors to the party and that one day enough of the power brokers said, 'Enough' Maybe Mr. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Mr. Trumps endorsement of him was too much and the traditional Republicans made a brief phone call. The endgame is coming into focus.
I'm not too hopeful that Trump will be held accountable--at least criminally--for anything that happened related to January 6. We have been disappointed too many times. The most we can hope for is that the civil suits against him do some damage.
NOW is the time for the DOJ to get to work!! It's long past time to prosecute the Orange Stain and his spawn.
All the tRump did for two solid months in late 2020 was work to subvert the election for his own personal gain. Someone needs to just come out and speak this simple truth. Preferably in front of a judge and jury, with tRump looking on in a striped uniform.
"Yes, sir, there is a suitcase -- but it's Harry 'Suitcase' Simpson, an old ballplayer."
Who played for many teams.
Good one!
Lock him up!
Thank you Lucian for pursuing this issue. Hopefully Trump and his associates will be brought to justice.