COUNTING

 Let us count the ways:

1. Seditious conspiracy: There can be little doubt that Trump was directly involved in the January 6 insurrection riot. While we do not have a recording of him speaking to the leadership of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters, the circumstantial evidence of his instigation and involvement on ther assault on the Capitol is overwhelming. Not only did he fail to stop the insurrection when he could have done so, during the riot he published comments to inspire further violent action at the Capitol building. He is responsible for the death of five people, injury to hundreds, and most important, an effort to overthrow our government.  Ours is one of the few countries in the world where the gibbet displayed by the rioters would not be used by the government to hang Donald Trump.

2. Fake electors. Another slam dunk. He was on the phone when his lawyer laid out the plot to the chair of the Republican Party, and she has so testified. Trump's only defense is insanity. He has too much vanity to assert that plea, though it may have merit.

3. The Espionage Act and other statutes involving illicit possession and concealment of government documents, classified and nonclassified. While we don't have a "summary judgment" procedure in criminal jurisprudence, Trump's guilt on these counts is an absolute lock. The evidence, seized by the FBI as well as from video and statements from Trump employees, is incontrovertible. Indeed one can parse admissions directly from things Trump and his lawyers have said.

4. Obstruction of Justice. There can be little doubt that Trump's minions lied to the government about his response to the subpoena for the documents. They assured the feds, in writing, that a complete search had been made and all pertinent documents had been turned over to the FBI and to the national archives. Not only was that an absolute lie but there is video evidence of Trump employees removing and replacing boxes of documents from the storage area both before and after the subpoena (which was preceded by months of government requests). The result: the evidence surrounding the granting of and the execution of the search warrant speaks for itself. For whatever reason, Trump had highly classified documents in his desk drawer at Mar-a-Largo. The issue of whether documents were classified or not is a red herring. Another effort to obstruct justice.

 Some public relations genius (possibly The Great Grifter himself) tried to lead the public to believe that Trump, while still president, had declassified the documents, whether by deed or, as he claims "just thinking it." All bullshit and makes no difference. The Department of Justice is not fooled, and neither are the judges Trump has appointed. (I am not sure about Ginni Thomas, though.)

5. Has Trump, et al, corrupted the Secret Service? What a coincidence: The Secret Service made technical changes to its cell phone network AFTER the Jan. 6 committee asked for the Jan 5 and Jan. 6 communications recorded on its agents' phones.  But as a result of the Secret Service conduct, those messages were destroyed. Moreover, it now appears the Service knew days in advance of the forthcoming January 6 onslaught and did nothing about it. Indeed they knew the morning of January 6 that an armed and angry crowd stoked by the likes Eastland, Giuliani, and Trump, were on their way to the Capitol building to follow their leader's admonition to be "wild" and the Secret Service still did nothing to stop the calamity beyond making sure that the boss personally was not to be seen there.

6. We are told by the Jan 6 committee that there is substantial evidence of obstruction of justice with respect to the Committee's hearings. There is evidence, they say, that witnesses were discouraged from responding to subpoenas, and if they did respond, they were told what to say. So far, the public has not been apprised of the details of this evidence, and what connection it may have to TGG. Whether or not that can be proved in a court of law, anyone who has followed Trump, both before and after he became president, knows he either put the word out and/or did nothing to stop it. He not only failed in his Constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed but likely conspired to do the opposite and perpetrated a criminal fraud upon the United States of America. We'll see.

7. We now learn that The Great Grifter and his family stole millions of dollars by taking frequent trips and having the government pay exorbitant rates at Trump facilities for their security agents' hotel rooms. (One one occasion, Eric publically announced a rate of $50, but the real charge was over $1,100).The January 6 committee has been able to prove seven-figures of thefts so far, but inexplicably, records after September 21, 2021, are missing. 

This goes beyond a theft count. We not only have missing documents respecting the Trump organization's theft of government funds, we have missing White House telephone logs from January 6, missing Secret Service communications from January 5 and January 6, and, the national archives insists that documents belonging to the government taken by Trump are still missing. There is nothing more evidential of obstruction of justice than the destruction of relevant documents.

8. Is the Big Lie a crime? Perhaps not in isolation, but it is no doubt relevant to the entire seditious conspiracy charge. Indeed it is the keystone upon which all of the other charges are constructed. Moreover, it will be pertinent information for the pre-sentence report.

9. Georgia has an ongoing criminal investigation. Trump acolytes have been informed they are targets, but not Trump,...yet. 

10. Bragg, the NY County D.A., says he has an ongoing criminal investigation to match Secretary of State Letitia James' civil investigation. Properly so, nobody counts on Bragg, He is an empty suit.

.......

Inasmuch as this piece is about the number of counts that ought be included in an indictment of Trump and his associates, I haven't dealt with the charade involving the special master. That Trump-appointed District Judge Aileen Cannon interceded after the search of Mar-a-Logo and enjoined federal prosecutors from even using the seized documents (which belonged to the United States!) in investigating Donald Trump, would be laughable if it weren't so scary. Trump was so condfident he had Cannon locked in his safe deposit box, he set a new height for chutzpah: one of the two proposed special masters he put forth was the spouse of a sitting 11th circuit judge appointed by Trump!

But then a Trump genius came up with an idea that looked for a while as if it might succeed. The application for a special master was way beyond any legal need or precedent and the Trump team employed a risky tactic. To entice the government to accept the special master concept, Trump put forward as his second nominee Ray Dearie, a senior District Judge from the Eastern District of New York. How could the Department of Justice reject him? it couldn't and it didn't. A Trumpian success? Eh, not so fast.

Trump's team had baited the hook and the government took the bait. But when the Trump team reeled in their catch they found they had hooked a shark that ate their boat. Judge Dearie in effect ridiculed almost every proposition advanced by Trump and in the end the 11th circuit basically did the same. And Trump's effort to appeal to the six conservatives on the Supreme Court was a total failure. That court voted 9-0 to refrain from reviewing the 11th circuit decision that stayed the most offensive parts of Cannon's order. 

The government has now sought an 11th circuit decision vacating all remaining aspects of the Cannon special master decision. Distinguished lawyers are almost unanimously of the view that's what they will do. 

Was the Trump application for a special master a crime? I can't think of one offhand but I couldn't write a piece about current events without commenting on this shameful application to abuse the judicial appointment process in the hopes the judges appointed by Trump will do anything at all The Great Grifter asks for.

Bottom line: 

Trump continues to claim he won the 2020 election and he is the rightful president of the United States. 136 lackeys in the House of Representatives (one of whom is running for Governor of New York State) has agreed with him. Almost half of the Republican candidates in the forthcoming election say they agree with him -- a frightful state of affairs because it threatens our Constitutional stracture. But this isn't the first serious threat to our democracy. We have dealt with this in past and we will deal with it today. We must.

At least until January 2025, the Department of Justice will be in the hands of Merrick Garland, or a successor appointed by president Biden. Serious crimes of been committed and none should be ignored. Threats of violence should be dealt with by strict enforcement of the law. Those who use the channels of interstate commerce or who violate other threat laws should be indicted. Social media that carry threats should be indicted. The First Amendment is no defense. If necessary the Department of Justice in Washington should draft hundreds if not thousands of assistant United States attorneys to prosecute cases.The military should activate whatever National Guard units are necessary under the circumstances. Justice must prevail. The violent protesters do not have a monopoly on "Lock and load." We can do that too, and have done so. It's just that we do it in accord with the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Lock him up. Lock em all up.

A bientot.

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