(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . We have to stop expecting a Criminal Case to bring Trump down [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-03-21 [If you appreciate my writing you join my Substack where i am several articles ahead, but it has a free tier. Subscribe now Thanks.] Reposted from MySubstack Not that I tend to listen to the advice of Anthony Scaramucci — because who the hell would? — but I believe that in this case, he has a valid, serious point. x x YouTube Video "Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president who had ever been indicted," said Collins. "And now nearly a year later, he is the presumptive Republican nominee ... and it's not clear if voters are going to get to hear the evidence against him in any of those case before they decide if he should return to the White House." With that in mind, she said, turning to Scaramucci, who spent just 10 days as Trump's director of communications before he was fired, "If none of this happens before the trial, what does that mean?" "Well, I think you've got to take that as the status quo," said Scaramucci, who became a sharp critic of the Trump administration. "I think any of those other things that could happen before the trial, particularly the documents case, where if you really read through that complaint, that's where the most damning evidence is. If none of that happens, it's a Trump vs Biden rematch." And so everyone should look at the big picture of what that means, Scaramucci continued. "What [Trump] said, what he did over the four years, what he's saying now — he wants to go after you, Kaitlan," he said. "He's made it very clear that anybody that he disagreed [with] ... he wants to potentially threaten their FCC license. He said publicly he wants to persecute, using the Department of Justice, his political adversaries, and the list goes on and on. He's courting with dictators. He wants to be part of the axis of autocracy with people like Vladimir Putin, and just to remind people Vladimir Putin is tied very closely to Iran now. So just think about what that means for the Middle East, because we know how transactional Donald Trump is." "I think we got to get off the cases," he added. "We have the focus on Mr. Trump being the most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history. And we have to go through the things that he's saying he's going to do as it relates to being un-American ... I think if we do that, he's going to lose the election." Anyone who truly cares about the future of this country and understands the existential threat that Trump would be in a second term — has to stop depending on him to be convicted by Jack Smith, Fani Willis or Alvin Bragg in a criminal court. At this point, there’s a chance that won’t happen before the election. And even if it did, Trump would absolutely appeal and most of his deluded flock would still consider it part of “Lawfare” and “Weaponization” and it won’t affect their support for Trump one iota. So honestly, we have to assume that it doesn’t matter. Trump absolutely needs to lose in November under his own steam. That’s the only way that it can go down. Dark Skies on the Horizon is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As I write this Judge McAfee has delivered his opinion that either Fani Willis's office or Nathan Wade have to recuse themselves from the Trump Rico case. Wade has resigned which will slow that case down as they get a new prosecutor up to speed. And then Trump could also appeal that decision causing even more delay. DA Alvin Bragg has accepted a 30-day delay in his case involving Stormy Daniels because they have just received 31,000 pages of documents from the SDNY who had previously prosecuted Michael Cohen over the same events in 2016. A likely delay in the Manhattan hush money prosecution of former President Donald Trump has created an extra cloud of confusion over everything, said former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams to CNN's Brianna Keilar on Thursday — but he added the trial is still the most likely of the four to be held prior to the 2024 election. District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is charging Trump's alleged payments to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels as felony business fraud in service of an illegal campaign finance scheme, said he is open to a 30-day delay "in an abundance of caution" so that Trump's team can review documents provided by federal prosecutors that could expose new details. "So, it's just interesting when you look at the cascading effects on the other cases here," said Keilar, suggesting that Bragg's delay could have knock-on delays to the other trials. "And how you're expecting it could actually force some, obviously, beyond the election. Meanwhile, Judge Aileen Cannon — who was appointed by Trump — in the classified documents case has repeatedly introduced unnecessary delays and reasons to stall. "The current [trial] date is not happening obviously because there is so much litigation and motions practice left to have in this case," Dilanian said, referring to the May 20 date that it had originally been scheduled for. "[Cannon's] really dragging it out. Some people argue she's just an inexperienced judge and not used to dealing with complex matters about classified information and taking her time. The result of that is that this case is taking a long time to get to trial." Frankly, there’s a good chance that Cannon will completely tank this case in it’s entirety. Her decision to toss the issue of whether the statute is "too vague” to the jury in their instructions is a particular problem. Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines, following lengthy oral argument, that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues as raised in the Motion," wrote Cannon. "For that reason, rather than prematurely decide now whether application of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) in these circumstances yields unsalvageable vagueness despite the asserted judicial glosses, the Court elects to deny the Motion without prejudice, to be raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions." The fourth case with Jack Smith before Judge Chutkin is moving forward but only in fits and starts as we wait for the SCOTUS to determine “Absolute Immunity”. Judge Tanya Chutkan removed the planned March 4 start from her calendar, formalizing a delay that had become increasingly likely in recent weeks. It remains unclear when the trial might start. The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election issued an order on Friday scrapping the March 4 trial date for the case. The order by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan was a formal confirmation of what had seemed fairly obvious for weeks. It came after she had made a series of hints that she was going to delay the trial as Mr. Trump pursues an effort to have the underlying charges tossed out with an argument that he enjoys complete immunity from prosecution. So, all these cases are a mess right now. None of them are scheduled. They could all still be pushed even further back. If you were holding out hope that Trump would suffer a conviction before November and that would drain him of voters — I think it’s time to give up that hope. Besides, most of the people that he still has supporting him - don’t care about his criminal cases. They think that they’re all a “hoax.” x x YouTube Video Supporter #1: I think that all of this is just election interference and just a show - people like Letitia James and Fani Willis and all these people who want to just get their, you know, they rode the wings of “I will get Trump” in order to get into office to start with. Supporter #2: Trump is too smart for these people, he’s miles ahead of the game, he’s gonna walk and he’s gonna walk clean. And all the charges will be dropped and Trump will be the hero that he has been in New York, where I lived all my life. Supporter #3: I think he always comes out smelling like a rose and he’ll win all these judgements and stuff against him. I think he’s just not really playing along with it to get through it y’know, and he’ll Prevail. Supporter #4: I’m not concerned about it, I believe that it’s all of course politically motivated. I was never convinced that it was actual because he’s a bad guy because there’s so many political actors within the establishment that have done worse, but nothing ever happens. So I think it’s because Trump is Trump and he’s actually Waging War on the political establishment and that’s why they’re persecuting him. Supporter #5: I’m not worried about it because it’s a Witch Hunt and they’ve been going after him ever since 2016. And every single time he wins and he shows that the system is corrupt, the Deep State is crazy, and the swamp is right there. But Trump’s got a lot of supporters, and we support him and we see the corrupt system and he fights it and he fights for us when it comes to it and he wins all the time when it comes to it. Guy’s a smart guy, and he knows what he’ doing. I’m not worried about nothing with the legal troubles. These people are saying this *after* Trump lost the Trump Charity Case, the Trump University Case and the Trump Business Fraud cases to Letitia James producing judgments against him of over $350 Million. They’re saying this after he lost two E. Jean Carroll defamation cases ending in judgments of over $85 Million. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred for his claims that the 2020 Election was stolen, as was found liable for $148 Million in a defamation case over his lies. His other lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have all pleaded guilty to Fani Willis for their part in the Fake Electors plot. They’re saying this after Robert Mueller found he was “not exonerated” in the Russia Election Interference cases and should be charged with 10 cases of obstruction, 25 Russians were indicted, 8 of his associates were prosecuted including 5 of whom who were convicted for lying about their conversations with Russians. Over 1000 Trump supporters have been prosecuted and convicted for their attack on the Capitol and their attempts to overturn the 2020 election based on Trump’s instructions and his call that “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Both Steven Bannon and Peter Navarro were convicted of Contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the January 6 committee. If all that has not yet convinced them that Trump is a giant crook and a traitor — one or two more cases is not going to do it. Frankly, the more cases that Trump gets plied with — the more they support him. They see every case, every charge, as simply more corruption by the Deep State trying to steal the election from him. These people would still support Trump if he gets convicted, even if he has to serve as President from inside a Georgia jail cell. They think Biden should be in jail - for something or the other that came from Russian Intelligence. So the cases don’t matter. If they were truly intended as “election interference” to erode Trump’s support - they have completely backfired in that regard. Those people who are off the Trump Train are already off it. Those that are on it - are going to stick. The question is: Will those people who are off the Trump train — many of whom are independents and Nikki Haley Republicans — going to stay home in November or will they pull the lever for Joe Biden instead? https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1768404240140021810 Trump lost Georgia in 2020 by 12,000 votes. This Tuesday, Nikki Haley received 64,000 votes despite having dropped out of the race. Trump is unhinged, unwell, and unfit to be president, and people are waking up to this fact. What’s it gonna take to get them to cross the stream? I think our greatest ally here - is simply the truth. We don’t need to lie. We don’t need to exaggerate. We simply need to point out who Trump really is. Because he’s a monster. He’s a direct fascist terrorist threat to America and a further threat to the peace and security of NATO and the world. As Scaramucci says “We have the focus on Mr. Trump being the most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history” - because that’s exactly what he is. On top of threatening the cut Medicare, again Cut Taxes and Free the “J6 Hostages” creating his own personal batch of “Brownshirts” —- he’s not running to be President, he’s running to become Dictator-In-Chief. Former President Donald Trump has made a disturbing shift in his 2024 presidential campaign stump speeches, according to a rhetorician raising the alarm about authoritarianism. “He's running as a dictator," Professor Jennifer Mercieca told progressive commentator Aaron Rupar, "He's determined to destroy the Constitution.” […] The interview also took place after new reports revealed Trump praised Adolf Hitler to his White House chief of staff and that his 2024 campaign ads monetized Nazi content on Rumble. "With Trump increasingly sounding like a zooted-out Hitler on the stump," Rupar wrote, "it can be hard for anything President Biden says to break through." Mercieca, the author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump," argues Trump's 2024 rhetoric presents a stark change from the rhetoric of 2016, when he first campaigned for the presidency, and before the 2020 election. "In his previous campaigns Trump presented himself as a demagogue who would work within the system to achieve the MAGA agenda,” Mercieca said. "If there is a second Trump presidency it won't be at all like the first." Mercieca believes Trump's popularity with his MAGA base is built on his rhetorical "genius," Rupar reports. She also argues Trump used "war rhetoric" against the U.S. in the weeks leading up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when his followers tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden. The Texas A&M professor believes Biden's best rhetorical bet is try and tear down Trump's strong man facade. "When Biden calls him out for being a loser, it absolutely attacks the central characteristic that those right-wing authoritarians are looking for," Mercieca told Rupar, "which is a strong leader who can take care of the chaos." With his own Agenda 47 and the Heritage Foundations Project 2025 Trump is threatening to completely tear down the Constitutional structure of the U.S. Just like he’s done with the RNC, he would purge the government of experienced workers and flood the halls with his own sycophantic supporters. He would ignore the Supreme Court and the Congress and rule by Fiat. He would create detention camps for migrants at the border and implement a mass deportation project even against migrants who have completely abided by the law. He’d again steal children from their parents then stick them in tent camps in the desert. He would declare America is a “Christian-Judeo Nation” requiring prayer in all schools, then create a Nationwide Abortion Ban, as well as banning accurate sex-ed, contraception, Mifepristone, IUDs, IVF and Plan B. While doing this he would again try to repeal the Affordable Care Act including the Medicaid expansion which would plunge many women and children into a void without healthcare - and this would further increase the Red State and Racial Infant and Maternal Mortality gap. He would grant total immunity to police regardless of how badly they violate the Constitution, racially profile, abuse and murder citizens. He would bring back “Stop and Frisk” even though it’s been proven to be completely unconstitutional and fails to find people who’ve committed any crime 95% of the time. He would ban CRT, DEI, accurate African-American History, and Gender Affirming Care. Like a proper Nazi, he would Ban Books and implement a mass purge of LGBTQ teachers and librarians from their positions. He would implement mass Voter Suppression under the guise of “Election Integrity” and also outlaw early and mail-in voting just as the RNC has done. He would gut the FBI and DOJ, then install his own cronies to implement his own version of “weaponization” by prosecuting all his political enemies - starting with Joe and Hunter Biden. Then he’d go after Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg and anyone who was involved in his two impeachments or who might present a challenge to him in Congress or on the political sphere. He would likely implement Martial Law to put down protests by sending the military out to “Crack Skulls and Shoot Protestors” as he tried to do during his first administration. “Trump told his team that he wanted the military to go in and ‘beat the f*** out’ of the protesters. ‘Just shoot them,’” the book titled, Frankly, We Did Win This Election’: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, alleges. When Mr Trump purportedly received pushback from officials within the administration on his violent stance, he allegedly said: “Well, shoot them in the leg – or maybe the foot… But be hard on them!” “That’s the president of the United States watching from the safety of the Oval Office,” Mr Tapper said in reaction to the alleged comments, “while Americans who were peacefully protesting the horrific killing of George Floyd, and some that were doing so not so peacefully, were beaten and tear-gassed just steps away from the White House.” You can hear exactly this from former Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. x Mark Esper on the threat of a second term: “He wanted to deploy active-duty troops on the street of Washington, D.C., and suggested actually that we shoot Americans in the street. That's kind of more of what you'll see.”pic.twitter.com/OdKVTAnL72 — Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) March 14, 2024 Mark Esper on the threat of a second term: “He wanted to deploy active-duty troops on the street of Washington, D.C., and suggested actually that we shoot Americans in the street. That's kind of more of what you'll see.” He would start arresting Journalists for Sedition, again, as he tried to do the first time around. President Donald Trump’s apparent suggestion that the FBI should “consider putting reporters in prison” has been decried as a dangerous new assault on press freedom and prompted a call to action by American journalists who have been jailed in the US for their work. Among those who criticised the reported comments are journalist Brian Karem, who spent two weeks in jail in Texas in 1990 for refusing to give up a source and who told the Guardian they were “deeply concerning”. […] Before bringing up the subject of the FBI’s probe of Flynn, Trump reportedly complained about leaks in the news media and said that Comey “should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information,” according to an associate of Comey, who had seen a memo from then-director Comey, the NYT said. The journalist who broke the story, Michael Schmidt, expanded on the details briefly in the paper’s podcast on Wednesday morning in which he reported that, according to his sources: “The president started by talking about leaks and he brought up the fact that he thought James Comey should try to put reporters in jail. He said: ‘Look, you used to put reporters in prison 10 or 15 years ago and that had some real impact’.” He might declare the Constitution “Null and Void” again and allow himself to run for President a fourth and fifth time - while his best opponents would be in jail, of course - because that would be his best way of staying out of jail himself. He would pull the U.S. out of NATO or at the very least ignore Article 5 and allow Russia to invade NATO countries without any response. He would let China invade Taiwan and North Korea to attack and invade South Korea. He would usher in WWIII with a welcoming embrace - while the US sits on the sidelines and lets the chaos explode around us. All this is what Trump has openly admitted that he’d like to do but it could get even worse. He would probably allow Israel to Nuke Gaza, because only that would be the “Final Solution” for Hamas. And if that sounds hyperbolic — think about it. They’ve already killed 30,000 Gazans and they’ve shown no remorse or regret — killing another 100,000 or 500,000 wouldn’t make much difference to Netanyahu, or to Trump. Only the slim hope of getting the Hamas hostages back keeps them from taking that fatal final step. If Trump got back into office he would immediately pardon himself and let his inner-fascist out for a romp and join arms with his best buddies and fellow Dictators Putin, Xi, Ung, Orban, Erdogan and MbS to wreak havoc on America and the world. That’s what we all have to lose if Trump wins in November. America needs to rise up and stop him. He needs to be roundly, severely and decisively defeated. No claims of Election Interference, and no court decisions. We need to send a message to the MAGAs — No. More. This guy has lost the ballot count twice so far. He lost by 3 Million the first time, he lost by 7 Million the second time. He needs to lose by 10 Million this time. It has to be clear and unequivocal. It has to be a landslide. Maybe then, possibly, his raging horde may finally get the hint - they aren’t “America” — We are. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/21/2229822/-We-have-to-stop-expecting-for-a-Criminal-Case-to-bring-Trump-down?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/