Summary
Special counsel Jack Smith dropped 44 federal charges against Donald Trump, citing DOJ policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference and classified documents retention, could be refiled after Trump’s presidency.
Critics, including Rep. Dan Goldman and former Capitol officer Aquilino Gonell, decried the move as a miscarriage of justice, asserting it places Trump above the law.
Trump and allies celebrated the decision as a victory, with Vice President-elect JD Vance vowing to prevent similar prosecutions.
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
Merrick Garland needs to be remembered by history as an all time coward. The way we use Machiavelli to label a traitor, we need to use Garland to denote the most limp, failed and feckless human being.
Here’s everything you need, press this one button and the majority of the country will celebrate you perpetually and history will call you a hero… Doesn’t lift a finger, throws up down the front of his shirt, falls asleep.
Fuck Merrick Garland, without qualification.
More like fear of retribution from the orange felonious madman
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
No, it’s not a fear. It’s an acknowledgement of exactly what he has said he will do:
Trump has said repeatedly he will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
This feels like a joke from Portal
“Test subjects fear I will kill them with turrets and fry whatever is left, even if it’s still alive. Mostly because of my plans to kill them with turrets and fry whatever is left even if it’s still alive.” - GlaDOS probably
This is what America voted for. Cthulu help us.
You know, for the first time in my life I understand the Cultists from Lovecraftian horror. If there was some ritual we could perform to awaken an Elder God to devour the planet, I would be about ready to join in.
Went from oligarchy to patriarchal oligarchy reaaal quick there lmao
Everyone’s going to shrug it off like they did in russia when putin was beginning to spread his roots. Then they’ll cry 'it’s not the people’s fault, it’s him!".
That was always the plan
English person here: I didn’t think he was classed as ‘sitting’ until he was officially voted in with the Electoral College and sworn in. Surely there’s still time to prosecute.
You’re right that he’s not sitting yet, but wrong in that there’s not time to prosecute before he is sworn in. And anyway, he’d be the boss of the prosecutors against him so he can retaliate with no fear of consequence.
Thank you for clarifying
The United States is a fucking joke. The nation supposedly founded on the rejection of a king believes that one person is literally not subject to US law. I could not have more contempt for, or feel more shame about being an unwilling participant in the unprincipled hypocrisy of this absolute shit hole of a country.
Fuck the oligarchs that run this place. Fuck the fascist Republican Party. Fuck the cowardly Democrats. And fuck the moronic, fear-riddled people.
The average lifespan of an empire is 250 years.
The USA is 248 years old.
These facts are unrelated and I don’t remember why I brought them up.
Here here. Fuck the entire broken system that keeps people so visibly and obviously above any semblance of justice.
Strictly speaking, it makes sense that you don’t ask the DOJ to prosecute their boss, considering if DOJ threw the case, he could not be prosecuted again later due to double jeopardy.
Instead, presidents are to be judged by Congress through impeachment, since Congress is supposed to be independent.
Does not really change anything since congress is too broken by partisan politics to do anything, but I just wanted to point out where the issue really is.
That is the biggest and most obvious show of the corruption of the US American “justice” system. It was long known as the best “justice” money could buy, but this is open disregard of any legal principle.
Well it’s still the best justice money can buy, just in a twisted, sinister kind of way and with a big emphasis on the money part
Wow I’m so shocked
Had 4 years to sort this and out the fucker in jail for treason and decided to dick around doing fuck all til a few months before the election.
Biden has the blood of 100,000 on his hands and the death of democracy in his lap. That’s his legacy.
Personally, I think the administration dragged its heels because it was stupid enough to want to run against Trump again. After all, if they had the bogeyman incarnate to run against, they could move to the right and still be second worst. And second worst wins elections, right?
Agreed. They still think being not trump is the easiest way to power since single identity politics is losing its charm.
Once again, Biden sticking to “policies” and “traditions” that are not law and facilitating terrible outcomes for the USA
sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference
🤡
Election interference is legal if you do it so well you win.
If it prosper, none dare call it treason.
I told my wife 4 years ago when these charges came in “If this becomes more than a slap on the wrist I will be amazed”, I am not amazed.
If only we still had another month with a Dem president and his AG controlling the DOJ…
I mean a month is a short time, ideally we’d have had that the last four fucking years and had plenty of time to handle this.
If only the AG didn’t waste 3 years before filing charges.
Fairly certain and it appears obvious the DOJ believes the president is totally immune.
Part of the reason we are not members of the ICC.
Part of the reason Dick Cheney is not in The Hague right now.
Fairly certain United States has been a fascist country since at least 1790
1846 is the clearer date to me.
What happened in 1846? Around the civil war?
We invaded México because we wanted to expand into their territory, i.e. Manifest Destiny.
Every single time someone tries to hold Trump accountable he claims it is a witch hunt.
Every single time the charges don’t stick because of intimidation or corrupt judges the public believes that it is a witch hunt just a little more and it is harder to get people to take it seriously.
This has happened so many times now that he has been able to win an election as a felon.
The DOJ knows that even if they successfully charge Trump now, his administration will get him out of it. Their only hope is to put it on pause and wait for an opportunity to actually hold him accountable. Because there is no way that can happen after he won an election.
Because there is no way that can happen after he won an election.
“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
- Alexander Hamilton
Their only hope is to put it on pause and wait for an opportunity to actually hold him accountable.
it’s fucking over. he won the election, and he’s going to fucking pardon himself, die, or both before anyone holds anyone accountable.
he’s going to gut any functional part of the legal system and get no reprimand.
that fat fuck’ll be long dead before any justice could ever be served. justice within the legal system, that is.
According to what I heard on youtube from US lawyers, the statuette of limitation will run out by the time Orange Goo finishes with his current term. Leading to no trial. There is no pausing.
I wouldn’t go that far back, or say we’ve been a fascist country for that long.
I put a lot of blame on Dems closing ranks for Bill back in the 90s.
The root of the argument is semantic: The President has testified that he did not touch Lewinsky sexually. Lewinsky’s testimony, and that of her friends and colleagues claim he did.
But the bottom line is whether this constitutes an impeachable offense. Again, Starr’s report claims there is ample evidence of Clinton lying under oath, and concealing evidence of his relationship with Lewinsky to begin impeachment proceedings. Lawyers for Clinton declared today that the President’s transgressions were “personal,” but do not constitute an impeachable offense.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-clinton-lie-under-oath/
Like, people still act like trump has some mastermind legal strategy when he’s just ripping off Bill by blurring the line between president and person.
At the end of the day for decades both parties have agreed that regardless of which one of them is in charge, no one gets any consequences from the others.
We can’t count on those groups holding each other accountable. Voters need to hold at least one party to a higher standard, or literally no one is ever going to be held accountable.
Until we have a different electoral system there is no way to hold a party accountable without losing an election.
Pretty sure y’all just lost the election spectacularly, so might as well hold the party accountable now that the worst has already happened.
They already think it’s cause they didn’t go far right enough. They’ve got their heads up their asses as always and won’t change as always.
For an honest attempt at it?
No, it’ll never be a fair fight.
But if we want a Dem primary in 2028, we need to keep demanding it, and we need to solidify around a candidate ASAP.
Voters beat the party in 08, and they’ve had to walk back a lot of what Hillary changed in 2016 to prevent that.
I still feel crazy that everyone ignored what happened to NH this “primary” but I don’t think we’re really at the point where Dems just appoint candidates without a primary.
We just need a candidate that refuses to concede until more than a handful of chosen states vote.
The worst part about the game of politics isn’t the rules. It’s that I’m forced to play.
Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet you can’t win.
As true today as in 1987 when Heinlein wrote it
I don’t want to win. I want to not play this bullshit game anymore. ET on Atari is more fucking fun than this shit.
How about 2.5 years in which everyone held off because they didn’t want to step on the FBI’s toes, and it turned out that they weren’t doing anything?
This is just like Obama giving Bush and Cheney a pass for war crimes and starting a war based on complete lies.
Yep. None of this is new, it’s the same song and dance.
I’ve criticized both parties for acting like voters have the memory of goldfish, but it’s getting harder and harder to argue they’re wrong.
People don’t remember the shit they literally lived thru already.
That’s almost insulting to goldfishes.
You’re talking about a criminal case, what does a month do for you? At every turn, Trump has consistently tried to delay the process. It has nothing to do with the DOJ or AG, they are working the system to intentionally delay everything until now. Why proceed either, he’s going to be president in two months.
“they are working the system to intentionally delay everything until now.”
If only every criminal defendant could afford to do the same…
–It would probably be a moot point because it would be legislated away as a legal strategy by the same officials that were previously dragging their feet for Trump.
He’s making a facetious point about the huge quantities of time Merrick Garland had to waste to create this outcome.
The Russia/Republican propaganda has been too strong to make anything stick. If you try to arrest Trump while he has enough followers to win an election then you’ll get a mob like Jan 6th storming whatever prison he’s held in.
It’s not as simple as you’re trying to make it sound.
Give me a break. These charges could have been pursued on day one, in Washington DC.
The administration sat on their hands.
Why do you think they “sat on their hands”? Do you think they are conspiring to help Trump? Do you think your internet armchair analysis of the situation is better that the entire DOJ and they just aren’t as smart as you?
Or is it the obvious answer that Trump has been able to get away with corruption time and time again due to Russian/republicans? And their control of our government and justice system? And the DOJ knows that if they try to prosecute Trump and the charges don’t stick that they won’t get another try.
Trust the DOJ to do their job when they just dropped their charges lol, ok. Sprinkled in some Russian/republican blame instead of a defunct system, chef’s kiss. Any other propaganda we need to spread today?
Trump was successful at delaying almost all of his trials at no fault to the DOJ. I repeat:
At Trump’s request, judge delays immunity filing in Jan. 6 prosecution
Your blaming of the DOJ is disingenuous.
I never said I blamed them, you’re just painting a weird conspiracy theory where the DOJ are the heroes/victims but “the rest of the goberment is controlled by RuSsIA AnD rEpuBliCans!!!” It’s been apparent for everyone, the rich gets a different justice system. The system has been defunct for a long time and was on full display for the last election. This is easy lay-up policy and legislation, make politicians responsible and accountable while defending democracy. You get crickets from any incumbent, everyone is very comfortable with how the system currently works (if you’re a politician).
edit: forgot to comment on the link,
Trump’s attorneys had asked to have until Nov. 21, instead of Nov. 7, to file an up-to-180-page brief arguing why Trump’s efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory
They asked for a 2 week extension, whether it’s bullshit or not that’s a pretty typical standard request from a legal team. It was more erroneous to imagine the actual court date going through when it was expected.
Trust the DOJ to do their job when they just dropped their charges lol, ok.
You imply the DOJ can’t be trusted to do their job because they dropped the charges. How is that not blaming the DOJ?
It’s no conspiracy theory that Russia has bot farms that push their narratives to change public opinion. Hell we have communities here on lemmy that have earned a reputation for doing that from all onlookers.
Sounds to me like a perfect recipe to round up and arrest a bunch of traitors to American principles. Was the thought trump would just shut up and quietly go away if we kept biding time or he lost another election. What, if anything, about trumps character would make anyone think that. 100% the government just dropped the ball on this. They won with trump in the opposition and wanted to time it well enough to win again and have him divide and weaken the republicans.
Lot of good that decrying’ll do now.
Democrats are done, elect a progressive party
The party of law and order…for everyone but themselves.
I’m actually kinda OK with this considering the circumstances.
With the republican’s capture of the presidency, congress, and the SCOTUS, there’s no way he’s going to suffer a day for his charges if the court pursued them.
The main problem was not sentencing him quickly when they had the chance. That’s the major fuckup.
Anyway, the dismissed charges are without prejudice. Which offers the opportunity (assuming trump survives his presidency, we don’t end up with a de facto republican dictatorship, etc) that he can be sentenced after his presidency.
But we all know how the courts love sentencing rich old white dudes.
I see it as a white flag. It’s not gonna happen now, and it isn’t going to happen later either. This battle they lost and that’s that.
Democrats need to start worrying less about Trump the person and more about the potential ramifications we will face in the near and farther future. It seems Democrats have a 5 year plan and Republicans have a 50 year plan, that’s why they keep gaining power and favor.
How so. Legally he can’t take office according to the constitution. And thereby his charges in Georgia and NY would hit him still, as Vance couldn’t pardon state charges. But yeah, we knew this would happen
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Here comes 4 years of dem finger wagging
And don’t forget conservative finger wagging.
“I’m sure he learned his lesson.”
No one has pretended that in years.
