Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks says last September 1st, seven months after Joe Biden was inaugurated, Trump asked him to "rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency.” Brooks says he told Trump that would be illegal. On Wednesday, Trump withdrew his endorsement of Brooks for Alabama Senator in the GOP primary.
If nobody has seen these pardons, how can anyone prove that they were signed while Trump was still in office?
Pretty easy. Just have a notary witness the signature and attest to the date. I’d lay money that was done on or before 1-20-21.
Really? That’s it? There isn’t a more formalized process for federal documents?
You got me- paging our legal experts. As far as I know, the presidential pardon power is unlimited and there may well be no requirement that they be made public.
I’m just wishing for something which will disqualify him from running.
And the disqualification would come from Republicans, so the Trump “base” will be so mad they won’t go to the polls. Maybe a last-minute last-ditch attempt by Mitch…
I think it will happen, probably through some criminal charge.
Republicans are hoping so hard for Democrats to do this dirty work for them. They are afraid to repudiate Trump because they don’t want to alienate his base. And they can’t coalesce around any new candidate until Trump is dealt the final blow and is unequivocally out of the running.
Why should Democrats be in any hurry to administer that blow? It’s nearly three years until the next presidential election.
As for the mid-terms, the more Trumpy candidates running for seats, the better it is for Dems. Trump candidates may win in primaries but won’t do as well in the general election except in parts of the country that are already lost to Republicans anyway.
That really would be a win-win for Republicans. No more Trump doing stupid things to harm them, but they can go to Trump’s cultists and say, “Look what those evil Democrats did to your messiah, support our new guy Flashy McWhiteteeth and help him get revenge for you!”
Other than the constitutional limitation that he cannot pardon in cases of impeachment, and that he can pardon only federal and not state crimes, you are correct. I agree that, if I were Trump and wanted to have some secret pardons up my sleeve, I would have them dated and witnessed, while I was still in office, by people I trusted to keep their pieholes shut. But Trump being Trump, unless he were actually listening to a good lawyer, I kind of doubt he’d be that careful. For that matter, I doubt he could keep himself from bragging about them since leaving office, so if they’re out there, I suspect we would have heard about them by now.
But questionable for the good of the country. Having the Trumpiest candidates may be good, as more Democrats end up getting elected. But in those die-hard Republican states, they will get elected, thus putting more Trumpists in Congress like MTG, Boebert, etc., where they will proceed to make an even greater mockery of Congress that we see already.
I’m thinking, the best remaining chances for Trump to be convicted or held liable for something, are possibly Letitia James investigation (so far, still just a civil case), and the investigation of election tampering in Georgia.
Garland doesn’t seem very enthusiastic (unless he’s really got a hot investigation going and really good at keeping it secret), and Alvin Bragg in Manhattan seems to have finked out. What else is left?
Frankly, I think the spit-shine (emphasis on spit) on Trump is beginning to wear off, well and truly. More and more Republicans are openly defying him. McConnell is defying him. Even taint-licker Kevin McCarthy has begun to move away.
We’re going to have to live with these deranged individuals for awhile, even some in Congress. They are – as is Trump – a symptom of ills that run much deeper in this country. Until we address the larger issue of what makes normal people vote for Teh Crazy™, they are with us for the foreseeable future.
I expect I’ll be long gone from this world before we put that evil genie back in the bottle, because Republicans are not helping in any genuine way. They want Trump gone because he is too out-in-the-open with their ultimate goals. Dems and independents are on their own in fighting this battle for small ‘D’ democracy.
'Member when the two prosecutors assigned to going after Trump suddenly resigned? Here’s one of them explaining to their new boss exactly why he resigned.
Basically, they believed there was a solid case against Trump, but their new boss told them to drop it.
As you know from our recent conversations and presentations, I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people. The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.
…
This work was underway when you took office as District Attorney. You have devoted significant time and energy to understanding the evidence we have accumulated with respect to the Trump financial statements, as well as the applicable law. You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time. The investigation has been suspended indefinitely.
You really have to wonder why their new boss decided to just suddenly drop the case.
I have been pondering that. You’d think it’d be catnip to an ambitious young NYC Democratic DA.
Unless you lose.
I’ve read he’s quite risk-averse.
If you did your very best and still lost, I suspect most of your Trump-hating constituents would still be glad you tried and wouldn’t punish you for the loss.
I think it’s a slam dunk that Trump violated laws with his fraudulent conduct. I think Alvin Bragg is wrong and the prosecution should go forward. Mark Pomerantz is as good a judge of a prosecutable case as ever there was, and Bragg should listen to him.
But like I said, I’ve read Bragg is risk-averse.
I blame Cy Vance more than Bragg. He should have brought those charges before he left as NYC DA. That would have given Bragg cover whichever way it went. Makes you wonder why he didn’t. I have notions, but nothing more.
This is spot-on analysis. Well said.
Slight quibble, based on the letter it didn’t appear that Bragg was saying that the investigation should be dropped entirely, rather that is wasn’t ready to be put forward to a grand jury for indictments. This may be a distinction without a difference and may be Bragg’s way of killing it entirely but it does leave open the possibility that Bragg is still trying to investigate Trump but is wanting to wait possibly until the civil case shakes itself out.