I am asking here because all the political subs don’t allow a question, and US politics used to seemed so simple until to understand this man came along.

  • @AnthoNightShift@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    Because this needs to be done 1000% right, there is no margin for error, everything has to be done in an iron clad manner that cannot be dismantled by half-assing it. Indicting a former president is a first in the history of this country, and this former president is nothing short of a cult leader with millions of unshakable followers, many of whom are armed to the teeth and ready to burn this country to the ground for him. So this has to be done very friggin carefully.

      • @Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        352 years ago

        Mueller didn’t half ass anything. He conducted his investigation and determined that crimes were likely committed, but that he didn’t have the power to bring charges in his position as special counsel and it would be up to the AG.

        Which is true. A DOJ special counsel is not the same thing as the independent counsel that used to exist, which was what Ken Starr was when he investigated Clinton.

        A DOJ special counsel is completely beholden to the AG and DOJ policies and can’t bring charges without the AG signing off on them.

        If you actually read the mueller report, it’s extremely damning and he turned it over to the AG and Congress to do something about it. The AG declined to bring any charges based on a DOJ memorandum that says a sitting POTUS cannot be charged. The House impeached Trump over the findings and the Senate failed to convict and remove him.

        The current AG could still bring criminal charges over the conclusion of the report, but at this point it’s been so highly politicized that it would be impossible to get a conviction on.

        • @Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          272 years ago

          Stop saying “the AG”. Say his fucking traitor name. William Barr. Who only got cold feet at the 11th hour when the groundwork for the coup was already being made.

          The Mueller report - as you say, damning - was completed and then given to this scum, who withheld it, released a “summary”, claimed it found no wrongdoing whatsoever, eventually released a heavily redacted version…

          I mean I remember it happening. This slimy fuck. He got a report that said the many ways Trump did illegal shit, but since he was the one who could choose when and how to release it, he was able to get ahead of the media by saying all kinds of bullshit lies. By the time he was finally forced to release the real report, it was too late, the “Trump did nothing wrong” story was already too far out there.

          Look, I’m glad he finally, barely, by the skin of his teeth did the right thing and said there was no fraud in the 2020 election. But we should not forget that brazen bullshit he pulled in front of Congress and the American people.

          • @Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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            122 years ago

            It was the only thing that could have been done when republicans controlled the DOJ and the Senate.

            Maybe if people in the Midwest weren’t complete idiots we would have had Clinton instead and not had four years of irreversible damage plus a generation of scotus that is hell bent on dismantling everything.

            • @TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world
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              -92 years ago

              Seems weird to think that something that accomplished absolutely nothing is a good use of taxpayer money but go off fam on the midwest.

              • @Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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                62 years ago

                It accomplished the third presidential impeachment in history and very likely helped lead to Biden winning and Trump not getting four more years.

                Saying absolutely nothing is just defeatism at its best.

                Just because it didn’t lead to the right conclusion doesn’t mean it accomplished nothing.

                • @kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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                  32 years ago

                  Just because it didn’t lead to the right conclusion doesn’t mean it accomplished nothing.

                  Plus the evidence discovered during te investigation stillnexists and is still part of the official record, meaning it can be used to support any future legal actions. And will serve as information for future historians looking back at this era.

                  Hopefully it can be used as part of some future “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” systemic improvements.

      • @LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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        162 years ago

        Muller half assed the investigation, on top of that corrupt Barr hid all the important findings, and Bitch McConnell swept the whole treason under the rug - that all lead Orange Man to be even bolder with his treason and rise of blatant lawlessness within the Republican Party.

        I don’t disagree with what you said but I just wanted to point out how entire republican machinery is responsible for the imminent death of democracy in this country. Not just Muller’s half assed investigation.

    • @PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I would kind of agree with you but I think it’s more that there are Republicans blocking any way they can and the ominous shadow of a compromised SCOTUS:

      https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/04/mueller-barr-and-their-pre-trump-friendship/588151/

      https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-whistleblower-senate-judiciary-russia-giuliani-leak-trump-allies-fuks-biden-2023-8?op=1

      Edit: what’s up with the fuks in the web address, lol

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      42 years ago

      In addition to being done right, he has to be pampered. I hate him passionately, but I really mean that. Subjecting him to the indignities of stuff like handcuffs, a mugshot, an orange suit, etc will turn him into a martyr in the eyes of his cult followers. And while the rest of us would enjoy seeing it, that’s not necessarily bringing out the best in us either. Donald Trump is an enormous pot-stirrer and unless you really want the pot to boil over you need to tiptoe around him, as unfair as that is.

      • @PickTheStick@lemmy.world
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        22 years ago

        What’s it matter? Because a large portion of those millions of followers are going to be in positions where they can do damage. You want to swing every single one to believe that the law was carried out in a manner true and faithful.

        Imagine, if you will, if somehow the federal government passed a law banning firearms for private use. Right now. Do you think the police in most places would actually go around and try to seize firearms? Fuck no, and not just because they aren’t suicidal morons. Most of them think people should be able to own firearms. It would be chaos as some attempted to follow the law, and others did everything they could to sabotage it.

        Now extend that to the military/national guard (and if it was “millions of followers” burning the country down, the military/national guard would get involved) in the event of Trump conviction and an imminent/happening revolt/riot. Imagine how many it would take to create mayhem inside of bases/squads/etc. Even if you want to be really positive and say that the military had plans for contingencies where they can effectively stop traitorous members, it would still take a chunk of operating efficiency.

        So, think of the way this is being handled as an effort by a large group of people to head off complaints that could be made and accusations about incorrect handling that would give cretins something to latch onto and endlessly jabber about, thus preventing a potentially swayed individual from coming to the conclusion that yes, Trump was lawfully convicted without conspiracy because he actually fucking broke the law many, many times.

    • @Jumper775@lemmy.world
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      -242 years ago

      If it was really that bad the cia would have him killed. It’s just because he had a good team of lawyers to make sure that when he did anything he did it was either defendable or on someone else so it’s hard to get him.

        • @Jumper775@lemmy.world
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          12 years ago

          Absolutely. You can estimate the number of true followers he has by looking at how many people use truth social (it’s still a thing) in comparison to pre-musk twitter. It’s a vocal minority. The only reason trump was able to get where he did was by getting the electoral college to believe he was the lesser evil (not gonna get into voter fraud) (and being really, really rich). They have him killed in such a way that it seems like it wasn’t them and he is still viewed as a martyr by few, but not all. Even if they truly believe that he was what they said he was, it won’t matter because no one rich enough exists that would want to replace him. They would be okay to do that.

      • qaz
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        42 years ago

        The CIA really isn’t going to assasinate a prominent politician, let alone a former president. It would have massive consequences from delegitimizing the democratic system to causing riots all around the country.

    • Jo Miran
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      182 years ago

      When you’re a billionaire, you can do whatever the hell you want.

      • @aksdb@feddit.de
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        92 years ago

        Nah, it does depend a bit on the country. Didn’t several russian billionaires (aka oligarchs) … erm… have accidents last year? So I don’t think money helps you a lot in a system like that. It gets them further, no question. But ultimately it didn’t matter.

        • Jo Miran
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          92 years ago

          The country’s political system didn’t kill them. A more powerful billionaire killed them.

  • @xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Part of it is because there are still looming constitutional questions about whether a president, current or former, can be indicted for his actions during his presidency. I think we’ve mostly resolved those, though. A substantial and powerful cadre of political thugs is still going to try to sue to throw every conceivable barrier in the way of a reasonable interpretation of the law, but that just takes time to wade through the bullshit.

    Another big problem is that Trump captured a huge amount of the judiciary, at all federal levels, by putting cronies into high ranking judicial seats. It’s the main thing Republicans have been doing for, like, 50 years. Putting a case in front of any one of those is a landmine, and that minefield has to be carefully navigated, and that also takes time. We’re basically done with that part, now.

    The much bigger problem, in my perspective, is that any criminal trial requires a jury.

    Almost 50% of the voting public voted for this motherfucker. His approval has dipped sharply since then, but still, a huge portion of the US public is willing to do just about anything to make sure “their guy” wins. They have proven nearly invulnerable to rational argument, emotional argument and any appeal to empathy or compassion. They will lie to get on that jury, and then they will vote for his acquittal if they don’t get caught. Voir dire–the process of choosing that jury–is going to be one of the most harrowing things any prosecutor ever has to do. And it has to be done correctly because it’s extremely important that once the wheels of justice start turning, that they reach the correct verdict.

    Any thinking person knows what that verdict has to be. But there’s no guarantee that we’ll get it.

    And if we don’t get it, we see the rule of law start to collapse at all levels. Remember the 1992 riots after the cops that beat Rodney King got acquitted? Imagine a whole country of that. The prosecutors in these cases are thinking about that. And that’s why they’re being extremely meticulous about every detail of these proceedings, because their errors could cost us a lot more than Trump getting away.

    • @ilovededyoupiggy@sh.itjust.works
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      02 years ago

      This is what it boils down to. All this time, I kept seeing all the shit he did and kept wondering the same question. But the flurry of indictments over the past little while has answered it: they were biding their time, making sure all their ducks were in a row, so they could all collectively take one giant, perfect, swing for the fences. We can only hope they don’t miss.

  • @linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    222 years ago

    I mean, I would never talk directly to them. And you would never talk directly to them. But neither one of us would go on the record on video saying we could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody.

    There have been plenty of cases where he’s done some incredibly stupid things that he could easily have gotten away with simply by playing along. Hell look at the documents, he could have literally just made photocopies of them said my bad and It would never have even hit the press.

    I think the legal system is just moving as slowly and carefully as possible to make sure he can’t lawyer his way out of these things.

  • @Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    If they arrest him, there is a major concern of right-wing terrorism.

    Police departments don’t want that to happen because they’ll have to arrest their own.

    Government departments will also start to point fingers at one another, as loyal maga fucks deep inside places may refuse to act or do their job.

    The legal way is the most non-violent way to handle this, even if it does drag on and on.

    • @exegete@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I know this may be pedantic, but he was “arrested” the same day he was arraigned for the first three indictments (he will surrender later this week for the fourth one in Georgia). He just wasn’t handcuffed and isn’t being detained while he awaits trial. He was also booked at the courthouse instead of the police station.

      • @kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        12 years ago

        and isn’t being detained while he awaits trial

        I expect his secret service detail will act as an assurance that he won’t skip the country.

  • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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    142 years ago

    Trump has avoided legal trouble so far because there hasn’t been enough evidence to guarantee charges would stick. With the latest few indictments, he either basically admitted to the charges or other new evidence came to light. It’s taken so long because the prosecutors are making sure they built absolutely bulletproof cases, and because the nature of the trials (first time a former president has been charged), and because trump’s lawyers are trying to delay as much as possible. It’s basically a huge mess, but the general sentiment is that trump is screwed… Eventually.

  • @paddirn@lemmy.world
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    122 years ago

    Money and power. He has (or claims to have) alot of money and alot of people on the Right still seem to follow him, but I think that’s more just based on momentum, there’s really nobody else on the Right that they have that’s as “charismatic” as Trump. The closest they have is DeSantis, and he’s just some wannabe fanboy with no personality. I personally think Trump is pretty much done and washed up, the GOP just doesn’t know what else to do at this point (certainly he still has a shot at the presidency, but I doubt it’ll work out). The Right had one really good shot at a violent coup on January 6, and the only reason they really managed to pull anything off was because Trump himself was in charge at the time and he was able to subdue the Federal response to it.

    I think one of the main reasons he’s being treated with kid gloves is out too much caution of it appearing political. I think the DOJ is afraid of appearing partisan if the Democrat’s #1 political opponent were to be locked up (regardless of how slam dunk the evidence is). In any other country, we’d assume that it was a dictator trying to tighten their control of the political system by locking up their opponents, and that’s exactly what Biden/DOJ/Democrats are being accused of. Personally I think there’s going to be some amount of protest or violence if/when he gets locked up/sentenced/found guilty/whatever, they may as well just do it now to get it out of the way. The longer we wait and the closer we get to the election, the worse it’s going to get. It honestly won’t matter how much evidence is trotted out during the multiple trials, or how many judges/juries find him guilty, Republicans are still going to bitch and whine about it. He’s obviously guilty though, there’s more than enough evidence.

  • GodlessCommie
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    12 years ago

    Because the oligarchy will never charge one of their own. No matter how loud they scream it and deny, he is one of them

  • WheatleyInc
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    12 years ago

    It’s as simple as this: -Politician does something illegal -Politician is caught -Politician tells their party members they didn’t do -Party members believe politician because they’re of the same party -Politician now has millions of supporters vouching for them not to get convicted -Politician doesn’t get convicted

    It’s happened before, it’s happening now, it’ll happen again.