The reason I ask is because I’m having trouble following the accusations. I don’t like Trump, but putting that aside what all civil and criminal crimes has he been accused of? And why is this not news?
Off the top of my head:
Accused of rape by 3 different women
Election fraud in asking Europeans for donations
Conflict of interest with the Russians (calling on them to hack the US, etc)
Illegal coordination with a superPAC
Fraud with Trump University
Bribery of a Florida official who was supposed to investigate Trump University
Offering Ben Carson an advisory position in exchange for an endorsement
Racial bias in his rental properties
Looking online I found these sites.
Is this uncharted territory? Why is this not bigger news? Or is this really the level of behavior candidates can engage in? Other than the Clintons, I can’t think of any major politician who has been accused of such a wide range of crimes (and much of what people accuse the Clinton’s of seems to be wishful thinking). Obama, Romney, Bush, Dole, Gore, Kerry, Perot, etc. never had this kind of record from what I am able to remember.
I don’t view this as a crime or even an impropriety. It’s just a normal political quid pro quo.
How about the misuse of campaign money? I’ve heard numerous stories about Trump funneling campaign money towards his personal accounts by charging his campaign for the use of his property or by buying things for his personal use with campaign money.
And there’s his wife’s immigration history. It appears she violated immigration laws back in 1996. Trump has no direct connection - they weren’t a couple at the time. But Trump and his campaign have repeatedly denied any laws were broken which raises the issue of a cover up.
There’s the time he dog-whistled the gun nuts to maybe shoot the Democratic nominee and then had the Secret Service come a-calling. That has to be a first for a major party nominee.
There also seems to be questions about the Trump Foundation being used as a personal piggy bank by Trump. That and the way he keeps using campaign funds to pay companies he owns for services delivered to his campaign could be a problem as well. This story is from June but there are more recent instances to be found. It looks as if he is jacking the price way up when the campaign is being billed.
Don’t forget about his tendency to not pay bills or people who perform work for him. That has already been covered in various places as well. I’m done looking up cites for now. Try Googling some phrases like “trump fraud” “trump cheats workers” “trump atlantic city contractors”, etc.
The Russian stuff is weird and may well be real but I am guessing the smoking gun is in his tax info somewhere. The rape stories seem pretty fringe but who knows. Clearly this dude is seriously scummy.
But to your original question, “Why is this not bigger news?” well, it seems “evil Hillary” stories get better ratings than stories about Trump sliminess. The media loves vilifying Hillary because it gets them viewers. Add to that the fact the Trump stories are more complicated and a new one seems to pop up every few days and it is easy to see the media just going with the easy story that Hillary is irredeemably evil and up to no good. They’ve been pushing that angle for years so they are just going with the story that takes less work.
Headline: We Investigated, Donald Trump is Named in at Least 169 Federal Lawsuits
[INDENT][INDENT] They read like a history of Trump’s business failures, successes, and bombastic personality. With Trump threatening a lawsuit against Ted Cruz, his surge in the polls, and his big win in New Hampshire, we thought now was as good a time as any to review of some of the Donald’s legal skirmishes. The federal lawsuits that we reviewed date back to 1983 and involve everything from business disputes, antitrust claims and, more recently, accusations that Trump’s campaign statements are discriminatory against minorities. Some of the cases have been resolved, some were dismissed as frivolous, and others were privately settled. He’s been sued by celebrities, personal assistants, prisoners, people in mental hospitals, unions, and wealthy businessmen. http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/we-investigated-donald-trump-is-named-in-at-least-169-federal-lawsuits/[/INDENT][/INDENT]
There was the speechwriter who took the blame for his wife’s sppech plagerizing from Michelle Obama – she was not listed as an employee on Campaign Finance reports – apparently she was paid from the Trump business company rather than the campaign treasury. That is a violation of campaign finance laws.
Also the various former campaign chairs/staffers – they don’t show as being paid on the Trump campaign finance reports. So they were either paid under the tale somehow, thru his business company. Or maybe not paid at all – he seems to have a record of doing that to employees.
I’m beginning to think that some percentage of the “sensible” Republicans supporting him support him only because they know he’ll get it, get impeached, and they’ll get Pence. It isn’t exactly going to be hard to impeach Trump - and the GOP will throw this particular one of their own under the bus.
If the GOP had that kind of courage, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. No way will any Republican vote to impeach President Trump. It would mean being disloyal and pissing off his feral fan club.
No, they won’t. They will not “throw him under the bus”, any more than they will come to their senses and nominate a sane candidate, any more than they will come to their senses and dump their insane nominated candidate at their convention and install a sane one, any more than they will develop a sense of decency and refuse to vote for their insane candidate come November. They have shown that they will throw their self-respect into the ditch when it comes to acquiring political power, and they will back Trump to the gates of Hell rather than give up an ounce of it.
Your “sensible” Republicans, if they exist at all, have no power.
He’s the plaintiff in 1,900 of them. The rest, not so much. It’d be nice to see a detailed list. 70 cases were filed against him since he started his election. Let’s not forget the one from the dad of the young girl singers at his campaigns.
But it’s more correct to say he’s got 1,900 cases filed against him.
I’m not remotely a fan of Trump. He’s making me vote for Hillary, which is a nightmare for me. But I think there’s value is confining the accusations to accurate claims.
No, it’s more corect to say he has about 1450 cases filed against him (or his company) and is a plaintiff (or his company is a plaintiff) in 1900 cases or thereabouts.
I think there’s value is confining the accusations to accurate claims.
You voted at least once for Obama, and that was against a reasonably sane candidate. Trump has now Thelma and Louised your party off a cliff. Are you still a Republican? Are you staying around in the hopes that the GOP somehow claws itself out back to the surface?
