OMG have I been reading hysteria on Twitter just now over the New York Times article suggesting D.A. Alvin Bragg is doubting whether he can get the criminal goods on Trump.
Cool it, everyone. You’re driving yourself crazy with apocalyptic beliefs and statements that, at minimum, have nothing to do with what’s going on.
There’s a heavy majority wailing about how we can’t trust the judiciary! how Trump will get away with everything! how mob money has bought our prosecutors!!!
The world is ending, our country is finished!!!
No.
And I’m sort of amazed that some lawyers whom I generally admire are jumping into the pile of dead leaves. Please stop.
I feel this public mood — to scream over certain actions or inactions, to declare the world is ending — is one of the residual traumas with which we all are burdened thanks to four years of anti-government stupidity, craziness, corruption and danger.
But Trump and his maladministration are no longer fucking up our government. Our desperate impatience to have justice right now, tomorrow, last week, ASAP, instantly is our own psychological problem. It is not the problem of the great numbers of multifarious investigations and prosecutions, each of which must proceed, as Merrick Garland has said, “We will do what we always do under these circumstance: look at the facts of the law and take it from there.”
A few things I’m thinking:
- Last I looked, there were almost 40 cases, both criminal and civil, against Trump. New ones, like smuggling classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, pop up every single day. How many of these will work their way toward charges, arrest and prosecution? Not sure, but I am sure that the “Trump will get away with everything because he always has!” sufferers will be greatly relieved at the end of this.
- Alvin Bragg, for whom I voted, has deep prosecutorial experience, great academic degrees and intelligence. Despite our — “our,” meaning New Yorkers in particular — passionate desire to cleanse the streets of all things Trump, Bragg knows better than I do whether his grand jury is likely to indict or not. I trust his judgment, and his deep knowledge of this matter, over the screaming condemnation of critics who are not in his position, don’t know the evidence or the standards for criminal behavior.
- All the quickie sniping I’ve been reading suggests that Bragg doesn’t have the guts for this big case. Yeah, right. Total bullshit. I’ve never met a smart lawyer who didn’t have the guts for big cases. Combat with the opposition is part of a lawyer’s DNA.
- If I’m right, Bragg was handed an iffy case, worked it as thoroughly as he could and, if he can’t find a way to indict Trump, has great integrity and strength of character not to pursue the case if the cogent reason for pursuing is political, not judicial. Which is the opposite of what he’s being accused of.
- I’m not a lawyer but ever since the first indictment came out of the D.A.’s office — Trump’s guy Weisselberg — I’ve been thinking, “Hmm. If this is what they’ve got, it isn’t much.” It’s not nothing but it’s not a big criminal indictment of Trump himself.
- Remember: the D.A. is investigating possible criminal activity by Trump and his company. I don’t know whether Trump’s tax fraud and tax cheating qualify as criminal.
- Trump apparently inflated and deflated property values at will, to get big mortgages or to lower his taxes. But if he’s being accused of cheating, say, Deutsche Bank, by lying about valuations, well, how about Deutsche Bank suing Trump? Which they’re not because, hey, it’s Deutsche. Can you indict Trump for cheating his bank, without the bank’s concordance?
- But if Trump cheated New York State and the City…well. And that’s what Tish James is working on. She’s not working on a criminal case. I’d suppose any evidence or information Bragg’s office gathers can be handed over to James.
The apocalyptic howls ignore the central, key Trump investigations for sedition, conspiracy, election tampering, incitement to violence and I forgot the rest. If the New York D.A.’s case can’t achieve a criminal indictment, let us count the cases that will.
Nah, I’m not going to do that. You can do it. Suffice it to say, Trump’s big mistake was running for the presidency; his biggest mistake was winning. He was too stupid to understand the ramifications.
P.S. The fascist truck convoy heading to DC for Biden’s State of the Union is…not heading anywhere. Because the organizer got exactly one truck. Lots of fun on Twitter about how many trucks does it take to make an official convoy. There seems to be agreement that one truck doesn’t cut it in the convoy department.