TWGB: Some Indictments for Those Incitements

 

The waiting for Trump's indictment over the attempted overturn of the 2020 presidential election is over, and I encourage everyone (even Ron DeSantis if he still hasn't!) to go ahead and read the indictment. It's not long, and it is pretty thorough in laying out the case that despite no evidence of voter fraud, Trump spread that lie and attempted to overturn the election by means of litigation alleging fraud, encouraging state legislatures and slates of alternate electors to act on the alleged fraud, to halt the lawful proceedings of Congress on 1/6 and to encourage Trump's faithful to wreak havoc on the day. 

Trump lost. There was no proof of voter fraud that would have changed the result of the election. And no, Trump's belief is completely irrelevant, because whether he chose to believe he won or not, he was informed on various occasions that his theories of fraud ("conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership") were bogus, as outlined in pages 6 through 8.

If Trump persisted in his belief, he was delusional, and we should not excuse people on the basis of being delusional--nor should we continue to entertain whether they are fit to lead a country if they are. 

It's also irrelevant whether he understood the law well enough to know exactly what he was violating--ignorance of the law has been determined to be no excuse long before this. 

And it is shocking to me that a legal theory exists that somehow, Trump's perpetuation of what has rightly been called the Big Lie is somehow not fraudulent, but rather, an exercise of his freedom of speech. The indictment makes clear why it is fraud--he made a false representation (that the election was stolen) to deprive people of a right: the right to their vote being counted. He wanted to set aside MY vote as a Pennsylvanian. I take that personally. That fraud endangered election workers and officials, public servants, and is responsible for the criminal indictments of hundreds of people who believed Trump and engaged in vandalism, violence and more on 1/6. Their lives were and are affected by this fraud. Claiming there was no fraud is ignoring the real and potential damages stemming from the actions of the former president. 

Some people still "believe" Trump won and that the election was stolen. There has to be accountability for that divisive breach of the public trust. 

As for his unnamed co-conspirators, well, I'm shedding no tears for co-conspirator 1, Rudy Giuliani. He tried a proffer and I guess the DOJ got pretty much enough of what they needed from Mark Meadows and other people who knew when to talk. Same for Eastman, Powell, Clark, Chesboro, and I'm actually calling mystery guy #6 probably Mike Roman. (Just a hunch.) They haven't been indicted, but I think it's a matter of time.

The events of January 6 still make me sick to my stomach, but not more so than the attempts of republicans to memory-hole them, to dismiss the involvement of the former president or even pardon him for what took place--and to somehow pretend that what he did is acceptable and he should still be considered a leader. Their permissiveness in the face of what took place, their lack of interest in setting the record straight, is truly an indictment of their own lack of character--either a will to power as overreaching as Trump's or a craven go-along to get-along quality that is objectionable, unforgiveable in a person trusted with public responsibility.

This is but a step in the accountability process, but I look forward to its success.