Will the Prosecution of Trump Have Terrible Consequences? ( washingtonmonthly.com )

carl_dungeon , 10 months ago

It keeps talking about the cost of prosecution- what cost? It wasn’t clear to me. The cost of doing whatever the fuck you want above the law is worse than anything else right?

And I know if I had done any of the things that orange motherfucker did I’d already be in federal prison. The most valuable thing we could do is show that just because you’re some ketchup-on-steak eating criminal mouth breather, you’re not above the law just because you have money and a fucking cult.

spaceghoti OP , 10 months ago

The piece mentions a couple, one of which Lindsey Graham touched on as well.

Yet, some conservative lawyers see a parade of horribles that will, as Goldsmith puts it, “probably inspire ever more aggressive tit-for-tat investigations in office by future Congresses and administrations of the opposing party to the detriment of sound government.”

This assumes, of course, that Republicans haven’t already weaponized the courts against anyone they don’t like.

But it also mentions links Goldsmith’s article in the Times:

This deeply unfortunate timing looks political and has potent political implications even if it is not driven by partisan motivations. And it is the Biden administration’s responsibility, as its Justice Department reportedly delayed the investigation of Mr. Trump for a year and then rushed to indict him well into the G.O.P. primary season. The unseemliness of the prosecution will most likely grow if the Biden campaign or its proxies use it as a weapon against Mr. Trump if he is nominated.

It may also exacerbate the criminalization of politics. The indictment alleges that Mr. Trump lied and manipulated people and institutions in trying to shape law and politics in his favor. Exaggeration and truth shading in the facilitation of self-serving legal arguments or attacks on political opponents have always been commonplace in Washington. These practices will probably be disputed in the language of, and amid demands for, special counsels, indictments and grand juries.

In other words, it’ll have the effect of normalizing the things that Republicans have been normalizing for decades. Heads they win, tails we lose.