Summary
Special counsel Jack Smith dropped 44 federal charges against Donald Trump, citing DOJ policy that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference and classified documents retention, could be refiled after Trump’s presidency.
Critics, including Rep. Dan Goldman and former Capitol officer Aquilino Gonell, decried the move as a miscarriage of justice, asserting it places Trump above the law.
Trump and allies celebrated the decision as a victory, with Vice President-elect JD Vance vowing to prevent similar prosecutions.
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
Democrats sat on their ass for 4 years and bailed Trump out.
Yup. Jack’s hands were tied by SCOTUS.
It is good that he didn’t dismiss the charges with prejudice tho 'cause that means they can be brought again.
See Americans, this is the type of shit you should invade gov buildings for, that type of shit is for when the institutions don’t work, not for when they are doing their job
People don’t understand that this was the most-damaging ting Smith could do. If he didn’t drop the charges now they’d be dismissed entirely in January.
By dropping them without prejudice now, before trial begins and before the case can be reassigned by the Trump admin, the charges can be refiled in 2029.
Smith is keeping his eyes on the prize.
There are a couple of troubled people that deserve a pardon and an apology. Maybe their boom sticks back too? They will definitely not do it again! They pinky promise!
If only we still had another month with a Dem president and his AG controlling the DOJ…
I mean a month is a short time, ideally we’d have had that the last four fucking years and had plenty of time to handle this.
How about 2.5 years in which everyone held off because they didn’t want to step on the FBI’s toes, and it turned out that they weren’t doing anything?
You’re talking about a criminal case, what does a month do for you? At every turn, Trump has consistently tried to delay the process. It has nothing to do with the DOJ or AG, they are working the system to intentionally delay everything until now. Why proceed either, he’s going to be president in two months.
He’s making a facetious point about the huge quantities of time Merrick Garland had to waste to create this outcome.
“they are working the system to intentionally delay everything until now.”
If only every criminal defendant could afford to do the same…
–It would probably be a moot point because it would be legislated away as a legal strategy by the same officials that were previously dragging their feet for Trump.
The Russia/Republican propaganda has been too strong to make anything stick. If you try to arrest Trump while he has enough followers to win an election then you’ll get a mob like Jan 6th storming whatever prison he’s held in.
It’s not as simple as you’re trying to make it sound.
Give me a break. These charges could have been pursued on day one, in Washington DC.
The administration sat on their hands.
Why do you think they “sat on their hands”? Do you think they are conspiring to help Trump? Do you think your internet armchair analysis of the situation is better that the entire DOJ and they just aren’t as smart as you?
Or is it the obvious answer that Trump has been able to get away with corruption time and time again due to Russian/republicans? And their control of our government and justice system? And the DOJ knows that if they try to prosecute Trump and the charges don’t stick that they won’t get another try.
Trust the DOJ to do their job when they just dropped their charges lol, ok. Sprinkled in some Russian/republican blame instead of a defunct system, chef’s kiss. Any other propaganda we need to spread today?
Trump was successful at delaying almost all of his trials at no fault to the DOJ. I repeat:
At Trump’s request, judge delays immunity filing in Jan. 6 prosecution
Your blaming of the DOJ is disingenuous.
I never said I blamed them, you’re just painting a weird conspiracy theory where the DOJ are the heroes/victims but “the rest of the goberment is controlled by RuSsIA AnD rEpuBliCans!!!” It’s been apparent for everyone, the rich gets a different justice system. The system has been defunct for a long time and was on full display for the last election. This is easy lay-up policy and legislation, make politicians responsible and accountable while defending democracy. You get crickets from any incumbent, everyone is very comfortable with how the system currently works (if you’re a politician).
edit: forgot to comment on the link,
Trump’s attorneys had asked to have until Nov. 21, instead of Nov. 7, to file an up-to-180-page brief arguing why Trump’s efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory
They asked for a 2 week extension, whether it’s bullshit or not that’s a pretty typical standard request from a legal team. It was more erroneous to imagine the actual court date going through when it was expected.
Trust the DOJ to do their job when they just dropped their charges lol, ok.
You imply the DOJ can’t be trusted to do their job because they dropped the charges. How is that not blaming the DOJ?
It’s no conspiracy theory that Russia has bot farms that push their narratives to change public opinion. Hell we have communities here on lemmy that have earned a reputation for doing that from all onlookers.
Sounds to me like a perfect recipe to round up and arrest a bunch of traitors to American principles. Was the thought trump would just shut up and quietly go away if we kept biding time or he lost another election. What, if anything, about trumps character would make anyone think that. 100% the government just dropped the ball on this. They won with trump in the opposition and wanted to time it well enough to win again and have him divide and weaken the republicans.
The United States is a fucking joke. The nation supposedly founded on the rejection of a king believes that one person is literally not subject to US law. I could not have more contempt for, or feel more shame about being an unwilling participant in the unprincipled hypocrisy of this absolute shit hole of a country.
Fuck the oligarchs that run this place. Fuck the fascist Republican Party. Fuck the cowardly Democrats. And fuck the moronic, fear-riddled people.
That is the biggest and most obvious show of the corruption of the US American “justice” system. It was long known as the best “justice” money could buy, but this is open disregard of any legal principle.
Well it’s still the best justice money can buy, just in a twisted, sinister kind of way and with a big emphasis on the money part
Strictly speaking, it makes sense that you don’t ask the DOJ to prosecute their boss, considering if DOJ threw the case, he could not be prosecuted again later due to double jeopardy.
Instead, presidents are to be judged by Congress through impeachment, since Congress is supposed to be independent.
Does not really change anything since congress is too broken by partisan politics to do anything, but I just wanted to point out where the issue really is.
Here here. Fuck the entire broken system that keeps people so visibly and obviously above any semblance of justice.
sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
The charges, including election interference
🤡
Election interference is legal if you do it so well you win.
This is honestly the biggest joke of them all.
Get ready for way, way more election interference.
If it prosper, none dare call it treason.
Wow I’m so shocked
Had 4 years to sort this and out the fucker in jail for treason and decided to dick around doing fuck all til a few months before the election.
Biden has the blood of 100,000 on his hands and the death of democracy in his lap. That’s his legacy.
Once again, Biden sticking to “policies” and “traditions” that are not law and facilitating terrible outcomes for the USA
Personally, I think the administration dragged its heels because it was stupid enough to want to run against Trump again. After all, if they had the bogeyman incarnate to run against, they could move to the right and still be second worst. And second worst wins elections, right?
Democrats fear Trump will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
No, it’s not a fear. It’s an acknowledgement of exactly what he has said he will do:
Trump has said repeatedly he will seek political retaliation, deepening national divisions.
I told my wife 4 years ago when these charges came in “If this becomes more than a slap on the wrist I will be amazed”, I am not amazed.
I’m actually kinda OK with this considering the circumstances.
With the republican’s capture of the presidency, congress, and the SCOTUS, there’s no way he’s going to suffer a day for his charges if the court pursued them.
The main problem was not sentencing him quickly when they had the chance. That’s the major fuckup.
Anyway, the dismissed charges are without prejudice. Which offers the opportunity (assuming trump survives his presidency, we don’t end up with a de facto republican dictatorship, etc) that he can be sentenced after his presidency.
But we all know how the courts love sentencing rich old white dudes.
I see it as a white flag. It’s not gonna happen now, and it isn’t going to happen later either. This battle they lost and that’s that.
Democrats need to start worrying less about Trump the person and more about the potential ramifications we will face in the near and farther future. It seems Democrats have a 5 year plan and Republicans have a 50 year plan, that’s why they keep gaining power and favor.
How so. Legally he can’t take office according to the constitution. And thereby his charges in Georgia and NY would hit him still, as Vance couldn’t pardon state charges. But yeah, we knew this would happen
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Lot of good that decrying’ll do now.
Democrats are done, elect a progressive party
Dems are too coward to vote anything else than blue no matter who
Their blues are just republican lite, we need actual progressives. Bernie was blue and they burned him, like every progressive. So it does matter who
It’s third party time
Merrick Garland needs to be remembered by history as an all time coward. The way we use Machiavelli to label a traitor, we need to use Garland to denote the most limp, failed and feckless human being.
Here’s everything you need, press this one button and the majority of the country will celebrate you perpetually and history will call you a hero… Doesn’t lift a finger, throws up down the front of his shirt, falls asleep.
Fuck Merrick Garland, without qualification.
Here comes 4 years of dem finger wagging
More like fear of retribution from the orange felonious madman
