Dem
51
GOP
49
That's three times this week for this headline in the 1A slot. Reader D.E. in Lancaster wrote in to suggest: "[P]erhaps you could save time and energy by making 'More Legal Trouble For Trump' a permanent feature. Maybe you can have a cute accompanying graphic that shows how big of a piece of doo-doo Trump just stepped in, ranging from mouse pellet to Triceratops pile. Just a thought."
Not a bad thought, though we'd probably be more inclined to follow the lead of the Washington Post and its one-to-five Pinocchios scale. And in that case, we'd say yesterday, from Donald Trump's vantage point, was:
Not only did even more damning information about him come out, but also three of the people he enabled saw their fortunes take a turn for the worse.
Let's start with the kingpin. Recalling that an indictment in the Mar-a-Lago documents case might be coming soon, The Washington Post had some new reporting on the matter yesterday. According to the paper's sources, Trump employees at Mar-a-Lago moved many boxes of documents the day before the FBI arrived to discuss the situation with the former president (the Bureau would return, several weeks later, with a warrant). On top of that, and perhaps more damning, is that Trump and his staff reportedly staged a "dress rehearsal" for what they would do to hide/destroy the documents if and when there was a raid.
The Post is not likely to run with this unless they are pretty darn certain of their sources. And if the Post knows these things, then special counsel Jack Smith and his team certainly know these things. And if these claims are true, it finishes the job of gutting Trump's claim that he thought he was legally in the right, while at the same time strengthening the already solid case that obstruction of justice took place. Assuming Trump did wrong here, and it sure looks like he did, we hope he pays the appropriate price. But we also hope that, one day, we learn what his motivations were here. What exactly made it worthwhile to take these insane risks?
Moving along, there was also bad news yesterday for one of Trump's former(?) henchmen, namely Steve Bannon. He's already due for a nice stay at the crowbar hotel, and he's moving closer and closer to booking a second stay. Judge Juan Merchan, who is also, coincidentally, the judge overseeing Trump's criminal fraud case, set a date for Bannon's trial for defrauding donors to the phony organization "We Build The Wall." According to court documents, Bannon and his accomplices were not interested in building a wall, and instead were using the donations to line their pockets. Bannon's trial date is May 27, 2024, which is a year away, and a couple of months after Trump's trial.
And finally, two people who were enabled by Trump learned their fates yesterday. Richard Barnett, the misogynist insurrectionist who put his feet up on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) desk and left her a note calling her a "b**tch," was sentenced to 4½ years in the pokey. Meanwhile, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who is a very scary human being indeed, was sentenced to 18 years.
In sum, as they say, "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." (Z)