Rinse, Repeat, Indict 🌻 🌻 🌻

Indictment, Indictment: So Trump was indicted again yesterday, this time for scheming to stay in office for another term or maybe forever by eradicating the results of the 2020 election that he knew he lost. Specifically, he is accused of perpetrating three criminal conspiracies: defrauding the US by using “dishonesty, fraud and deceit” to obstruct the counting of votes and the certification of election results; obstructing the January 6^th certification of the electoral college vote; and, injuring, oppressing, threatening and intimidating Americans in the free exercise of the vote and in having their votes counted.  He was also charged with obstruction of an official proceeding for his “exploitation of the violence and chaos at the capital,” though he wasn’t indicted for instigating the insurrectionists largely because Special Counsel Jack didn’t want to get into a battle over what constitutes free speech.  The indictment cites Trump’s pressuring of state officials to subvert election results; the organizing of fraudulent slates of electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico, where the election results were never in doubt; his attempts to get the DOJ to conduct sham election crime investigations; and the pressure he put on then VP Pence to obstruct the electoral vote certification. Special Counsel Jack’s “speaking indictment” also mentions, but so far doesn’t charge six co-conspirators.  Though the six weren’t specifically named, based on the provided descriptions the consensus is that Rudy Giuliani is the attorney who knowingly spread false claims and pursued strategies that official lawyers wouldn’t; that John Eastman is the attorney who wanted Pence to refuse to certify the electoral results; that Sidney Powell is the one whose unfounded claims sounded crazy even to Trump; that Jeffrey Clark is the DOJ official who pushed others at the DOJ to open sham investigations and pressure state legislators; and that Kenneth Chesebro, is the lawyer who helped devise and then pushed the plan to submit fraudulent electors.  The indictment references one more co-conspirator, a political consultant who helped implement the fake elector scheme.  The NY Post suggests that person could be either the ubiquitous Boris Epshteyn or director of election day activities Michael Roman, but as far as I can tell no other outlet is comfortable identifying the mysterious number six.  Notably the indictment contains lots of quotes from interviews with Pence who appears to have been very forthcoming about Trump’s efforts to intimidate him into cooperation, efforts that included threats serious enough for Pence to need extra secret service protection.  Also notable is that former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is neither indicted nor one of the six co-conspirators, possibly because he’s one of Special Jack’s cooperators?  Naturally, the usual crowd of obsequious Republican legislators and wannabee presidents is saying the usual things, some combination of it’s all Hunter’s fault, Joe Biden should be impeached, it’s all a witch hunt, and we’ll see you at Trump’s next inauguration when he'll announce the disbanding of the DOJ and the FBI.  One more thing, if he hasn’t, already expect Trump to start attacking Judge Tanya Chulkan the DC Federal judge who will be overseeing this case.  She’s Haitian American and was appointed by Barack Obama so the tone of his attacks will be sadly predictable.  Chulkan who has boatloads of experience and has handed down some of the toughest sentences given to January 6^th insurrectionists is no Judge Aileen “loose” Cannon which can’t be making Trump very happy.  As to Cannon’s Mar a Lago purloined document case, newly indicted Mar a Lago shush guy Carlos De Oliveira made his first court appearance on Monday but didn’t enter a plea because he doesn’t yet have a Florida lawyer. Can you spell S T A L L?      

Money, Money, Money:  No doubt Trump is already fundraising off of yesterday’s indictment, or at least trying to, and judging by his growing legal expenses and his unwillingness to spend any of his billions, he needs to. Details of the amounts that he’s spent on legal expenses and other things like the $100,000 plus spent on Melania’s favorite designer were released earlier in the week and Trump definitely has spent a lot on lawyers.  Of course, Trump being Trump, some of his legal expenses relate to his pointless lawsuits, the ones that keep getting thrown out of court including his $475 million defamation suit against CNN and his efforts to get Fani Willis’ Fulton County case, the one from which more indictments are expected to fly shortly, squashed by Georgia’s Supreme Court.  Like Trump, DeSantis’ who has raised lots of money although not as much as he previously claimed, has been burning through his funds at a too rapid pace, because private flights and the like are expensive and flying commercial isn’t his thing.  One guy who has raked in money is RJK Jr.  Would it surprise you to learn that the “Democrat” whose fan base includes Steve Bannon and many other right-wing Republicans has raised $5 million from Timothy Mellon, a Trump supporting Republican?

Timing is Everything:  Yesterday, while most were on indictment watch Fitch downgraded the US’s long term bond rating from AAA to AA+.  They cited the fight over the debt ceiling, the continuing budget fights that will probably lead to a September government shutdown, debt levels and governance problems, specifically citing January 6^th.  The same crowd who want more tax cuts and remain pissed that the US didn’t default on its debt will probably blame Hunter and his laptop for this too.