On his 45th birthday, President John F. Kennedy heard Marilyn Monroe sweetly singing Happy Birthday to him. Former President Donald Trump made no secret of his bitterness at being charged with 37 crimes on the eve of his 77th birthday. After leaving the courthouse in Miami, he went to a popular Cuban restaurant – not to eat (in this chapter he stayed true to the mincemeat of Fast food during the plane trip that followed), but to feed the spirit with his supporters, who sang happy birthday to him. “What a birthday, what a birthday,” he said.
The coming months will be a succession of political campaign actions and court hearings – for now in New York and Miami, but with a high probability also in Atlanta and Washington. The former president’s plan appears to be to win the election – and forgive himself – as the defense fails to provide solid arguments.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s allegations were classified by the defendants as “the most vicious and heinous abuse of power in the history” of the United States. Trump’s reaction came as he made his way to his New Jersey golf club, where he met with believers who had contributed at least $100,000 to his campaign and pledged, if he wins an election, to appoint a special prosecutor. to investigate Joe Biden’s family.
As evidence that Trumpism has taken over the Republican Party – which claimed to be the formation of “law and order” – most of its rivals in the primaries preferred to criticize the “instrumentalization of justice”, and one of them, Vivek Ramaswamy, even promised to pardon Trump once elected.
Another piece of evidence: Polls show that the vast majority of Republicans believe the case is politically motivated. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the impeachment was made public, but before Trump went to court to plead not guilty, this indicates that 81% of Republicans, far more than his constituency, believe the trial is politically is. Still, 35% of Republican respondents said it was credible that the former president had illegally kept classified documents.
“The allegations under the Espionage Act are solid. Even if it’s only half true, he [Trump] it’s baked. It’s a very detailed and very damning indictment.” William Barr, former attorney general of the Trump administration
Trump’s defense revolved around three arguments. Most commonly heard are persecution—the famous witch hunt that Trump often laments—as Democrats, such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, the powers of the deep state, go through the rain break. Like former Trump vice president and fellow candidate Mike Pence, Biden also had secret documents in his house.
“Mr. Smith had tremendous help from Mr. Trump (…) [com] the kind of evidence that all defense attorneys dread and all prosecutors dream of. Mr. Smith made a stronger case than many observers, including myself, had expected.” Alan Dershowitz, former Trump attorney
But the equation falls apart: lawyers for both took the initiative to inform the Justice Department of what had happened and cooperated with the authorities, after returning the files. Trump, on the other hand, refused for more than a year to hand over all 13,000 documents and items he took to his Florida home and golf club: only after FBI searches did they return to state property. As for Clinton, who also cooperated with authorities, the court decided not to charge her with her “extremely careless” conduct of using a private address. email as Secretary of State.
Whatever the government is [Departamento de Justiça] need to do is hit a load, and he [Trump] can carry final verdict.” Jonathan Turley, Trump’s defense witness in the first impeachment trial
The other argument, championed by former Trump national security adviser Kash Patel, is the perversion of the law on presidential documents. “The president can take what he wants when he leaves office,” Patel claims. Trump himself, speaking specifically of those who are classified, said without laughing that he could declassify them “just by thinking about it”. In contrast, the law states that the federal government must “retain ownership, possession, and complete control over the presidential records.”
Finally, Trumpists argue that the impeachment of a former president and presidential candidate is a threat to democracy. Trump just threatened to do so if elected, and has already threatened to arrest Clinton and pressure Volodymyr Zelensky to give him information about the Ukraine affairs of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, leading to the first Republican impeachment process. And if the unsuspected The economist“the real injustice would have been not to impeach Donald Trump”.
Source: DN
