Question – if Trump pardons him, could D.C. still charge him, or doesn’t that work, since they aren’t a state?
That is a beautiful thing.
Washington DC law enforcement is under federal jurisdiction. They don’t have their own District Attorney, there is a US attorney (appointed by the President, I believe) who makes charging decisions. I presume from this that a federal pardon would neutralize this avenue.
If there is evidence, he can be still be charged by the DC US Attorney regardless of a self-pardon. A judge will probably stay an indictment until a higher court rules on just how ridiculous a legal concept a self-pardon is, but prosecutors don’t need to recognize a self-pardon until a court says they do.
If you are really interested—— a long long time ago, there was a story that made the news. This was right at the beginning of the end, one of the first volleys in the “Poor Persecuted Trump was the Victim of Fraud” narrative. Two months ago, an eternity these days
A postal worker, with Project Veritas (an odious right wing troll farm) put out a story that he had witnessed election fraud. A few days later, after Barr gave federal agencies guidance to investigate claims of fraud, he was interviewed by, IIRC, a couple of federal agents, postal service I think.
The guy, unbeknownst to the agents, taped most of the interview, a little over two hours worth. He told the agents this afterwards and they did not confiscate the tape or threaten him or anything. During the interview he recanted his tale of election fraud. Then this moron went right back to Veritas, handed them the tape, recanted the recant, and proceeded to crowdfund a ton of money although, during the interview, the agents made it clear that was a bad idea.
But, back to the point. The tape of the interview is available, 2 hours worth. I listened to the whole thing at the time and if you are interested in technique, it’s fascinating. I thought it was interesting how the agent dropped in QANON coded language at the beginning he didn’t overplay it, it was subtle, references to “the storm” in order to align himself with the postal worker.
Please note that I hate posting content from Veritas but I can’t find this elsewhere. And the Veritas claim that the interview was coercive is false, it’s textbook,
That’s incredibly funny and incredibly terrifying, because it shows how deep this mass delusion has penetrated the heartland. It would be a whole lot less scary if he were the black sheep whose family thought he was crazy for dressing like half-naked Viking caveman, putting on his body paint and heading to DC to get rid of AOC once and for all.
Instead they think this is what real Americans are supposed to do. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,
The postal worker was named Richard Hopkins, and according to The Washington Post, he “told investigators from the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General that the allegations were not true, and he signed an affidavit recanting his claims”. It seems to me that if he later tried to claim that he did see fraud, that’s a problem for him, because of the signed affidavit.
There were a bunch of judges who investigated election fraud claims and no evidence was ever shown.
Oh, he’s going to jail. After the interview he behaved like someone told him he had immunity. I wonder if they convinced him he was gonna get pardoned.
Please understand that the guy’s claims were total and complete bullshit - anyone that listens to the interview tape will learn he overheard a few mumbled words about the 3rd and the 4th and was annoyed that his supervisors (who I suspect were black woman) were making such a big deal about timely processing of election mail.
Please note, again, that I am not claiming there is any truth to any underlying narrative about the link I posted. The source is vile
I posted it simply because some one expressed a desire to listen to a federal agent interview a witness/suspect and this is a good example of the techniques.
That’s what I don’t get; all of these people who make bullshit claims about election fraud, some like him (or Donald Trump himself) as a way of scamming money from the gullible, but no one ever presented any real evidence under oath.
It’s almost like… like… there was no evidence.
And yet all of those people at the Capitol last week believed in the fraud claims enough to commit federal crimes.
Amusingly, there’s evidence of that.
Well, you know what Paul Simon said about it.
Actually I have no idea
“All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
If I ever start posting in Cafe Society, I may start a thread on how Paul Simon is the most underrated lyricist ever. From American Tune
And I don’t know a soul that’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend that feels at ease
I don’t have a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But its alright it’s alright
‘Cause we live so well so long
Sorry for the hijack
I wasn’t aware he was underrated. Granted it’s Rolling Stone but he’s ranked 8th on their 100 greatest songwriters list.
I’d put him at #3 - behind Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, myself.
But that’s my opinion. I’m not a music geek and I’d soon be out of my depth if I tried to defend that statement. Which is why I don’t frequent Cafe Society.
That’s what has been baffling poor Lou Dobbs:
Well Lou…you might not like the answer.
Is he really, authentically this stupid?