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August 29, 2024 - 10:00am
The recent re-indictment of Donald Trump appears to be a calculated move to expedite legal proceedings against the former president ahead of November’s election. Trump has faced multiple legal challenges, including cases in Georgia and New York, yet none have significantly impacted his campaign. This latest action appears designed to ensure that legal scrutiny remains a dominant narrative as election day approaches.
The new indictment is a response to a Supreme Court ruling from July which holds that Trump has immunity from actions taken in an official capacity, and Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has removed charges related to actions the Republican nominee took while serving as president. Notably, the indictment now identifies Trump as “a candidate for President of the United States in 2020”, rather than the 45th president as the old indictment did. Charges related to Trump’s speech to supporters on 6 January 2021, urging them to go home, have been removed.
While the focus is instead on his comments made before the riot, classified as “campaign speech”, Trump still faces four significant charges. These are: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, and conspiracy against the right to vote.
The “supercharging” of the case likely reflects a recognition by prosecutors that the window to hold Trump accountable before the election is rapidly closing. Despite numerous legal battles, his political momentum remains strong, and he is still polling within the margin of error against Kamala Harris, who is fresh off the excitement of her announcement as the Democratic candidate at the DNC convention.
Without a swift and decisive legal intervention, these cases might fail to significantly influence Trump’s bid for re-election — which many have contended was their initial purpose. If he wins the presidency again, many of these legal proceedings could become moot due to the complexities of prosecuting a sitting president. This makes the current period crucial for those seeking to hold him accountable before he potentially regains executive power.
Additionally, other significant cases have faced delays, further emphasising the urgency behind Smith’s recent actions. The hush money case, involving alleged payments to Stormy Daniels, has seen its sentencing postponed. Legal experts suggest that Trump’s potential re-election could halt the proceedings due to presidential immunity claims. Meanwhile, the Georgia election fraud case, which involves accusations of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, is bogged down by procedural delays that could stretch past November’s vote.
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SubscribeThe “charges”, as everyone knows, are phony, which is why no one is even commenting anymore. It’s all been bullsh*t lawfare from the very beginning. The only reason I clicked on this article was to say so.
The best thing for the GOP’s future is that Trump is disqualified; the second best that he loses but that will lead to a 4 year disaster
You are aware that Trump was president once before, right? And that compared to now, his time looks like a golden era.
You keep hearing from Democrats and others about what a disaster Trump would be and yet it is never tied in to anything that he did during his presidency. It all seems to be hollow fear mongering.
Could JR Stoker or others pushing the disaster line actually explain why he would be disastrous citing anything specific from his previous incumbency.
In contrast the Democrats have certainly laid the groundwork for an illiberal and economically destructive regime during the present Biden/Harris administration.
Please see my previous answer
Your rose tinted spectacles are working overtime. Biden has been a poor president but not a disaster. Trump was a poor president, not a disaster; until he lost the election. At which point he either showed his true self or lost his temper and marched on the Capitol. Whichever, he showed himself unfit to be President.
He primarily watched TV and rages on social media. Others run the government. Not perfect. But better than some hands on those like Johnson, Nixon and Clinton.
Unemployment at record levels. Disastrous covid response. Abject ass kissing of dictators. America a global laughing stock. The US president a punchline.
I could go on (and on) but you get the picture.
No big fan of Trump myself – but the alternative increasingly looks like the end of the USA. How will any of the cities cope with a continuing influx on the scale of the past four years? The sheer emptiness of Harris is terrifying.
The US will survive Trump or Harris IMO. The problem is if there’s another eight years or 12 years of govt committed to policies based on luxury beliefs and scientific illiteracy. There is enough decentralization of power in the U.S. to offset the lunacy at the federal level as well. Britain and Europe are much farther down the road to economic ruin IMO. Five years of Starmer can inflict much more damage than four years of Harris.
Show trials will continue until morale improves.
The recent div > p > a”>re-indictment of Donald Trump appears to be a calculated move to expedite legal proceedings against the former president ahead of November’s election.
It’s calculated, all right, and anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows it. The most likely effect on Trump is that it will help him, much like the unrelenting lawfare has done thus far. It’s almost comical; in a time when people clamor for transparency from public officials, this may be the administration’s most transparent move.
This move by Jack Smith was calculated, as you say, but not to expedite the proceedings. They are going nowhere before the election. Judge Tanya Chutkan would be a fool to try to move this case forward before the election, and she is no fool.
The only purpose Jack Smith had for convening a new grand jury was to grandstand. His cases will go nowhere after the election, whatever the result. But by bringing them and pursuing them he can affect the election, and that is his goal.
The unceasing campaign to swing a Presidential election by legal chicanery can only help Trump.
Lawfare perpetrated against the man who “took a bullet for democracy”? Inverse reaction incoming methinks ….
No
Why do you people think that Trump is above the law?
The charges are basically penalizing Trump for his opinions. He didnt storm Capitol
Nor did he urge anyone to attack anyone
Why do you think the Bidens are?
I don’t, obviously.
Hunter was tried and found guilty. Everyone accepted that.
Why can’t Trump be tried for his crimes? Is he your king now?
That begs the question: what crimes?
The crimes that he has been charged with and, at least in one criminal case, convicted by a jury of his peers.
That’s how it typically works, Perry Mason!
Yet you do think Clinton’s, Biden’s, Obama’s and Harris are. Hunter is the distraction.
They have not been charged with any crimes because they didn’t do anything illegal.
See how it works!
CS, kudos, what a textbook-perfect circular argument!
He is not above the law. There is no law breaking involved in the show trials against him and his supporters. Only dangerously corrupt partisans.
It’s embarrassing to see the Democrats support these criminal cases against Donald Trump. This latest indictment by prosecutorJack Smith was completely unnecessary to his case, with its only possible purpose to inflict political damage before the election. He’s out of control, and not even the Supreme Court can stop him.
All four criminal cases and the two civil cases have caused harm to Donald Trump, no question about it. But the bigger harm is to our democracy. When a political party uses a judicial system as a political weapon, that shows a contempt for democracy like the Soviets or banana republics.
When Russia held its show trials of Alexey Navalny, we rightly criticized them. We should hold the same contempt for what Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Tish James, and Jean Carroll have done to democracy. They are no better than Vladimir Putin.
Lawfare.
Trump’s campaign is ‘continuing to gain momentum’?? News to me. And him.
Please keep telling yourself that.
All I learned here was that US Justice Dept is as political as candidates
For informed people, the re-indictment is only more reason to break the back of the politicisized administrative state
I still can’t understand for the life of me why you people picked a utter buffoon like Trump as your fuhrer? Its comical and rather sad that the best you can come up with is a know nothing moron with a taste for orange makeup and sexual assault…
Didn’t you watch the DNC last and feel a small pang of regret at your choices as the vibrant speakers spelled out a message of joy and hope while Trump live tweeted his nonsense from the toilet? I bet you did!