Dem
51
GOP
49
Jack Smith and his team are just full of surprises. Yesterday, the government made a nine-page filing that claims it has evidence that an employee of the Donald Trump campaign was sent to Detroit to try to get some riots going on election night 2020, so as to interfere with the counting of the votes there.
The purpose of the original scheme, if true, is plain. Michigan is one of the swingiest states, and Detroit is where the Black people are (the city was 77.7% Black at the last census). Given the mindset of Team Trump, it was an obvious twofer—Black people are riot-prone, and wrecking the vote count in Detroit would surely deprive Joe Biden of hundreds of thousands of votes (he ultimately won the state 50.6% to 47.8%).
As to Smith, his purpose here is to illustrate a pattern of behavior. One of Trump's defenses in his Washington case—very possibly his only defense—is that he had no idea that his words on 1/6 were going to rouse people to violence. Obviously, if he had previously sent an underling to try to foment a riot, it makes clear exactly what his agenda was, and his claim of being shocked and surprised is pure nonsense.
The identity of the Trump mole is currently a mystery, at least to the general public. Significant chunks of the filing are blacked out, and the individual is referred to only as "Campaign Employee." Frankly, our money is on Kid Rock, but we'd also listen to arguments that it's Ted Nugent. Whatever the case may be, it is likely that the secret will soon be revealed.
The reason we say "likely" is that it's not a 100% slam dunk that Judge Tanya Chutkan will allow this particular bit of evidence. Smith's team has introduced a fair amount of 404(b) evidence, which is evidence of wrongful deeds that were not criminally charged, and that are not directly connected to the case at hand. Put another way, 404(b) evidence is evidence that speaks to longstanding patterns of behavior and/or verbiage. The odds are pretty good that Chutkan will allow most of the 404(b) material that the prosecution has submitted, but only she knows for sure.
On a related point, Trump expended some energy this weekend pushing back at claims that he's a threat to democracy. Speaking to the crowd at yet another one of his rallies, the former president shrieked: "If Joe Biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms, and I say to crooked Joe—and he is crooked, the most corrupt president we've ever had—we will win that fight and we're going to win it very big."
It is interesting that Trump is talking about this, for at least two reasons. First, it means that the former president thinks he's vulnerable on this point (and he's usually right about these things). Second, it means that Trump is having a conversation that Biden very much wants to have. Of course, The Donald is trying to flip the script by turning it into a conversation about how the current president is the real threat to democracy. That's not a line of attack that's likely to land with anyone who's not already part of the base, however, and who has not already been exposed to vast amounts of right-wing propaganda. Meanwhile, as Trump tries to argue that he's the true defender of liberty, justice, and the American way, he doesn't exactly help his case when he refuses to answer the question: "Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?" (Z)