Says Bret Stephens, in a conversation with Gail Collins, titled "Some Concrete Reasons Not to Be Totally Panicked" (NYT).
The Deep State should have thought about that before going out to get him.
Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
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58 comments:
It’s a warning to jurors. Then again, is there a media blackout for jurors so none of their favorite NYT for them? HAHA! Who am I kidding…
Ought to be, Professor. And yet the oligarchs have a lot riding on the idea that the average Republican will declare, "well turns out Donald Trump is GUILTY of violating the sacred honor of EJ Carroll and Stormy Daniels, time to vote for Biden."
That might be true for the LLR types, but they were already on the Rat side of the fence. A conviction before the election, even one that would instantly be reversed on an appeal by an honest court, would only convince tens of millions of Americans that lawfare is a tool of oligarchy. These maniacs are drilling holes in the boat just to hope that Trump drowns.
Trump is an innocent man; wrongly accused.
“Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
But lefties never feel shame and they don’t embarrass easy. That would require more introspection than they are prepared - much less capable - of performing.
With the exception of Letitia James and Fani Willis, I don't think the Deep State expected Trump to be convicted. They expected him to drop out of the race rather than go through all this. Too bad for them Trump proved to be made of sterner stuff. Now they are stuck with the consequences of their attempts at lawfare.
"if Trump isn’t convicted, it is going to turbocharge his campaign . . . Trump will be able to say, with some credibility, that the Deep State really was out to get him."
So, if he is convicted, he wouldn't be able to say that?
"Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself."
Althouse, careful! "You ought"? They don't do shame. They wallow in their shamelessness. When you have the cultural power and you are on the right side of history, you can afford to. Plus it's an in-your-face move toward the rubes: see? ordinary norms don't apply to us, we are superior, and what are you going to do about it?
Wefties wuv their authoritarian Deep State and corrupt and inept FBI/CIA.
and now - the left are the party of bomb-making.
Which is all fine and good except these people have no shame
Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Come on Ann. These are Democrats. There is no shame. They only chant "shame." It's like pretending the 2020 voter fraud wasn't real.
Let's face it. Biden voters are stupid but not that stupid. They all know that the lawfare is an attempt to hurt the Trump campaign and they fully support it. Just like they support importing Democrat votes through illegal southern border immigration.
Just like they support voter fraud, and oppose voter ID.
Can't We ALL Be (FORCED TO) Agree? That in order to protect our democrat(ic) system..
ALL people MUST SUPPORT THE PARTY??
'All within the party, nothing outside the party, nothing against the party'
The NYTimes showcasing their democrat partners. Absolutely no credibility or truth in that rag.
Our desires do not guide the DeepState. The cynical view, to which I am becoming more aligned, is that the election is just theatre anyway. To the extent that the DeepState (whatever the hell that is) can, it will ignore the election. When it feels it cannot, it will determine the outcome or change the players that need to be changed to realign the state to its wishes. To "see" this matrix establishes one as a conspiracy theorist, from whom all further input is to be ignored, as you would ignore the Village Idiot.
We are only just now truly realizing what a shitshow World War I was, and the degree to which it was driven by the DeepState of those times. If we think our contemporaries are more intelligent, gifted, or virtuous, I'd like to see some more evidence before I take comfort in that viewpoint.
Enjoy every day, as long as it is possible.
Liberals have been brainwashed into believing Trump is Hitler and MAGA voters are Nazis.
Therefore, any tactic used to defeat Trump is justified. Lawfare. Voter fraud. Prosecuting and holding political prisoners. Lies, propaganda, censorship...
They've sold their souls and their brains to the false notion that some working class coal miner in WV who supports Trump is a Nazi. It's just a delusional way to claim the moral high ground.
Even though Trump left office in 2020, this time if he winds he'll never leave. You have to be an absolute moron to believe that, or a corrupt coward to promote it. What's scary is the entire education establishment fully behind it.
First of all, Burt Stephens lied for years about being a republican and a conservative. He was constantly giving Conservatives advice, stating "As a Conservative...". Then Trump came along and he dropped the mask.
And he's now a Joe Biden Democrat.
Second, its amazing how these Elites both politicians and pundits don't care about Democracy. If Joe Biden and Democrat lawyers, with the help of the deep state, can jail Trump, that means they get to choose who is POTUS, not us. We the voters have no say. We can only vote for people THEY approve of.
Burt Stephens probably doesn't care because he's an American-Israeli-Mexican. Edited Newspapers in Israel, born in Mexico where his father was rich Corporate exec, and now lives in the USA. IRC, he went to college in England. So, the idea of disenenfranising (sic) the average American comes naturally to him.
Hate makes you stupid. It makes you do stupid things.
My comment to the NYT: "Interesting. There are, of course, many credible legal experts who have asserted that D.A. Bragg's charges are illegitimate and that the appearance of Matthew Colangelo, recently of the DOJ, on the prosecution team is highly suspect.
Given that, and the once honored principle of "innocent until proven guilty", one can only wonder if there is a point at which the mainstream media and people of the left might be as concerned about the integrity of the legal system and the upcoming election as they are about the takedown of Donald Trump."
The truth is that the lefties don't give a shit about either, just as they don't give a shit about the Constitution. Trump is their excuse for destabilizing the nation and they have only one more election to rig to get in a position to finish the task.
From Instapundit earlier today:
Unsealed documents in the Trump Classified Documents case show that the GSA had been in possession of six pallets of documents from the Trump administration for some indeterminate period of time following Trump's exit from the White House, and it was the GSA that shipped them to Mar-A-Lago. Smell like a set-up?
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/04/28/new-bombshell-evidence-emerges-was-trump-set-up-in-classified-docs-saga-n4928572
Convict or not convict... IT WILL STILL TURBOCHARGE HIS CAMPAIGN.
Reap what you sow.
"We have to convict Trump because we've already committed to prosecuting him" is the perfect example of the sunk-cost fallacy.
The deep state, if there is such a thing, wanted Bragg to bring the case worked up by his predecessor, Vance, a criminal version of the civil fraud case taken to trial by the NYAG. He refused, and the line prosecutors quit in a huff, and one published a book about it. No one but maybe Michael Cohen was pushing the porn star payoff case.
The irony is the lawfare is already significantly improving Trump’s chances. He faces the barrage stoically, and proves himself to be so much stronger and tougher than Biden could ever hope to be. The comparison between the two on this front is devastating to Biden. To wit, Trump up 6 pts in latest CNN poll….
Plus, by facing the lawfare in court, Trump is demonstrating his adherence to the rule of law - following the legal process - which also undercuts all the jibber jabber about how Trump is a wannabe dictator.
"If you shoot at the king you'd better not miss"
John Henry
If you shoot at the king you'd better not miss
"Trump will be able to say, with some credibility, that the Deep State really was out to get him."
Why does his justification for claiming this rest upon the verdict of some deep-blue jury?
In my conversations with inside-the-bubble CNN / MSNBC watchers, they have endless hope and a belief that Trump can be vanquished by the latest Hail Mary pass. They either lack the ability or willingness to imagine a world beyond their bubble. They are FULLY accepting and / or manipulated by their media sources and Party leaders.
The hard left has not mentally moved on from Rachel Maddow's 2016 election night meltdown nor her 2017-2018 conspiracy babbling about the Russian pee dossier and the falsehoods of the Mueller investigation. These 2024 lawsuits are just chapter 87 of the same salvation fantasy novel.
Trump transcended conventional politics long ago. He can never be 'defeated' by conventional attacks, and if he 'loses' or dies he'll become a martyr and icon. The anti-globalist, anti-deep-state, anti-media-propaganda movement is global and he's just one player.
The fix was in for Hillary and they were truly shocked when it failed so now there’s a no-stone-unturned saturation of this garbage. Keep Trump’s money and time tied up so he can’t campaign, let the media control the narrative, have our Supremes backstop our lawfare…oh, wait. Oopsie. No matter, we’ll game the census and bribe a few on their side to fix that. Might take a while…
It's no win for the prosecution. If they do get a conviction, that will enrage Trump supporters even more. I'm not a Trump enthusiast, but the charges and the people charging him are far more suspect than Trump. It takes some tortured and tortuous reasoning to understand what the charges are even about or to understand why they're worse than similar lapses by Biden or Hillary. If he had shot a person on Fifth Ave or left a woman to drown in the lake and Trump were tried and convicted for such an offense, I would not be aggrieved. If you try an ex-President for a crime it should be a flagrant crime that everyone can understand not this chickenshit stuff.
If Trump wins, the Bretbug will try to weasel his way into saying that he secretly wanted Trump the whole time.
They are both long past the point of being ashamed of themselves. They know what they are.
Well. Stephens certainly knows what he is. What, if anything, Gail Collins knows is anyone's guess. Which side of the bread is buttered, for sure.
I'm embarrassed to admit I used to read Stephens all the time when he was at the WSJ. He's flatly out of his mind.
Big problem: the American people are wising up. Maybe even Bragg's jury will figure it out. Quelle horreur!
Them there Deep State fellas ain't all that bright--said Clem Kaddiddle Hopper. And ol Clem was right.
Convicting him might boost him even more...
Bret Stephens and his ilk aren't psychologically capable of genuine embarrassment. The Stephens hot take here is that egregiously persecuting Trump is worse than a crime. It is a mistake.
This is what is called the No Win Scenario:
convict him, and his support will grow and solidify because anyone with an IQ above 90 with a sense of decency knows this case is an injustice;
or he skates and his support will grow and solidify because anyone with an IQ above 90 with a sense of decency knows this case is an injustice, but now proven by a New York City jury.
And Althouse is right- Stephens, with his very own words, reveals himself to be unethical at his core.
This is their last real chance at getting Trump this year - on a trumped up charge of making a misleading bookkeeping entry. He apparently should have (maybe) put the expense under campaign expense, instead of legal expense, even though he self funded his campaign, which means that the money came from the same pot, and had no tax effect either.
The Fani Willis case in GA is imploding. It’s a RICO case with the only lawyers competent in RICO working for Trump. Last week, the prosecutor was screaming at the judge, in court, because he was suppressing some of their evidence because they hadn’t gotten it to the defendants early enough. Of course, the original lead prosecutor was forced out for banging Fani, then billing the state for it. The question remains, why isn’t she conflicted out too? They still don’t have a case, but it has become a circus, with the prosecution providing the clowns.
Something happened last week, and the week before, with the two federal cases, by Jack Smith, against Trump. Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Trump’s claims of Presidential immunity. Both Smith cases missed their March tnrial dates because of this. If the Supreme Court ruled today against him, they would be lucky to make a June trial date, but likely won’t rule until June, pushing the trials into August or September. But some redirection by the Republican Justices away from their DC charges, led to the realization that they had heard oral arguments the week before in the J6 case of Fischer v US, about the proper interpretation of 18 USC § 1512(c)(2), and it didn’t go well for the DOJ. That turns out to be the same statute that Smith is using against Trump in the DC case, plus 18 USC § 371 (Conspiracy). Those are the two only felony counts against Trump in the DC case, and if they lose § 1512, they also lose § 371 (because § 371 is only a felony if the underlying charge is a felony). And the Republican Justices showed that they knew that the two cases are connected. My thoughts last night is that they may release Fischer first (they heard it first), deciding that the DOJ was incorrectly interpreting 1512(c)(2) out of the context of 1512(c)(1), then remanding it for the lower courts to decide if Trump’s Immunity case was now moot. They also indicated familiarity with the claim by two former Republican AGs that Smith was operating illegally, since he isn’t an Officer of the US. That could possibly kill both Smith cases, or at least delay them into 2025.
Their FL case is, if anything, faring worse. Judge Cannon, a Trump nominee, last week ordered unredacted and released a document that showed that the case was initiated by the FJB WH working closely with the AG. Moreover, the NARA referral that triggered the investigation came from the FBI (and to them from the AG), after being ordered to cooperate with that agency, by the very same WH. And, of course, the Espionage Act charges against Trump are only possible because the WH ordered that Trump’s security clearances be revoked (unfortunately for them, they hadn’t gotten around to his DOE Q clearance by the time of the MAL raid, which removed every document that would need a security clearance). Of course, it turns out that, even if ordered by the WH/FBI to file criminal referrals to the DOJ/FBI, NARA doesn’t have the statutory authority to do so in this sort of situation. Oh, did I mention that the FJB WH also revoked Trump’s Immunity? Several weeks earlier, Cannon had provided both sides with alternative potential jury instructions, that would essentially eviscerate Smith/Bratt’s case. They were incandescent, because they can’t appeal them (while they await the Presidential Immunity decision), because the jury instructions are still preliminary. And Cannon sees no reason to proceed to trial, and actually decide on jury instructions, until the Immunity decision is decided.
Damn, they are SHARP! I really need to subscribe to that incisive periodical.
I don't know if Trump is an innocent man, but what he is accused of doing is at best selective prosecution and worst totally fabricated. What is really bad is that the prosecutors and some of the judges seem far more corrupt than Trump and often on the specific charges they are using to prosecute Trump. Judge Engoron and Letitia James don't seem to understand business negotiations and thinks the state sets prices in a free market. Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan seem to clearly be interfering with an election. Nathan Wade and Fani Willis seemed to have met with the White House (as well Bragg and Smith) to criminally conspire to interfere with an election and deny Trump to right to run for President.
And because of all that, there is this:
Blogger Paul said...
Convict or not convict... IT WILL STILL TURBOCHARGE HIS CAMPAIGN.
Reap what you sow.
4/29/24, 9:19 AM
"Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself."
Thank you!
Law and Language (of which, Law is a subset?) both must needs mutate, yet in the main, stability is necessary for a stable society. To purposelessly demolish the meaning of words is to vandalize. To do so intentionally is evil. Do not fail to recognize it as such.
I speak here of such words as marriage, male, female, sex, gender, democracy, fascism...
Nah, Dave. They'll find him guilty of being Trump. And that will not stand.
Orvis? Really?
You dandy. I bet your shops for you there.
wife
Thank you, Mr. Hayden. Your response was nicely done.
Also, if you think it's credible that the Deep State is out to get him and that's a reason for you to hope he's convicted, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Somebody told me that in executions there are three executioners. One pushing the lethal injection and the other two a harmless placebo. That way, the executioner's conscience could be placated, as it were.
These two journos exhibit little self-awareness.
Annnd..Bret secures an extension on his cocktail party pass.
The Deep State should have thought about that before going out to get him.
If you shoot at a king...
Last week, the prosecutor was screaming at the judge, in court, because he was suppressing some of their evidence because they hadn’t gotten it to the defendants early enough.
That was a RICO different case, the Young Thug/Young Slime Life but the same idiots on from Fani's office. I've watched some bits and pieces of it and that is only one example. As bad as the DAs are, the defendant lawyers are worse.
In other news, Nathan Wade attended the National Association of Black County Officials convention last week, apparently as Fani's escort. Is he still a county official? What is he besides her side piece? Didn't both of them testify their relationship had ended?
Laura Loomer was there, tried to interview them but they scattered. She did get some pictures.
John Henry
And, of course, the Espionage Act charges against Trump are only possible because the WH ordered that Trump’s security clearances be revoked (unfortunately for them, they hadn’t gotten around to his DOE Q clearance by the time of the MAL raid, which removed every document that would need a security clearance).
Even if true, so what? Even if you have a Top Secret, compartmentalized, clearance, you can't take classified documents home with you. Especially after your need to access such documents has expired.
Shame? What's that, says Bret Stephens?
OK, Freder, explain why Biden could but Trump couldn't.
Blogger rehajm said...
The fix was in for Hillary and they were truly shocked when it failed so now there’s a no-stone-unturned saturation of this garbage.
There is an argument to be made that had Comey supported the prosecution of Hillary, then she might had enjoyed the sympathy that Trump is now receiving. One problem is that Hillary would have to explain the reasoning behind the server, which was to avoid FOIA requests and transparency. Trump reasoning seems to be for greater transparency.
Asking Freder a question like that is pointless.
people with no shame can't feel ashamed.
Yancey Ward said...
Asking Freder a question like that is pointless.
**************
At least I am pointing out that "sharpening the issues" doesn't work with such a dull tool.
He's just like Chuck, always scampering away when challenged to 'splain himself.
Rumor has it, he was PeeWee Herman's stunt double.
Field Marshall Freder: "
Even if true, so what? Even if you have a Top Secret, compartmentalized, clearance, you can't take classified documents home with you. Especially after your need to access such documents has expired."
LOL
There are so many layers to Freders stupidity that even if one is able to claw one's way thru one layer, hundreds more remain and while one works on overcoming the next layer of Freder stupidity the previously breached layer "self-heals" as if it had never been breached at all!
If you want to have some fun with our Field Marshall Freder, ask him, again(!) to explain the court decision in the Clinton secret tapes/sock drawer case! And identify the judge as well!
Its all too perfect.
I warn you though. This Freder dolt STILL has no idea who is or is not covered by the Presidential Records Act.
Freder Frederson said...
Even if true, so what? Even if you have a Top Secret, compartmentalized, clearance, you can't take classified documents home with you...(and more nonsense)
Let's explain to you one more time something you seem incapable of understanding. President Donald John Trump was president of The United States of America. The chief executive of our nation. And all classification AND declassification authority rested with him while he was president. Ultimate classification and declassification authority. If he declassified anything while president- no one can override him. Period. Not the national archivist, not congress, not the supreme court, not some FBI flunky. No one. period.
Any documents he took with him are presumptively declassified. And once he states in a trial-"I declassified all documents I took with me." no one can prove otherwise. No written record needs to be maintained. No witnesses need to be present. No approval from a flunky, or Freder, needed. Classified marking do not have to be removed. Heck, you can buy used military training manuals on the internet with classified stampings still on them. The presence of a classified stamp means nothing if the one person who had authority to declassify them says he did. A new POTUS can reclassify documents- that are in the government's possession. Documents outside the governments possession are still declassified... As an example- the government cannot sweep into your house, confiscate your computer with all the drivel you've written, and say "It's classified- you can't have it." If you worked for the government, and do not have declassification authority, like, let's say for example vice-president Biden or SECSTATE Hillary or Sandy Berger, and are found with documents bearing classified stamps, they are presumptively still classified UNLESS you can prove otherwise. Those people can't say- "I declassified them as I removed them." because- they didn't have the authority to do so.
I had a secret clearance throughout my Navy career. My wife, 3 sons, and a daughter-in-law all held (or hold) TS clearances- and above. And they've all had the same answer from me over the years- "We can go deeper then 400 feet, faster then 20 knots, and I cannot confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard any vessel I served on." Even though they all had/have higher clearances, they had/have no need to know. And I've no clue about the stuff they know or have done. As it should be.
And the one thing everyone who has held a security clearance knows- the classified records case against Trump is complete and utter BS, and Hillary Clinton should be sitting in a jail cell for her security violations.
You see, less recently, but early on, their incredulity over the fact that Trump doesn't go quiet. After all, the prosecutors are after him. The common ploy is the defendant to go into hiding with their lawyers occasionally countering the prosecutor's PR campaign.
But Trump turned into the torpedoes, more than once so they collided before they could arm. But the Democrats, and government functionaries, removed the safeties and fired wildly. "You've killed us all, you arrogant ass", we'll likely hear Democrats say
“ There are so many layers to Freders stupidity that even if one is able to claw one's way thru one layer, hundreds more remain and while one works on overcoming the next layer of Freder stupidity the previously breached layer "self-heals" as if it had never been breached at all!”
“If you want to have some fun with our Field Marshall Freder, ask him, again(!) to explain the court decision in the Clinton secret tapes/sock drawer case! And identify the judge as well!”
There are several prongs to Smith/Bratt’s FL case against Trump, and losing any one of them may lose the case for them.
First, he is essentially charged with possession of National Defense information without authorization. This is essentially Freder’s claim, which was so repeatedly debunked above. The use here of National Defense information puts it squarely under the Espionage Act. They mean Classified information, but that’s not what the statute calls for. Regardless, it still gets down to who gets to decide what is National Defense information? The sitting President? Or the federal bureaucracy and the staff of the next President? They point to specific EOs, but ignore that EOs don’t bind sitting Presidents, just their millions of subordinates. And formal APA promulgated Regulations apply to those subordinates and everyone else, just not, again, to sitting Presidents.
Secondly, Trump had constructive possession of documents marked as classified. Of course he did - they were mostly mixed in banker boxes of documents mixed in with related documents from when his desk was cleared off for his next meeting or phone call, throughout his Presidency. Trump claims them to be personal papers. The prosecution claims them to be Presidential records, which are under the control of NARA under the PRA. This is where the Clinton Sock case comes in. Who gets to determine which is which? The PRA doesn’t provide for an enforcement mechanism, except for NARA to request the documents they want from a former President, and everyone to work together nicely. That’s it. Arguably, the assumption all along was that the sitting/outgoing President gets the final say. This too was studiously ignored by Bratt in his indictment.
That is not, in fact what happened here. When the NARA (in response to a request by the FBI) asked for these documents, and they weren’t provided quickly enough, a (likely illegal) criminal complaint was filed by NARA with the DOJ/FBI. The DOJ (Jay Bratt*) sent Trump a subpoena for them. Trump’s attorneys requested an extension of time and/or rolling production, which Bratt denied. Their failure to respond to meet his deadline was then used to justify the search warrant used in the MAR raid, where all the documents Trump had were seized. Of course, we know that the supposed photo of classified documents they made public was faked, and Trump’s attorneys weren’t allowed to oversee the raid…
Things are not going well for the prosecution here. They pushed hard for a March trial date, for obvious political reasons. But along the way, they pissed off the trial court judge. They ran a second, hidden, grand jury, in DC. That was bad. Also, they played games with classified documents - they wouldn’t provide all of the required Brady discovery, including the documents Trump was accused of possessing, as well as the DC grand jury testimony, to defense attorneys, because they were slow walking their security clearances (while still pushing hard for the March trial date). That may fly in DC (and repeatedly did w/J6 defendants) but not in the ED FL. Then she put the case on hold for the Immunity case heard last week by the SC. She said everything was on hold. Prosecutors apparently tried working in parallel on jury instructions. She provided them with two different possible jury instructions on whether whether Trump was legally authorized to have had those classified documents. Both leaned towards Trump, and ignored the prosecution’s favored interpretation. Smith and Bratt went incandescent. They want to appeal, but can’t yet, because she hasn’t finalized her decision. Probably won’t get the Immunity decision until June, and that means the jury instructions in maybe July, pushing trial into the fall. At best.
Public incandescence is not a good look on prosecutors. So, she is helping them self destruct. She is forcing the documents underlying the prosecution to be declassified and opened to the public. And it’s a goldmine. We now know that the entire investigation was initiated between the FJB WH and AG. The WH ordered NARA to cooperate with the FBI, which meant that the document requests by NARA actually came from the FBI and DOJ (Bratt). Similarly the criminal referral. Meanwhile, they ordered revoked Trump’s immunity and security clearances (Unfortunately, they hadn’t gotten his DOE Q clearance revoked at the time of the MAL RAID). What this means is that the political origins of the prosecution are now clear to everyone - the prosecution was designed from the beginning by the WH and AG to sway the upcoming election in favor of FJB.
*Jay Bratt is Smith’s Deputy Special Counsel and branch chief of the DOJ’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Branch (CECB), sister organization to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division (CD), which ran the Midyear Exam (Clinton email) and Crossfire Hurricane (Trump Russiagate) investigations, the Gen Flynn perjury trap, and together fraudulently approved the 4 FISA warrants on Carter Page (presumably, with the 2 hop rule to tap Trump and his inner circle). The Biden of docs ordered declassified by Trump his last day in office presumably implicated both orgs in misfeasance, malfeasance, and perfidy, based on an IG and 2 SC investigations.
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