Hump Day open thread: Oh Lordy, there are tapes
This is from ABC News' blockbuster piece on why Judge Beryl Howell agreed with special prosecutor Jack Smith to allow the breaking of attorney-client privilege.
Prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented compelling preliminary evidence that former President Donald Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials after leaving office, a former top federal judge wrote Friday in a sealed filing, according to sources who described its contents to ABC News.
U.S. Judge Beryl Howell, who on Friday stepped down as the D.C. district court's chief judge, wrote last week that prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office had made a "prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations," according to the sources, and that attorney-client privileges invoked by two of his lawyers could therefore be pierced.
This, my friends, is what is called "checkmate". No, Trump isn't rotting in prison yet. But the fact that Smith was able to get this ruling from Judge Howell, based on evidence he had, means that Federal Indictment Day may not be too far off in the future. This is the kind of evidence that prosecutors salivate for. This is the kind of evidence you see on police procedurals. But it didn't come out at trial as a surprise; it set up the conditions to secure both indictment and conviction before anyone has seen time in a trial court. This is the kind of evidence which makes it much more likely that Trump will be the first American president to be successfully criminally prosecuted.
When Trump was just a clown on the New York City social circuit, his sociopathy was ignored. "Oh, that's Donald." But he tried to rise above his station. This louche cretin from Jamaica, Queens thought he was fit to contest for the highest office in the United States, for the most powerful political position in the world. It would be as if some loudmouth at your local watering hole decided he was going to run for president. But at least that loudmouth wouldn't have had a litany of hidden crimes trailing him. Trump had flirted with disaster many times; but his connections in New York City politics always got him out of those scrapes. But by ascending to the Oval Office, he dared meddle with the forces of nature. A two-bit goombah from Queens was not going to navigate the halls of power with any ease. And since he didn't surround himself with knowledgeable operatives, but with sycophants and timeservers, it was never going to end well. And now, at long last, consequences are looming.
Trump isn't smart. Ron DeSantis isn't smart. None of these people are smart. Why? Because their ideological rigidity overrides any intelligence they may have. (Trump has no intelligence, but DeSantis at least is a lawyer.) Assigning them superhuman powers of evil is just falling for their bullshit. You must stand strong, be alert, but not fear them. The last thing you want to do is grant them the invincibility they crave and don't possess.
He might be indicted today by Alvin Bragg's grand jury. And now Jack Smith has him dead-to-rights on a national security case. His time is almost up. Things will get weird from here on out. Stay woke.
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