I have summarized and condensed the 174 pages.
You can read the report yourself: Click.
I saw no new bombshell news beyond what we knew two years ago, when the January 6 committee made its findings.
The report concludes that the evidence of Trump's guilt was overwhelming. They are confident they would obtain a conviction at trial, but since he was elected president again, no case can move forward.
The Table of Contents begins describing the evidence of Trump's crimes:
The report describes the chaotic events of January 6 in the context of two months of illegal actions by Trump and his co-conspirators. We know about Trump's pressure on state officials in Georgia ("find 11,780 votes) and Arizona ("we just want you to throw out those electors and put in Trump’s.")
One new fact emerged from this report. Apparently many of the GOP's alternate electors were reluctant to sign documents claiming they were "duly elected," since they knew this was untrue. I have written several times saying these fake electors were stunningly foolish to sign. Only two of the seven states included language that said their election was contingent on future recounts or lawsuits that reversed the election outcome. Trump's conspiracy needed absolute assertions of election by the fake electors. On page 11, the report says that the fake electors were lied to by the Trump campaign.
During the call, Co-Conspirator 2 told a lie that the co-conspirators would use to induce the cooperation of many of the fraudulent electors: that Mr. Trump's electors' votes would be used only if ongoing litigation in their state proved successful for Mr. Trump.
Maybe they weren't liars and perjurers. Maybe they are better understood at gullible and careless. Their criminal error was to trust the Trump campaign.
The report lists the criminal deceit. Trump tried to get the Justice Department to announce falsely that it had independent information that fraud had taken place in the battleground states. Trump pressured the Vice President and told him he was "too honest."
The report presents evidence that the Capitol invaders took inspiration from Trump, but not that Trump had direct control of the mob. Nor does the report claim Trump led an insurrection. The DoJ concluded that an insurrection requires an intent to overthrow existing government, not to cling to power unjustly. The report says that the provable definition of Trump's crimes comes in statutes regarding fraud, not insurrection. Trump led a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The defraud clause of the general conspiracy statute makes it a crime "[i]f two or more persons conspire ... to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy."
Crucially, not only was Mr. Trump's voter-fraud narrative objectively false-he knew that it was false. Mr. Trump's false claims were repeatedly debunked, often directly to him by the very people best positioned to ascertain their truth. Campaign personnel told Mr. Trump his claims were unfounded; so did state officials, a White House official who engaged with Mr. Trump in his capacity as a candidate, and even his own running mate.
The report clarified that one possible defense for Trump -- his reliance on counsel -- was not available to him. Lawyer John Eastman, now permanently disbarred for his role in the election aftermath, was a co-conspirator with Trump. Attorney-client privilege and the reliance-on-counsel defense cannot be used if the lawyer is an active participant in the fraud.
The report concludes with a defense of the investigation and prosecution of Trump. This isn't selective prosecution.
It bears emphasis that Mr. Trump's knowing deceit was pervasive throughout the charged conspiracies. This was not a case in which Mr. Trump merely misstated a fact or two in a handful of isolated instances.
[T]he district court rejected [the claim of selective prosecution], explaining that Mr. Trump was "not being prosecuted for publicly contesting the results of the election; he is being prosecuted for knowingly making false statements in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy and for obstruction of election certification proceedings."
The United States has witnessed a giant case of jury nullification. Voters know that Trump is a sleazy crony capitalist con man who attempted to overturn the 2020 election by lying about it. About half of America's voters aren't particularly troubled by that. They like what he represents and what he claims he will do.
The jury was the 152 million voters, and they voted to acquit. They voted 76.9 million for Trump and 74.4 million for Harris.
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8 comments:
“The jury was the 150 million voters, and they voted to acquit.”
The problem with that jury is they only listened to the evidence they wanted to hear, and they preferred Trump’s bullshit to the facts. So now we have a president-elect about to take an oath of office that he's already violated.
The first definition given for “traitor” is: "one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty.” The whole world knows our once and future president is a lying criminal and traitor, but that’s what Republicans seem to love about him.
So maybe it will now finally be time for the Democrats to stop talking about what they care about and start talking about what the voters care about.
More economic nationalism and less wokeism would be a good start, in my opinion.
Not one Republican senator questioned Hegseth's fitness for SecDef. No one asked him if he honestly evaluated his resume would there be anyone at the Pentagon, or elsewhere, who would be more qualified. If he could wouldn't that in itself be a reason to withdraw in the interests of National Security.
The hubris is jawdropping.
The majority of voters, at least in this election, apparently care about Trump’s claims that schools are secretly sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without parental consent, Immigrants are eating their pets, we have the highest inflation of all time, and the last election was stolen. They don’t need both parties feeding them such bullshit.
Hegseth has a bachelor's degree from Princeton, and a master's degree from Harvard. Additionally, he served 13 years in the military. He's more than qualified to be the Secretary of Defense, particularly compared to Lloyd Austin and Pete Buttigieg.
If the Democrats decide to follow this advice, all they will need to do is elect another people. Good luck with that…
The people will eventually come out of their stupor. I just hope it’s in time to keep our democratic republic.
There are plenty of college graduates and veterans in prison.
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