Trump indicted! Now the process begins.
What do you think happens next? Voluntary surrender (seems unlikely) or arrest (but he might want to avoid the spectacle)?
Either way, it’ll be mugshot time. I look forward to that.
Eventually, a trial. I very much doubt that he’ll enter a guilty plea.
Also, the shrieking has officially begun.
This might be fun. It might be agonizing. Isn’t it great, living in eventful times?
I take great (but puerile) pleasure in knowing that he got half way through his tweet-rant, realised he was already in caps lock, and had to delete it and start it again in lower case just so that he could re-engage caps lock half way through.
I look forward to the springtime of indictments.
Paying off adult entertainers with illicit funds is the least of his crimes. I think there are three more indictments in progress?
It’s surreal to hear various talking heads immediately start bleating about how being prosecuted may hurt his chances of being the GOP candidate.
Gee, ya think?!
I just hope his gomers riot and decide to take on NYPD. It’s one of those “oooh I hope both sides lose!” situations, but NYPD is bigger than most nations’ militaries, and are really well-armed thugs. Of course the worst of tubthumpers are already doing time for Jan 6. They just released Qanon shaman to a halfway house – maybe he can go try his routine on NYPD; they’d laugh.
Oh no, he’s been indicated. I wonder if the indicator is flashing or steady.
He’ll surrender, his lawyers will insist. He’ll then exit the court, released on his own recognizance and pose for the cameras, calling it a state organized perp walk.
Eventually, it’ll go to a show trial, where the world will again wonder at US Lady Justice and her phenomenal powers of prostitution.
Just think–a third world country, with the world’s largest economy and the most powerful military. Okay.
I’m going to be kind and assume that the word INDICATED rather than INDICTED was an autocorrect thing.
Then again, this guy recently confused NATO with NAFTA, so who knows?
@5: “I’m going to be kind and assume that the word INDICATED rather than INDICTED was an autocorrect thing.”
Junior and all the rest have forfeited any right to kindness. I hope Colbert and all the nightly comic crew treat him with the ridicule he so richly deserves. I know I plan to…
May you live in interesting times’ is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld
Terry Pratchett.
Maybe turning the entire government into a reality TV show wasn’t the most pragmatic path forward.
Its about bloody time! More charges need to follow too. Live ABC coverage here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-31/live-updates-donald-trump-indictment/102118312
When has Trump ever avoided spectacle?
My guess is, he won’t plead guilty in a million years, and if he’s publicly arrested, he’ll want to play it up, play the victim, but be sure and put on his defiant face. Remember, he’s a TV star.
As much as I would like to see a Jim Bakker-style simpering pus-head meltdown, I don’t think that’s in the cards.
Maybe if we show Trump that diagram, we can trick him into pleading guilty because it trails off into nothing…
DeStupid has already vowed to fight the extradition. Though I have to wonder how much is pure theater on his part, since Trump going to jail would make his run for President easier.
It’ll be voluntary surrender. No doubt.
Trump will walk through the streets of NYC and into the courthouse. with every media organization watching and reporting on his every breath. He can’t/won’t avoid the opportunity to put on a display. He loves his dopamine rush and will not miss this opportunity for a mega dose.
No way will this narcissist hide out in Mar-a-Largo.
Trump has announced that he will turn himself in early next week.
Darn. I was hoping he would flee and run his campaign from a foreign sanctuary.
How about turning himself in NOW?
Jack Smiths twitter feed is currently hilarious, as is Stormy Daniels.
Cheap Trick seems to be a highly appropriate soundtrack for celebrating such a historic event.
Momma told me, yes she told me
I’d meet girls like you…..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Km11HNzUY
Check out Betty Bowers’ latest.
Sorry, I can’t take credit for this, but:
“Bringing in the Creep
Bringing in the Creep,
We will come rejoicing
Bringing in the Creep.”
Karma’s a bitch.
I would say that it’s time to stock up on the popcorn, but riot shields might be more appropriate. No way are the MAGA nuts going to let justice run its course uninterrupted, and there are plenty of Republican politicians who will be thinking of ways to exploit this for posturing value in readiness for whichever election they’ve got their beady eyes on.
No bail, please. And I believe Rikers Island has vacancies.
For me, the burning question is: Will the secret service employees assigned to protect Trump go to jail with him?
Here’s the thing…DeSantis is a bigger danger than Trump. What I want to see happen is DeSantis having to extradite Trump, which should collapse the entire circus on itself. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, in that case.
So Jared and Ivanka’s kids can teasure booking photo’s of BOTH grandfathers.
Well, his lawyers did. Trump himself just spewed out his standard boilerplate social media rantings. His lawyers have always had a hard time controlling his behavior, so who knows really.
@3 If Trump’s insurrectionists go head to head with NYPD, they will lose. Badly. Possibly in a permanent-dirt-nap kind of way.
After 9/11 but before he left office, Rudy Giuliani cranked up the acquisitions dial to 11. After 9/11, the NYPD got a lot more military supplies, including weapons and vehicles, on the grounds of preparedness for a possible next attack.
The NYPD has also told all officers to show up in uniform on tomorrow. Whatever game the Trumpistas are playing, NYPD is not playing it with them.
https://abc7ny.com/trump-indictment-nypd-security-donald-arraignment/13052606/
@19 Rikers Island has no vacancies, which is pretty much the entire problem with Rikers. The whole facility is overcrowded.
Sadly, he will almost certainly make bail because there are enough idiots out there who will donate money to make that happen. But I’d put money down on his being forced to surrender his passport. He will probably be told not to leave the state (NY) either, which is the likely reason that Trump Tower is being fortified by the NYPD right now. He will probably be under house arrest until the trial, toilet tweeting at 3 am.
@22 Nice! [snerk]
But also true! :P
As regards deSantis… If he refuses to extradite, he would be acting counter to explicit requirements in the US Constitution.
Already confirmed he’s turning himself in. He’s been playing the victim card for so long — eight years and counting. It’s all he knows. If there were any policies mentioned in his stump speech in Waco last week, they were purely incidental. It’s all grievance and resentment from hereon in, and if there’s any justice at all, he will sink the Republican Party for a generation.
His plan will be to delay the trial until after the election and if he wins, do whatever is necessary to make the charges go away and rewrite history. If he can’t pardon himself, he’ll get Congress to do it for him — if he wins, the Republicans will very likely have the majority in both houses, and they will be even more beholden to him than they are now.
@27 It won’t matter if he wins–which I doubt he will, the Republican Party is too divided, at least at the moment–the charges are state charges, not federal. Presidential pardons only matter for federal crimes. Congress can’t pardon people either, and even if they could and did, again it wouldn’t matter because the charges are state charges (NY) not federal.
That said, it appears that conviction is insufficient to bar the Mango Moron from running for president again.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/30/trump-presidential-run-indicted-constitution/
“But Trump’s advisers also acknowledged the pitfalls of a indictment and said the campaign had not worked out the logistics of simultaneously mounting a presidential run and facing a criminal trial.
The campaign operation is separate from Trump’s legal team, and the two are not always acting in concert, advisers said. And the candidate is not always taking advice from either team.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-elected-president-indicted-convicted-experts/story?id=97688250
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3595839-can-trump-be-disqualified-from-running-for-president/
Apparently the only way to prevent the Mango Moron from running again is a conviction for inciting the Jan. 6th insurrection.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/disqualification-office-donald-trump-v-39th-congress
” Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies any person from holding “any office, civil or military, under the United States, … who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.””
Even if convicted and jailed, that still wouldn’t bar running for president. It wouldn’t even be unique to do so. Eugene Debs did just that in 1920.
So.. Trump claims the USA is now a “Third World nation” and in serious decline just because at long last he faces some legal consequences for his crimes. How exactly is that supposed to work?
Huh, if anything its abetter nation and showing it isn’t 3rd World because no one is above the law.
Also ‘Third World’ doesn’t mean what he seems to think it means. Pretty sure, the USA’s superpower status ain’t changing any decade soon.
@27: Oh, I know he won’t win the Presidency, but he can certainly win the Republican primary, but you are right about the state charges not being pardonable by the president. I knew that, but forgot. :)
Still, the best case for him would be to win back the White House and unless, as you say, he’s been found guilty of sedition or treason, etc., he would likely avoid being removed and doing time in jail.
If the Republican Party had any spine at all, they would simply disqualify him from running for the nomination, but I can’t see that happening while the base is still on board the Trump train, and the more Trump is attacked for being unfit, the more determined they are to stay on board. Even DeSantis is too scared to step an inch out of line having just been burned for showing less than full-throated support for the man. It’s utterly bizarre.
Wzrd1 4
A bit unfair before Murdoch prostitution was then a profession with some standards and not as it became in the 1980’s a subsidiary of tabloid journalism.
So sad. Anyway…
Reading a brief Finnish news report on this indictment, I noticed it describes Trump simply as a former president. That he’s also running in the 2024 race only comes up when the report quotes assorted Trump allies whining about “travesty of justice”.
There seems to be a general lack of news outlets explaining clearly why the hush money payment was wrong – I mean which law specifically was broken and what interest is it supposed to protect. As it is, the whole thing seems more arbitrary than Al Capone’s tax evasion trial. No wonder if the GOP claim of political persecution is gaining traction.
There’s the ever-present mention of porn stars or “adult entertainers”, which seems to be legally irrelevant. I gather that the public only cares about this story because it relates to Trump cheating on his latest wife and quite obviously paying for sex like the low-grade playboy that he is. Speaking of which, isn’t buying sex also illegal under NY state law? Which jurisdiction is this again? Obviously, I get that US anti-prostitution laws aren’t intended to be used against rich white johns.
lumipuna: it’s the least important of all of Trump’s crimes but basically he used campaign money for personal gain, and tried to hide it which made it a worse crime.
The fact it’s taken this long to get to actual charges against him is an indictment of the US justice system. Trump’s fixer has been convicted and served his entire sentence over this crime already.
Thus far, DeSantis is threatening to block extradition, which is a very clear violation of Article IV, Claus 2 of the US Constitution and a massive overreach of his authority within his state, which may only review that documents are properly completed. It’s essentially on par with the state of Florida declaring war upon the state of New York, Constitutionally prohibited.
That said, it’s thus far a moot point, as Trump’s attorneys said that he’ll surrender to Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday, so extradition doesn’t even come into the picture. Just safe posturing by the governor and free advertising.
Some complaints have been made about a dearth of coverage of the specific charges being brought. Coverage is impossible, as the indictment hasn’t been presented to the court yet and remains under seal.
Thus begins what’s quite likely years of circus ring events. Even if convicted, he’d still be allowed to run for POTUS and if convicted, there is no certainty of prison time.
Expect every single objection to get appealed and attempts to take each all the way to the SCOTUS. I can see the entire steaming mess outliving him.
@28 re. “… Mango Moron …”, we shouldn’t malign mangos that way. The mango is a delicious and nutritious fruit. The only orange-ish semi-ingestible morsel that rises to Donny T’s level of lowliness is the Cheeto.
I also don’t like the term MAGAts. The maggot, as revolting as it is, is a useful and important part of the ecosystem. The former guy is a pure parasite with no usefulness at all, on par with the guinea worm.
Isn’t the Twitter check mark supposed to be blue, or is the red color representing Trumps mood?
If this makes it to trial, the trial is unlikely to start until after the 2024 election. Trump will use every opportunity to delay…
Since DeSantis is the more dangerous fascist, it will be good if Trump remains at large long enough to sabotage his primary campaign.
He cannot run for governor again and when he has to step down it is two years before the next election- long enough to be forgotten.
Without the governorship as a platform he will be trampled by the other candidates.
Addedum
The Gipper was dumb as a rock but had enough charisma to get elected. DeSantis is more like Anton Cigurh. He cannot win against Trump, and he cannot win as an ex-governor.
@ 37. kenbakermn : “I also don’t like the term MAGAts. The maggot, as revolting as it is, is a useful and important part of the ecosystem. The former guy is a pure parasite with no usefulness at all, on par with the guinea worm.”
The what? (Checks wikipedia)
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculus_medinensis
Ewww.. Yeah. nasty. Also, yeah, apt.
Cheers for that – something new learnt today.
I’m envisioning an OJ Simpson chase but in a golf cart with Giuliani driving.
This is a shameful moment in American legal history. Chump should have been indicted, convicted, and imprisoned decades ago. However, because he is a rich white guy he has been able to get away with one scam after another, and engage in any number of other horrible things such as rape, child sexual abuse, and spouse abuse. That he’s still allowed to spew his self-serving nonsense at all is beyond comprehension.
rietpluim @38:
Although TFG has access to his Twitter account, he hasn’t been posting there. The screenshot, presumably, is from Trump’s Twitter knockoff, Truth Social.
numerobis at 35 – Thanks for the clarification.
StevoR, nah, he’s more like Onchocerca volvulus, the worm that causes river blindness. He doesn’t cause pain in his hosts, he only causes blindness.
Laughably, the treatment is simple enough – ivermectin.
Which explains why he was never confirmed to take it, it’d have killed him.
Just to pick nits: New York mug shots are not public information. This was changed in 2019. The police can only release a mug shot if they have a legitimate reason to do so such as to identify a suspect, seek out witnesses, or develop leads in an investigation.
I’m not saying it won’t come out, but it won’t be through normal channels.
As I recall, release of mugshots was considered potentially prejudicial to a fair trial.
I’ve no need or interest in his mug shots, indeed, no right to even know if one exists, as I’m not a taxpayer of New York city or state. Residents of NY do have a right to know only that one was taken, to be certain that the law is obeyed in the processing of those accused of a crime.
kenbakermn@37, StevoR@42,
A recent colleague of mine did his doctorate on guinea worm infection in dogs – turns out they are much less likely to get infected if their owners supply them with water (dogs in the area concerned are generally free to roam, so if water is not supplied, drink from pools in which the larvae may be present). I had thought the parasite only infected humans, and that was why it was thought it could be eradicated, but apparently baboons as well as dogs are liable to infection.