It did not first come to light until the NY Times broke the story in 2018. The feds launched their investigation in April of that year. Cohen plead guilty in August of that year and was sentenced in December. The FEC continued to investigate until 2021, at which point they declined to charge Trump with anything related to campaign violations (but it was a 3-3 tie vote, with all Republicans voting not to charge, it was obviously not unanimous).
So, New York state wouldn’t have gotten involved until 2021. They investigated and brought in a grand jury in January of this year. It hasn’t been all that long, really, once you get past the slow fed response, which obviously involved a shit ton of foot dragging by Republicans to slow shit down, not to mention Trump’s own continual obstructions while he held office.
No. It’s true that a conviction would be even better, but I was pretty sure an indictment would never come. It is historical, as in this country a president, current or former, has never faced actual legal consequences for his shenanigans. Although Nixon would have, had Ford not intervened. So, yeah, seeing the Orange Asshat in prison would be the ultimate cause for rejoicing, but this is the first step, and one I thought would never happen. As such, some rejoicing is very much called for.
To be fair, NPR reported this morning on a Quinnipiac poll saying that a majority of all voters think this is politically motivated. 30% of Dems, 90% of Repubs, 60% of Independents.Trump has never had that much support, ever.
I know that this isn’t what the poll meant, but as long as prosecutors have discretion to decide which cases to pursue and prioritize, it’s hard to say with a straight face that politics don’t play a role in indictments.
Me? I’d say it’s about 1% politics and 99% “the mofo is guilty as sin” in this case.
Slight disagreement. I would say that politics (both the usual kind and the politics of money) is the main reason this asshat has not been prosecuted previously. Let’s face it, rich men hardly ever face consequences for their actions. That is the main reason for my surprise.
There were matching Federal charges, and Barr stopped them. This caused Barr to also remove people from SDNY. That’s why the state has to use what’s typically a misdemeanor here; Cohen went to Fed jail on the same case. So really… there should also be obstruction of justice charges related to this coming from Jack Smith, but one thing at a time… just worth bringing this up if MAGA people say that this is a misdemeanor and the Feds found nothing here. In fact, Cohen got three years for this, and John Edwards was indicted and also went to trial for a very similar case.
Me finding out how many Mexican national folks around me don’t realize what this means for them or simply don’t care.
One of my best friends actually asked me (as I was mildly celebratory about the news of the indictment), “What does that have to do with you?”
I mean… the crime itself was politically motivated, so it’s impossible to entirely separate the prosecution of said crime from the political implications. Doesn’t mean the prosecution is unjustified.
Yeah, I think there’s some shorthand being used to muddy the waters, very probably intentionally.
Everything is going to be politically motivated. It’s really only when that’s the sole motivation that it’s a problem, that’s the part being dropped by the people crying political motivation.
I think Nixon is the point that can’t be overstated here, because the fallout there resulted in two things:
The implicit idea that a current or former president will never receive consequences for their crimes other than losing re-election or needing to resign. This is what’s sitting behind a lot of the unselfaware screeching about how the precedent is now set that former presidents can be indicted.
A coordinated campaign by the right (in general) and Roger Stone (in particular) to ensure that never again would one of theirs face even the minimal consequences that Nixon did.
