Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Unsealed Filing Shows Trump at Heart of Insurrection
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith filed a long motion with the federal court that is dealing with the January 6 rebellion a while ago. It addresses the Supreme Court's idiotic decision to give sitting presidents immunity from prosecution for official deeds. The issue is whether any of his plotting can be considered an official duty. Yesterday, Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed a redacted version. It makes for horrifying reading.In showing why the actions are private, and therefore liable for prosecution, Mr. Smith has shown just how awful the behavior of the former president was on that day. It is disqualifying to say the least.
"When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office," Prosecutor Smith and his team wrote.
"Under the Constitution, the Executive Branch has no constitutionally assigned role in the state-electoral process. To the contrary, the constitutional framework excludes the President from that process to protect against electoral abuses," the special counsel argued.
The filing illustrates Mr. Trump's depraved indifference to just about everything that went wrong for decency on that day. Newsweek reports:
When rioters later broke into the Capitol building chanting threats about Pence, Trump wrote on Twitter that his vice president "didn't have the courage" to refuse to certify the election. He attacked "Pence for refusing the defendant's entreaties to join the conspiracy and help overturn the results of the election," prosecutors allege in the document . . . .
A White House aide ran to Trump to tell the then-president that he had just received a phone call informing him that Pence had been taken to a secure location "in hopes that (Trump) would take action to ensure Pence's safety."
Trump replied: "So what?" and didn't appear concerned for Pence's safety as the rioters walked around the Capitol building looking for the vice president.
Much of this hostility surprised outsiders, but Mr. Pence had been working since the election was called for Joe Biden to get Mr. Trump to accept reality. The filing points to four specific events, lunches and so on, during November and December 2020 when Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump discussed matters with the vice-president arguing for giving up the fight.
The filing also cites a White House staffer who is willing to testify that he or she, "witnessed an unprompted comment that the defendant made to his family members in which the defendant suggested that he would fight to remain in power regardless of whether he had won the election," the prosecution document states.
This filing also has a redacted appendix that may or may not be unsealed later. The judge has given the defense until October 10 to act. The timing is ironically wonderful.
The Trump strategy has always been to wear down the prosecution by delay. Eventually, the other side gets bored and goes home; at least, in civil cases to which Mr. Trump has been a party (and there are legions of them), that is what happens. Criminal prosecutors do not get tired when they have the goods.
This time, the delay has put the case front and center a month before the election. The law of unintended consequences is at work here. This could cost Mr. Trump at least one swing state.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
|
|
|
