# DOJ/Jack Smith Investigation into Trump and Election Interference, January 6th Insurrection (Re-Indicted August 27, 2024) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 23, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455 "2022-11-23T20:14:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/362 "2023-08-02T10:07:47Z")
I wouldn’t hate it if Scott Perry’s name came up once or twice in it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/363 "2023-08-02T10:08:36Z")
It’s time for the Republican party leaders to distance themselves from Trump. Unless they want to face the humiliation of endorsing a candidate that will probably be on trial for serious felonies by next summer. A Trump candidacy and nomination is a very real possibility unless the party makes a major endorsement and push for another candidate. They also need to remember that Trump would certainly contest the results of a failed 2024 election. Perhaps even more vehemently than 2020. I find it incomprehensible that someone indicted by a grand jury can continuing campaigning and use that platform as a way to attack our justice system. There seems to be no way to stop Trump unless Republican leaders intervene. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/364 "2023-08-02T10:30:03Z")
And on top of all that, I’d like a golden unicorn covered in chocolate. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/365 "2023-08-02T10:33:16Z")
What happens if Trump wins and is facing prison time. Will that trigger a Constitutional crisis? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/366 "2023-08-02T10:44:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Am I the only one disappointed not to see insurrection in the list of charges? That’s the most important thing to convict him of. So that someone may invoke the 14th amendment and block him from running? IANAL, but I don’t think we need an actual conviction for that. The amendment was intended to stop Confederate leaders from running for office. None of them were actually convicted of insurrection, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/367 "2023-08-02T10:45:24Z")
Hmmmmm……… > **[Is Ginni Thomas Co-Conspirator No. 6 in Trump indictment? What we know](https://www.newsweek.com/ginni-thomas-co-conspirator-no-6-trump-indictment-what-we-know-1816816)** > > Five of the six alleged co-conspirators were identified based on detailed descriptions in the grand jury's indictment. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/368 "2023-08-02T11:05:46Z")
It would be fun & interesting if Ginni were the named co-conspirator, but I have a hard time seeing Smith add a dimension that’s potentially so provocative, distracting, and politically colorable (going after a SCOTUS justice’s wife). I’m positive she was involved, but involving her at this time just seems like a great way to derail the Trump trial. OTOH it does add some interesting possibilities around any potential Thomas recusals in this case (or lack thereof). Maybe it does happen later, once Trump is convicted. And perhaps it’s part of what I anticipate will be the sweetest layer of the cake here - when Trump starts throwing people under the bus to get a reduced sentence. A lot of people have criticized Smith for running straight at Trump on this, rather than rolling up the underlings as is typical for conspiracies. But this case can’t just be about putting Trump in jail on the most convictable charges, it needs to serve a bigger purpose: the public needs undeniable evidence that crimes were committed on January 6th by a scheming, self-serving tyrant. Given MAGA’s resistance to evidence thus far, there’s only one thing that they might find undeniable: Trump himself naming crimes, and who did them, in order to get himself a lighter sentence. Let everyone hear him say “there were crimes, but everyone else did them, they should go to jail, not me.” And how wonderful would it be if they caught him on tape saying “take this bullet for me and there’ll be a pardon when I’m re-elected”. Just absolutely let the air out of all the bullshit around “they’re coming for you, I’m just in the way.” This should help MAGA destroy themselves by hammering at their own fault lines until they shatter. Then the remaining Republicans can pick up the pieces and start figuring out what a viable successor party might look like. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/369 "2023-08-02T11:17:27Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What happens if Trump wins. I know you meant “what happens if Trump wins the election?” But I’m wondering :what happens if Trump wins…the court case?. You and I and any intelligent person know that Trump is guilty, and the evidence for both cases (Mar a Lago documents, and Jan 6) is overwhelming to prove his guilt. But the law doesn’t work on what you and I know…it works on what 1 juror thinks. It only takes one out of 12 to leave Trump proven innocent. Of course jury selection will be done carefully, and obvious Trump cultists will be eliminated from the jury pool, based on their Facebook history, etc. But fully one third of Americans are MAGA cultists, and if just one of them in the jury pool can hide it, then Trump will walk free.\* So, folks, it’s WAY too soon to start celebrating. If the trial(s) are held before November 2024, and if Trump is proven innocent by a jury, the backlash will be yuuuuge. Huge enough to convince the swing voters. Which means huge enough to put Trump back in the White House, with full legally-binding proof that his is totally innocent. We may yet live to regret that Jack Smith moved so quickly, and held the trials before election day. – \*I can easily imagine that there will be one jury member who looks respectable outwardly, but is a true Trumpist inside, and will be able to fool the lawyers. All you need is somebody with a job which forced him to sit through mandatory diversity training, and he truly learned the lesson: “keep my Trump-lovin’ views to myself, so I don’t get fired.” So in the courtroom, during voir dire he will be able to boast that he is a well educated professional with no history of extremist views, But then inside the jury room…he’ll be free to do what he wants… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/370 "2023-08-02T11:21:19Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > It only takes one out of 12 to leave Trump proven innocent. Not quite. If there’s a holdout, we’d get a mistrial. True, donald won’t be convicted, but the government can retry the case. You’d need a unanimous verdict in order for donald to walk. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/371 "2023-08-02T11:25:52Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > If there’s a holdout, we’d get a mistrial. A hung jury. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/372 "2023-08-02T11:31:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What happens if Trump wins and is facing prison time. > > Will that trigger a Constitutional crisis? Weirdly, I hope so. The US constitution is a fine document, but the reverence in which certain Americans hold it, is incomprehensible to me. The Articles are fine at describing and defining a government, but the Bill of Rights needs a good going over. Problem is, that too many Americans equate the Bill of Rights with the Constitution, which it is, but is only a part of it. Rip the whole damn thing open, let Americans see what it really says, and let them make their decisions from there. Just my thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/373 "2023-08-02T11:55:16Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Problem is, that too many Americans equate the Bill of Rights with the Constitution, which it is, but is only a part of it. They also view it as literally divinely inspired, and revere it in the same way they revere any religious text (of their own). > [@Spoons](#): > > Rip the whole damn thing open, let Americans see what it really says, and let them make their decisions from there. Just my thoughts. We are not currently in a state of mind as a nation to do that. I actually think that would lead at least to an impossible stalemate and at worst to outright civil war. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/374 "2023-08-02T12:00:06Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > So that someone may invoke the 14th amendment and block him from running? > > IANAL, but I don’t think we need an actual conviction for that. The amendment was intended to stop Confederate leaders from running for office. None of them were actually convicted of insurrection, I believe. Well, there has to be some process for determining whether a given person has committed insurrection, and is thus ineligible. The Amendment doesn’t lay out any such process, but what could it be other than a criminal trial? > [@chappachula](#): > > But the law doesn’t work on what you and I know…it works on what 1 juror thinks. It only takes one out of 12 to leave Trump proven innocent. For which it’s worth remembering that Trump is facing multiple trials, with multiple juries. A cultist might well sneak onto one of them, but probably not all of them. Also remember that, for at least this trial, the jurors won’t be pulled from the US population at large, but from the population of Washington, DC, where even without voir dire, there’d be a decent chance of not getting any cultists on the jury. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/375 "2023-08-02T12:00:14Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > He is not a number!!! 🤣 👍🏽 ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/376 "2023-08-02T12:02:43Z")
But Trump was just expressing his First Amendment rights! /s ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/377 "2023-08-02T12:02:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > What happens if Trump wins and is facing prison time. > > Will that trigger a Constitutional crisis? For a bit, yes. There is nothing in the Constitution to address the issue, so judges would have to make something up. I think he would be let out on grounds of respecting democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/378 "2023-08-02T12:04:17Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > It only takes one out of 12 to leave Trump proven innocent. This cogent legal analysis is somewhat undermined by the fact that “proven innocent” is not a thing in American jurisprudence. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/379 "2023-08-02T12:12:58Z")
Nevermind. (Double post). ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/380 "2023-08-02T12:14:23Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > Did I hear properly? He will be arraigned at 4 pm on Thursday? What is that going to do to rush hour traffic? > > That should be fun. A true DC worker/resident. I feel your pain. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455/381 "2023-08-02T12:24:05Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > If there’s a holdout, we’d get a mistrial. > > A hung jury. If there’s a hung jury, the judge declares a mistrial. My point still stands. donald would not be exonerated. The government could choose to retry the case. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doj-jack-smith-investigation-into-trump-and-election-interference-january-6th-insurrection-re-indicted-august-27-2024/975455.md?page=20)