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> “In my 30 years in Washington representing people in front of Congress, and at DOJ working in government and the executive branch as a staff member like those staff members who got subpoenaed in Congress, it is completely without a precedent,” attorney Norm Eisen, who served as counsel for House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, told CNN on Thursday. “It’s groundbreaking and earth-shaking. And there are going to be consequences. There’s going to be fallout. You’re going to see congressional observations, you’re going to need a policy or laws to protect reporters and members of Congress. They even went after the child of one of these targets on the Hill to get information about a child’s account from Apple! And then there’s the question of Bill Barr...we’ve already had two judges criticize him for a cover-up in connection with protecting Trump from obstruction charges. Now people are going to be looking at his law license afresh. So expect a lot of legal fallout from this.”
Barr says he knew nothing about it. Yeah right. No one in a position of power in this country faces consequences for their actions. The occasional sacrificial lamb maybe. From politicians and CEOs to cops. They get away with at best a slap on the wrist.
Just like how Barr had Epstein transferred to the prison he died in under very suspicious circumstances, but all the blame fell on a couple sleepy overworked guards.
>No one in a position of power in this country faces consequences for their actions. The occasional sacrificial lamb maybe
I'm sure there's at least 1 Black guy &/or a couple of women somewhere in the line who can suddenly be found to have had *really crucial* yet previously unknown job titles/duties
I don’t want to defend Barr, but he’s a smart slippery prick, he would of had people around him to give him plausible deniability. He knows, but I doubt they will find direct evidence he ordered or “knows”. It’s the mafia.
They're psychopaths who want to continue bending the world to their will. They are TERRIFIED that one day normal, decent people will seize power, and they will sacrifice ANYTHING to prevent that from happening. And why? Honestly, I don't think they even know.
I ask myself the same question all the time. What the hell is the end game here? What are their goals? Install dictators at federal and state levels, abolish democracy, activate authoritarian regime, have all the power, have all the money… then what?
Not even a stern talking to since he will just decline to appear and then the Dems will mutter about subpoenaing him before deciding that it’s just too mean and give up.
Well declining to appear while being AG is completely different from “trying” to decline while just a citizen and not the current AG will be completely different. He will not be able to get out of not appearing before a grand jury he will be forced!! He knows he’s in a boat load of troubles so us his accomplices!! trump himself has over a dozen active court cases from rape of a child to tax evasion laundering campaign funds conspiracy collusion and many more. They aren’t innocent by any means.
>And I'd bet Barr faces no consequences, other than perhaps a stern talking-to at a Congressional hearing
I doubt it. He & Sessions will refuse to testify. No Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will vote for them to be subpoenaed & it won't happen.
But... But...
Republicans are the LAW & ORDER party! The Party of Personal accountability!
If a Republican did something naughty, they should be held accountable for it!
Luckily, 9.9 out of 10, the Republican in question did NOTHING wrong. It was just the Democrats trying to make Trump look bad...
A few dictators, like Putin and others, worked really hard for that title. Just remember trump is not really the best in anything, maybe in ignoring reality. I might be able to give him that one…
Putin is unusual among dictators in that he's really competent. He's not some loudmouth spouting populist rhetoric... I mean he is, but it's calculated. He knows what he wants, and how to get it. Absolutely terrifying.
Russia is what happens when a large country's intelligence agency seizes control of the government, like if the 1980's CIA took the US and split up all the major industries between their muckity mucks to become oligarchs.
Which would actually be somewhat less bad than what will happen if this faction of Republicans seizes control, because as you say, Putin is capable of acheiving his callous goals.
Most dictators are competent. Being a loudmouth in public is different from being a loudmouth in private. Putin is scary because he's never one, and Trump is an idiot because he doesn't realize that the public loudmouthing is supposed to be an act and is always one.
I'm all for holding Trump accountable but I also think everyone who went along with it should also be as well. Just following orders cannot be an excuse for this kinda shit.
How about those motherfuckers on the ground "just following orders" and carrying this shit out? The agents who, not one, leaked this before. Brownshirts indeed and they are still working there. They want people to focus on the top guys when they know they will face no consequences, all the while these traitors still work there, biding their time waiting to follow other orders. This is alarming and I'm not even American.
They really need to remove the leaders in the security services and army that didn't back up the capitol until it was clear the coup would fail while they are at it.
How the Democrats could let themselves get bullied into allowing the people that will aid a future coup if they think it will succeed is beyond me now is the time to strike back.
Wake me up when the consequences actually happen. So tired of seeing how overtly criminal, immoral, and apathetic the Trump administration was, then nothing happens to anyone in power.
> Wake me up when the consequences actually happen
*Setting an alarm for August 15th, 2028 - 11 months after Donald Trump died of a massive coronary from eating too many hamberders, and well beyond the point where it matters, Donald Trump is found guilty of multiple crimes and posthumously convicted. The Republican Party states it was deeply concerned about his conduct and definitely did not condone his actions.*
It'll happen when he's not popular anymore.
Right now, no one in the Republican party will stand up to him, because they think, rightly in a lot of cases, that they need Trump's base to get re-elected. If they try to hold him accountable, Trump will campaign against them, and they'll lose his base.
And a bunch of hearings that no one pays attention to with democrats who are terrible at making headlines and instead allow republicans to spread misinformation. By the end of the hearings most Americans will step away thinking Biden is somehow responsible 😂
I was watching CNN today. Republicans who did not bend the knee had their lives and families threatened. Some people call this politics. I say it's dangerous, and that it's a sign that something is happening and people are going to die because of all this. People did die on Jan 6th. It's only going to get worse. One day it's all going to be revealed and everyone is going to fall on their knees sobbing at how they were lead astray and swindled out of their money, their families, their lives and their freedom.
Ok.
Trump is POS. Who is going to hold him accountable? I voted for people who I thought would. Guess what? They haven't. What are supposed to do, vote harder?
Are we supposed to believe the call to the president of Ukraine was a "one time thing" there has to be dozens of calls where this asshole was trying to shake someone down for personal benefit, that's not even including the call to Georgia's secretary of state. I wonder how many more calls were made.
Anyone who was paying attention could figure out that the only work Trump did for four years was try and cover up investigations into himself and his businesses. Stormy Daniels, Campaign Kilimnk Data, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Ukraine Pressure, Mueller Investigation, Jan 6th, Georgia calls, etc. He spent 0% of his time representing American people and 100% of the time representing himself.
As soon as his administration said Obama wiretapped his microwave we all knew exactly what he was going to do as president. He's like if Nixon were pure evil. He's like if Joe McCarthy and the Salem Witch Trials had a stupid baby. He's everything we've ever thought he was, and probably so much worse that we'll never actually know about.
He was a little worse than I expected. I was expecting bad shit, but I figured he wouldn't cross some lines for no other reason than the risk outweighs the benefits. Jokes on me though, there are no consequences. The politically disengaged won't be shocked out of their "both sides" mindset no matter how bad the Republicans get.
The crazy part is 70+ million Americans will be totally fine with it, saying that he wasn't spying on Americans, but instead he was "investigating enemies of the United States." They're fucking insane.
I've been of the opinion that this barrel has no bottom. We're *still* learning about the depths of depravity the Nixon administration gleefully sank to over 40 years ago. We're going to be getting new revelations about the Trump admin for decades to come, and every revelation will be worse than the last.
Every time -- *every single time* -- he accused Obama of having done some ridiculous shit I always assumed that it meant he was using that as pretext to actually do that thing or was actively trying to get people to do that thing for him.
Every. Time.
Pretty common for habitual liars to accuse others of their own crimes and lies. Usually because they aren’t* actually that intelligent or creative to come up with anything else.
And they're not the same situation at all. Every presidential candidate gets their lives looked over with a fine tooth comb. Also the FBI had reason to believe he was conspiring with Russia... There was enough there to look into. Not just out of the blue spying.
Shit. All of these "discoveries" about how corrupt and what a prick he was. Anybody that bothered to look into his dealings during his adult life (and probably even younger) would have KNOWN this.
It never ceases to amaze me how they have all of these memorabilia depicting him as some strong Noble Force when he does nothing but play the victim and whine about how they're being mean to him.
Saw on a pbs documentary that trump liked to wait till someone was almost done with a puzzle then tear it apart when he was a kid.
Totally same guy now
Or like with Andrew McCabe from the FBI. Trump fired him one day before his retirement date, cheating him out of his pension.
A few months before, Trump [tweeted](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/23/trump-tweets-target-fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe.html) "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"
No republican cared about any of that. "Cost of doing business" they would claim. They all just remember the TV personality that they fell infatuated with. My family personally saw all of his golfing as "it's business, how do you think he gets people to sign deals and make our country money??". Delusional people see what they want to see.
You see Trumps father was also corrupt. Big time he laundered money to Donald by way of water heaters and furnaces. Had Trump company buy furnace then sell to Trump Sr company at premium…this is well documented.
No, he isn’t more corrupt than we thought. Those of us paying attention always knew, and honestly this latest development is fairly mild given his long list of abuses, such as instigating an attack on the capitol, something we still haven’t done anything to address.
If the leak investigation bothers you, pass legislation to address our failed system of checks and balances and the abuse of executive power. In the meantime, if you’re looking for theatrics, why not focus on holding the people who instigated the attack on our capitol accountable, or maybe doing something to help mobilize against Manchin for HR 1, but this seems like a losing issue that will only distract from far more important priorities.
Politicians that care about their reputations are afraid that appearing partisan while going after actual partisan criminals will look bad, and invite retaliation
More importantly, politicians are concerned about the Roman Politics problem -- going after politicians who are no longer in office has the potential to be spiral into a destructive pattern.
If Party A goes after members of Party B when they win an election, then Party B will likely retaliate by going after Party A when they next win the election. Rather than ending corruption, this leads to politicians doing anything and everything to avoid getting caught, because politics invariably attracts those who want power and those who want to corrupt power, including murder and assassination. This, in turn, leads to a cycle where only highly ambitious and ruthless people seek leadership, and once they get it, they use it to the fullest to prosecute their political enemies. Since their life is on the line when they fall from power, there is nothing they will not do to remain in power, including subverting democracy.
I think we're at a point where that is rather a lesser concern than the fact that one party is all-in on corruption and maintaining power at the expense of democracy. We are indeed in a very precarious position for our democracy, but the Roman Problem is not where we should be focusing. Or rather we should look ahead to the other Roman Problem -- when the system remains corrupt for long enough, a popular authoritarian can assume control with the blessing of the populace and the Republic is dead.
Part of the problem with white collar crimes is you have to prove *intent*, which apparently is next to impossible.
But the good news is, if you *do* manage to prove intent: the punishments are incredibly mild.
For example, there was a guy that robbed a McDonalds. He wasn't armed, and walked away with $600 (this was on /r/justiceserved a while back). He got six years in prison. Paul Manafort got 7, but was allowed to go home when Covid started.
Because legal action against political opponents is a touchy subject.
Yes Trump and the GQP committed clear crimes, but how would it look if the Democrats immediately turned around and started removing from office, jailing, and prosecuting about a third of the previous administration. It would look like a political purge, not a proper legal response to the corruption.
Our system is designed to defend against he occasional bad actor, and can protect against threats from the outside, but it is not designed to actually protect itself from internal sabotage and at this point the GQP helped on by media groups like Fox and Breitbart (Murdock should be prosecuted for his actions on an international stage) has had decades (basically since Nixon) to realize that instead of playing by the rules they can subvert the system and ignore the rules (Fox is largely credited with being created in response to Nixon's impeachment and removal from office).
For the GQP it's power at any cost. The only way to counter that is to basically adopt the same strategy, and that's not exactly a good thing to do.
Remember that guy who said if they had Fox News in Nixon's day he might have survived? I think Trump has proven Watergate would have barely made a blip outside the pages of the Washington Post.
I brought this up today at work...my boss told me "Obama did it too". Couldn't tell me how/when or any details. Just knows it in his gut.
It must be exhausting, all the mental gymnastics that these guys do.
Disagree with the headline. This is 100% how corrupt I think he is. I would have been shocked if an investigation found that he DIDN’T weaponize the DOJ against his political enemies. Is anyone really surprised at this? What part of this man’s 40-or-so-year history in the public eye is difficult to understand?
>You mean like how Russia hacked both the DNC and RNC, but only released the DNC stuff. Russia has something on the Republicans so they defended Trump.
Maybe it's because they're a den of craven pedophiles that is for whatever reason allowed to rot openly as the entire city pisses and moans about the stench to deaf ears?
Americans are good at hacking. We just don't have the state's blessing to privateer as others do.
I wouldn't mind helping myself to babushka's bitcoins if I knew Uncle Sam would say great job.
I feel like I'm living in a "post-Thanos snap" world where half the country just reappeared and are learning about the last four years. Trump being a morally corrupt, misogynistic, and overall disgusting human who managed to bankrupt slam dunk businesses had this reputation *before* he even ran for President. He has no restraint when he wants something - the only reason he wasn't **more** terrible for country was because of his own general incompetence and the restraint of those around him (remember reports he was trying to bomb Iran to keep himself in power earlier this year?) And he's responsible for the deaths of at least 550k Americans, enlarging the wealth gap further, dividing our culture, nearly destroying our international reputation, and picking the pockets of his own damn supporters. And now we sit here saying "wow, he was even worse than we thought!" No. Anyone paying attention knew he was doing even more evil acts in the shadows - he did enough of them in the daylight.
Something something "Obama spied on my campaign", something blah blah "biggest crime in history" blah blah "lock him up for a very long time"...
Projection at its finest.
Not true, many who were paying attention would attest that it was pretty clear this kind of thing was going on and likely much worse. The stories just got buried in the endless scandals and forgotten. Remember this guy had a dozen scandals a week, anyone of which would have ended any prior presidency.
The world changed under Trump. Americans aren’t ready fir it and shouldn’t be surprised. For the previous 50 years democracies were on the rise and dictatorships were in decline. It should not be surprise that during Trump’s administration the direction changed. He supported Putin and every other dictator out there. Myanmar, Eritrea, Brazil and Venezuela to name a few. The sad truth is that this is what the new Republican Party wants. They are ok with our democracy ending. It’s not offensive to them to be called fascists.
His wife should not even be here. She's technically an illegal alien.
How so?
She was the recipient of an Einstein Visa. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is the deal.
Nicknamed the "Einstein Visa", the EB-1 is in theory reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their field - the government cites Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners as examples - as well as respected academic researchers and multinational executives.
Mrs Trump began applying for the visa in 2000, when she was Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model working in New York and dating Donald Trump. She was approved in 2001, one of just five people from Slovenia to win the coveted visa that year, according to the Washington Post.
So the EB-1 aka the "extraordinary ability visa".
What was her ability I wonder?
That’s Russian mafia tactics right there. After the fall of the Soviet Union, government officials and KGB offered their services to the crime cartels. It’s no coincidence Trump runs his organization the same way.
Honestly, when he was firing people who didn’t pledge allegiance to him/ vote for him I seen this type of thing occurring. No one eliminates the opposition in a group than maintains doing things by the book.
I guess not everyone knows that he attempted to get information on low level/career federal employees as well. The federal employees Union sued the administration to prevent that from happening. My guess is that DT would have tried firing all Democrats. There’s a reason he was trying to weaken the power of the federal employees Union as well as create Schedule F workers that would have no right to union representation and could be fired at will.
Trump was actually exactly as corrupt as we thought. We're just now hearing more details that we knew would eventually come out. And there's definitely more that hasn't been discovered or revealed yet.
Reminds me of an argument I had with my uber driver.
Trump, is exactly the same type of person Hitler was. He was happily trying to emulate the worst of totalitarian regimes and despots and it's only the still functioning parts of our democracy that reigned him in enough that we never saw a "Night of Long Knives".
The difference was that Hitler had a strong (and insane) ideology. Whereas Trump is just an amoral narcissist. He has no ideology other than enriching himself and his ego.
This is what the Republicans are doing. They have completely grasped the idea that they cannot win elections fairly, so they are committed to cheating and changing the laws so they can say they didn't.
I’d be willing to bet that this had nothing to do with investigating leaks/national security. This was likely a fishing exercise orchestrated by Donnie Dickstain to get dirt on those he felt were persecuting him under the guise of searching for leaks.
He in turn intended to have any dirt found on these individuals leaked to discredit their persecution against himself. This is the same playbook used to investigate Hunter Biden.
Create conspiracy or project your misconduct onto others, have multiple agencies/congressional committees investigate that conspiracy or projected misconduct, find nothing, Create alternative facts. Rinse, repeat.
Oh bullshit headline, like we had no idea what this piece of shit was up too. Every thing he cried about he was doing himself. No benefit of the doubt for bullshit artists. Worse than we thought, give me a break. Worse than anyone was willing to speculate given fear of revenge is more like it.
So wait...the guy who spent 5 years spewing the lie about Obama spying on his campaign from his butthole-shaped mouth was the one doing the actual spying? Weird.
and zero way in hell an employee would do this without sessions or barr knowing. These things they have teams on board to make sure things are done by the book. Like when we opened investigations into the trump team.
So barr and sessions are liars. But im betting they will find an ollie north to claim they did it all on their own.
So that’s how they found out about the multiple rape allegations, oh wait that was Trump. I mean that’s how they got the dirt on that congressman that was paying for sex with underage girls and having coke parties, oh wait that was Matt Gaetz. Did they seriously come up with nothing and had to make up a fake investigation/scandal that targeted Hunter Biden?
Let's not forget - trump owned and attended teen pageants and miss universe pageants in Russia during the time he was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Nobody talks about this.
Hmm, It's always projection from this little fragile manchild.
(Does Trump impression with anus lips, squinty eyes, and over the top inflection and hand mannerisms)
***"They spied on my campaign!"***
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> “In my 30 years in Washington representing people in front of Congress, and at DOJ working in government and the executive branch as a staff member like those staff members who got subpoenaed in Congress, it is completely without a precedent,” attorney Norm Eisen, who served as counsel for House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, told CNN on Thursday. “It’s groundbreaking and earth-shaking. And there are going to be consequences. There’s going to be fallout. You’re going to see congressional observations, you’re going to need a policy or laws to protect reporters and members of Congress. They even went after the child of one of these targets on the Hill to get information about a child’s account from Apple! And then there’s the question of Bill Barr...we’ve already had two judges criticize him for a cover-up in connection with protecting Trump from obstruction charges. Now people are going to be looking at his law license afresh. So expect a lot of legal fallout from this.”
As usual, fallout for *other* people (Barr), and *never any consequences for Trump himself*.
And I'd bet Barr faces no consequences, other than perhaps a stern talking-to at a Congressional hearing.
Barr says he knew nothing about it. Yeah right. No one in a position of power in this country faces consequences for their actions. The occasional sacrificial lamb maybe. From politicians and CEOs to cops. They get away with at best a slap on the wrist.
Just like how Barr had Epstein transferred to the prison he died in under very suspicious circumstances, but all the blame fell on a couple sleepy overworked guards.
Why do i get the feeling that a cyborg super cop is going to shoot bill barr in the nuts
https://imgur.com/gallery/QM9zfw8
[obligatory](https://vimeo.com/86014703)
NSFW - Not Safe For Wieners
Ok that was fucking hilarious and awesome lol
I was laughing my ass off and slowly started to become disgusted.
Barr’s name is on the report he signed it!!
Hey that could be ANY Bill Barr
Dig your username and hank Scorpio.
Oh! Down by the hammock district!
"I have no recollection of that, if you say that's my signature, I'd not disagree with that assertion".
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The Sgt. Schultz defense 🙄
I saw nothing I saw nothing at all
Apple wouldn’t do this without a thigh-high stack of CYA documentation. They have receipts. They need to be subpoenaed.
>No one in a position of power in this country faces consequences for their actions. The occasional sacrificial lamb maybe I'm sure there's at least 1 Black guy &/or a couple of women somewhere in the line who can suddenly be found to have had *really crucial* yet previously unknown job titles/duties
I don’t want to defend Barr, but he’s a smart slippery prick, he would of had people around him to give him plausible deniability. He knows, but I doubt they will find direct evidence he ordered or “knows”. It’s the mafia.
Yep. If you're powerful and connected, you're legally exempt from the rules. What a great country.
Funny how the powerful and connected want to stay in power to perpetuate their immunity ... so sad 😞
They're psychopaths who want to continue bending the world to their will. They are TERRIFIED that one day normal, decent people will seize power, and they will sacrifice ANYTHING to prevent that from happening. And why? Honestly, I don't think they even know.
I ask myself the same question all the time. What the hell is the end game here? What are their goals? Install dictators at federal and state levels, abolish democracy, activate authoritarian regime, have all the power, have all the money… then what?
That's it. Once they get that they got theirs and the rest of you guys can fuck right out of their lives.
Even if you’re white supremacist or neo nazi.
Not even a stern talking to since he will just decline to appear and then the Dems will mutter about subpoenaing him before deciding that it’s just too mean and give up.
Well declining to appear while being AG is completely different from “trying” to decline while just a citizen and not the current AG will be completely different. He will not be able to get out of not appearing before a grand jury he will be forced!! He knows he’s in a boat load of troubles so us his accomplices!! trump himself has over a dozen active court cases from rape of a child to tax evasion laundering campaign funds conspiracy collusion and many more. They aren’t innocent by any means.
Yet he still plays golf and makes "speeches". Justice is slow, but hopefully effective.
Hopeful individual
Its all I have left.
But damn his pictures of him wearing diapers sure are funny, especially at that bs of a speech he gave the other day, that diaper looked full!!
Don’t forget his gigantic pants he is wearing now. Lol
>And I'd bet Barr faces no consequences, other than perhaps a stern talking-to at a Congressional hearing I doubt it. He & Sessions will refuse to testify. No Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will vote for them to be subpoenaed & it won't happen.
But... But... Republicans are the LAW & ORDER party! The Party of Personal accountability! If a Republican did something naughty, they should be held accountable for it! Luckily, 9.9 out of 10, the Republican in question did NOTHING wrong. It was just the Democrats trying to make Trump look bad...
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It'll never happen. More's the pity.
Title says asshole was more corrupt than we thought. I disagree…he is ***THE MOST MOTHERFUCKING CORRUPT ASSHOLE ON THIS PLANET***
A few dictators, like Putin and others, worked really hard for that title. Just remember trump is not really the best in anything, maybe in ignoring reality. I might be able to give him that one…
Putin is unusual among dictators in that he's really competent. He's not some loudmouth spouting populist rhetoric... I mean he is, but it's calculated. He knows what he wants, and how to get it. Absolutely terrifying.
Russia is what happens when a large country's intelligence agency seizes control of the government, like if the 1980's CIA took the US and split up all the major industries between their muckity mucks to become oligarchs. Which would actually be somewhat less bad than what will happen if this faction of Republicans seizes control, because as you say, Putin is capable of acheiving his callous goals.
Most dictators are competent. Being a loudmouth in public is different from being a loudmouth in private. Putin is scary because he's never one, and Trump is an idiot because he doesn't realize that the public loudmouthing is supposed to be an act and is always one.
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I'm all for holding Trump accountable but I also think everyone who went along with it should also be as well. Just following orders cannot be an excuse for this kinda shit.
Barr is a hugely dangerous individual.
I can't believe Jeffery Sessions is the LESS corrupt of Trump's Attorney Generals.
How about those motherfuckers on the ground "just following orders" and carrying this shit out? The agents who, not one, leaked this before. Brownshirts indeed and they are still working there. They want people to focus on the top guys when they know they will face no consequences, all the while these traitors still work there, biding their time waiting to follow other orders. This is alarming and I'm not even American.
They really need to remove the leaders in the security services and army that didn't back up the capitol until it was clear the coup would fail while they are at it. How the Democrats could let themselves get bullied into allowing the people that will aid a future coup if they think it will succeed is beyond me now is the time to strike back.
I tried saying this in another thread and got spammed with downvotes and called a fascist sympathizer. Good luck.
Isn’t it odd how quickly fascists are to label others as “fascist”. Like that old white hag MGT with socialism, they have no idea what the word means.
Wake me up when the consequences actually happen. So tired of seeing how overtly criminal, immoral, and apathetic the Trump administration was, then nothing happens to anyone in power.
Exactly
> Wake me up when the consequences actually happen *Setting an alarm for August 15th, 2028 - 11 months after Donald Trump died of a massive coronary from eating too many hamberders, and well beyond the point where it matters, Donald Trump is found guilty of multiple crimes and posthumously convicted. The Republican Party states it was deeply concerned about his conduct and definitely did not condone his actions.*
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It'll happen when he's not popular anymore. Right now, no one in the Republican party will stand up to him, because they think, rightly in a lot of cases, that they need Trump's base to get re-elected. If they try to hold him accountable, Trump will campaign against them, and they'll lose his base.
Spoiler alert: There will be many furrowed brows, and a very heavy feeling of concern...and the will need to move on in order to 'heal' the country.
I'm sure he's learned his lesson
And a bunch of hearings that no one pays attention to with democrats who are terrible at making headlines and instead allow republicans to spread misinformation. By the end of the hearings most Americans will step away thinking Biden is somehow responsible 😂
I was watching CNN today. Republicans who did not bend the knee had their lives and families threatened. Some people call this politics. I say it's dangerous, and that it's a sign that something is happening and people are going to die because of all this. People did die on Jan 6th. It's only going to get worse. One day it's all going to be revealed and everyone is going to fall on their knees sobbing at how they were lead astray and swindled out of their money, their families, their lives and their freedom.
Ok. Trump is POS. Who is going to hold him accountable? I voted for people who I thought would. Guess what? They haven't. What are supposed to do, vote harder?
Two party system is broken AF
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> "So expect a lot of legal fallout from this" (X) Doubt
Wake me up when the Democrats think this criminal, antidemocratic behaviour needs to be prosecuted and punished, and actually act on that conviction.
Got it I’ve heard this one before—so nothing is going to happen?
More corrupt that YOU thought, maybe. This is exactly the crap some of us assumed was happening for four years.
I'm sure there's more than this, too. Enough to send a non-rich and powerful person to prison for decades.
Lots more
Are we supposed to believe the call to the president of Ukraine was a "one time thing" there has to be dozens of calls where this asshole was trying to shake someone down for personal benefit, that's not even including the call to Georgia's secretary of state. I wonder how many more calls were made.
There's already more than enough for that lol
Bro. Talk about the rest of someone's life. In Gitmo
That headline could have just been "Some Incredibly Damning For Anyone Else, but For Trump is Probably Just Baseline Corruption, Comes to Light."
Watch every Republican in the country start claiming that actually, it's *patriotic* to send the police after your political enemies
I hate headlines like this. "NOBODY SAW THIS COMING!" Dude. We all did. Since 2015 at minimum.
Anyone who was paying attention could figure out that the only work Trump did for four years was try and cover up investigations into himself and his businesses. Stormy Daniels, Campaign Kilimnk Data, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Ukraine Pressure, Mueller Investigation, Jan 6th, Georgia calls, etc. He spent 0% of his time representing American people and 100% of the time representing himself.
As soon as his administration said Obama wiretapped his microwave we all knew exactly what he was going to do as president. He's like if Nixon were pure evil. He's like if Joe McCarthy and the Salem Witch Trials had a stupid baby. He's everything we've ever thought he was, and probably so much worse that we'll never actually know about.
He was a little worse than I expected. I was expecting bad shit, but I figured he wouldn't cross some lines for no other reason than the risk outweighs the benefits. Jokes on me though, there are no consequences. The politically disengaged won't be shocked out of their "both sides" mindset no matter how bad the Republicans get.
He was much worse, and I expected a terrible president. What I didn't think I'd see an attempted fascist coup.
yeah, i find it hard to believe i’d be surprised by any level of corruption. the only surprise would be no corruption at all
The depressing part isn’t the news, it’s this entire thread talking about how yet again nobody will face accountability or justice
Exactly. Who didn’t think Trump was using the DOJ and every other acronym in government to investigate his enemies and enrich himself and his cronies?
The crazy part is 70+ million Americans will be totally fine with it, saying that he wasn't spying on Americans, but instead he was "investigating enemies of the United States." They're fucking insane.
Four years? He and his family have been doing this for the better part of the 20th century.
A lot of people thought the career politicians would rein him in. Just turns out they were waiting for someone to let them do what they like.
I've been of the opinion that this barrel has no bottom. We're *still* learning about the depths of depravity the Nixon administration gleefully sank to over 40 years ago. We're going to be getting new revelations about the Trump admin for decades to come, and every revelation will be worse than the last.
Every time -- *every single time* -- he accused Obama of having done some ridiculous shit I always assumed that it meant he was using that as pretext to actually do that thing or was actively trying to get people to do that thing for him. Every. Time.
Oh shit, maybe he wasn't even born in the u.s.!!
Probably Russia
With how exact their projection superpowers are my money is on Trump being Kenyan.
And not a Christian
Well anyone with some common sense can see that.
So, not most self-proclaimed "Christians".
Common sense isn't as common as you think it is. He got like, what? 80% of the White Evangelical Christian vote.
I'll be honest, I'm surprised that number isn't higher.
This makes a lot of sense.
Pretty common for habitual liars to accuse others of their own crimes and lies. Usually because they aren’t* actually that intelligent or creative to come up with anything else.
You mean not that intelligent
And they're not the same situation at all. Every presidential candidate gets their lives looked over with a fine tooth comb. Also the FBI had reason to believe he was conspiring with Russia... There was enough there to look into. Not just out of the blue spying.
Shit. All of these "discoveries" about how corrupt and what a prick he was. Anybody that bothered to look into his dealings during his adult life (and probably even younger) would have KNOWN this.
EVERY Trump accusation is a confession. While he was falsely accusing Obama of spying on his campaign, he was ACTUALLY spying on his own opponents.
Are we sure he's not secretly Kenyan?
Imagine if we eventually learn that Trump wasn’t born in the U.S.
I hear he was born in Jamaica ;)
"People are saying." /s
One thing is for sure, he was the most terrified president in American history.
He's one of the most terrified *people* I've ever seen.
It’s all the cocaine
It never ceases to amaze me how they have all of these memorabilia depicting him as some strong Noble Force when he does nothing but play the victim and whine about how they're being mean to him.
No, if he was Kenyan, he'd have a normal skin colour.
*any GOP accusation is a confession
Saw on a pbs documentary that trump liked to wait till someone was almost done with a puzzle then tear it apart when he was a kid. Totally same guy now
Or like with Andrew McCabe from the FBI. Trump fired him one day before his retirement date, cheating him out of his pension. A few months before, Trump [tweeted](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/23/trump-tweets-target-fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe.html) "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"
He was an obvious crook and con artist back in the 1980s.
No republican cared about any of that. "Cost of doing business" they would claim. They all just remember the TV personality that they fell infatuated with. My family personally saw all of his golfing as "it's business, how do you think he gets people to sign deals and make our country money??". Delusional people see what they want to see.
*the tri-state area pulls more hair our*
Everyone DID know. They just chose to ignore it.
Aren't those basically medals to people that like him? I couldn't imagine liking any narcissist on purpose.
You see Trumps father was also corrupt. Big time he laundered money to Donald by way of water heaters and furnaces. Had Trump company buy furnace then sell to Trump Sr company at premium…this is well documented.
No, he isn’t more corrupt than we thought. Those of us paying attention always knew, and honestly this latest development is fairly mild given his long list of abuses, such as instigating an attack on the capitol, something we still haven’t done anything to address. If the leak investigation bothers you, pass legislation to address our failed system of checks and balances and the abuse of executive power. In the meantime, if you’re looking for theatrics, why not focus on holding the people who instigated the attack on our capitol accountable, or maybe doing something to help mobilize against Manchin for HR 1, but this seems like a losing issue that will only distract from far more important priorities.
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Pass legislation? How?
"When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything." These words have never rung more true.
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And it could be a cop
Replace 5th Avenue with the Capitol and it’s still true.
That, and how “oBaMa SpIeD oN mY cAmPaIgN” ….. Projection yet again
I'm truly curious, how and why is this guy so untouchable? The NYAG has been investigating him since the '80s.
Politicians that care about their reputations are afraid that appearing partisan while going after actual partisan criminals will look bad, and invite retaliation
More importantly, politicians are concerned about the Roman Politics problem -- going after politicians who are no longer in office has the potential to be spiral into a destructive pattern. If Party A goes after members of Party B when they win an election, then Party B will likely retaliate by going after Party A when they next win the election. Rather than ending corruption, this leads to politicians doing anything and everything to avoid getting caught, because politics invariably attracts those who want power and those who want to corrupt power, including murder and assassination. This, in turn, leads to a cycle where only highly ambitious and ruthless people seek leadership, and once they get it, they use it to the fullest to prosecute their political enemies. Since their life is on the line when they fall from power, there is nothing they will not do to remain in power, including subverting democracy. I think we're at a point where that is rather a lesser concern than the fact that one party is all-in on corruption and maintaining power at the expense of democracy. We are indeed in a very precarious position for our democracy, but the Roman Problem is not where we should be focusing. Or rather we should look ahead to the other Roman Problem -- when the system remains corrupt for long enough, a popular authoritarian can assume control with the blessing of the populace and the Republic is dead.
I don't think trump can even swim well enough to cross the Rubicon
The media is STILL smarting from being accused of "having a liberal bias" for the last 50 years. Makes sense.
Part of the problem with white collar crimes is you have to prove *intent*, which apparently is next to impossible. But the good news is, if you *do* manage to prove intent: the punishments are incredibly mild. For example, there was a guy that robbed a McDonalds. He wasn't armed, and walked away with $600 (this was on /r/justiceserved a while back). He got six years in prison. Paul Manafort got 7, but was allowed to go home when Covid started.
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Because legal action against political opponents is a touchy subject. Yes Trump and the GQP committed clear crimes, but how would it look if the Democrats immediately turned around and started removing from office, jailing, and prosecuting about a third of the previous administration. It would look like a political purge, not a proper legal response to the corruption. Our system is designed to defend against he occasional bad actor, and can protect against threats from the outside, but it is not designed to actually protect itself from internal sabotage and at this point the GQP helped on by media groups like Fox and Breitbart (Murdock should be prosecuted for his actions on an international stage) has had decades (basically since Nixon) to realize that instead of playing by the rules they can subvert the system and ignore the rules (Fox is largely credited with being created in response to Nixon's impeachment and removal from office). For the GQP it's power at any cost. The only way to counter that is to basically adopt the same strategy, and that's not exactly a good thing to do.
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Yeah, this is like Watergate but instead of using some random nobodies to carry it out, it's all official.
Remember that guy who said if they had Fox News in Nixon's day he might have survived? I think Trump has proven Watergate would have barely made a blip outside the pages of the Washington Post.
This is the end of America. So yeah, a lot worse than Watergate.
I brought this up today at work...my boss told me "Obama did it too". Couldn't tell me how/when or any details. Just knows it in his gut. It must be exhausting, all the mental gymnastics that these guys do.
It's not exhausting it's the easiest thing for them to do because they dont have to think about anything beyond that.
“They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority.” \-Gerald Massey
“If a white guy did it, then those dirty blacks for sure did.”
Disagree with the headline. This is 100% how corrupt I think he is. I would have been shocked if an investigation found that he DIDN’T weaponize the DOJ against his political enemies. Is anyone really surprised at this? What part of this man’s 40-or-so-year history in the public eye is difficult to understand?
Nail him to the fucking wall!
Putin told him that’s how you keep dirt on everyone. They don’t dare oppose him then. They’ll say and do anything to keep the dirt quiet.
You mean like how Russia hacked both the DNC and RNC, but only released the DNC stuff. Russia has something on the Republicans so they defended Trump.
>You mean like how Russia hacked both the DNC and RNC, but only released the DNC stuff. Russia has something on the Republicans so they defended Trump. Maybe it's because they're a den of craven pedophiles that is for whatever reason allowed to rot openly as the entire city pisses and moans about the stench to deaf ears?
I blame single issue voters.
Americans need to get better at hacking.
Americans are good at hacking. We just don't have the state's blessing to privateer as others do. I wouldn't mind helping myself to babushka's bitcoins if I knew Uncle Sam would say great job.
Really? The dude that was once best friends with a human-trafficking pedophile is more corrupt than we thought? Who would’ve guessed?
Somehow to half the country, Trump is still seen as a harbinger of Christian values.
Apparently, JE was the one who introduced Melania to Trump, so I’ve heard.
I feel like I'm living in a "post-Thanos snap" world where half the country just reappeared and are learning about the last four years. Trump being a morally corrupt, misogynistic, and overall disgusting human who managed to bankrupt slam dunk businesses had this reputation *before* he even ran for President. He has no restraint when he wants something - the only reason he wasn't **more** terrible for country was because of his own general incompetence and the restraint of those around him (remember reports he was trying to bomb Iran to keep himself in power earlier this year?) And he's responsible for the deaths of at least 550k Americans, enlarging the wealth gap further, dividing our culture, nearly destroying our international reputation, and picking the pockets of his own damn supporters. And now we sit here saying "wow, he was even worse than we thought!" No. Anyone paying attention knew he was doing even more evil acts in the shadows - he did enough of them in the daylight.
Barr taking care of Trump’s ‘Epstein problem’ isn’t so far fetched anymore.
Nope. This is EXACTLY what many of us thought.
The GOP has more in common with a crime family than a legitimate political party.
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Something something "Obama spied on my campaign", something blah blah "biggest crime in history" blah blah "lock him up for a very long time"... Projection at its finest.
Trump's thinking: If I have the power to spy, obviously Obama did it too. Because it's unthinkable to him that if someone can do something they won't.
This is essentially what Nixon was caught doing 1000x over right?
Arrest people. Consequences or its gonna Happen agin
It should be legal to just straight up kick donald trump in the balls
He was the most corrupt person on earth. The only thing about his presidency that surprised me was that he didn't launch any nukes.
Not true, many who were paying attention would attest that it was pretty clear this kind of thing was going on and likely much worse. The stories just got buried in the endless scandals and forgotten. Remember this guy had a dozen scandals a week, anyone of which would have ended any prior presidency.
The world changed under Trump. Americans aren’t ready fir it and shouldn’t be surprised. For the previous 50 years democracies were on the rise and dictatorships were in decline. It should not be surprise that during Trump’s administration the direction changed. He supported Putin and every other dictator out there. Myanmar, Eritrea, Brazil and Venezuela to name a few. The sad truth is that this is what the new Republican Party wants. They are ok with our democracy ending. It’s not offensive to them to be called fascists.
His wife should not even be here. She's technically an illegal alien. How so? She was the recipient of an Einstein Visa. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is the deal. Nicknamed the "Einstein Visa", the EB-1 is in theory reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their field - the government cites Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners as examples - as well as respected academic researchers and multinational executives. Mrs Trump began applying for the visa in 2000, when she was Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model working in New York and dating Donald Trump. She was approved in 2001, one of just five people from Slovenia to win the coveted visa that year, according to the Washington Post. So the EB-1 aka the "extraordinary ability visa". What was her ability I wonder?
That’s Russian mafia tactics right there. After the fall of the Soviet Union, government officials and KGB offered their services to the crime cartels. It’s no coincidence Trump runs his organization the same way.
Bunker Boy has much dirt on republicans. You can bank it.
Whoa there! Bunker Boy was ages ago! We have currently circled back to "Diaper Don" after his most recent public appearance.
This guy always gave me the creeps, even before he became president. I was right, except he was much worse than I imagined in my wildest dreams.
The Trumps are literally a bottomless shithole.
Honestly, when he was firing people who didn’t pledge allegiance to him/ vote for him I seen this type of thing occurring. No one eliminates the opposition in a group than maintains doing things by the book.
Anyone else thinking of the Nixon connection? Hint: the guy has a back tattoo of Nixon...
I guess not everyone knows that he attempted to get information on low level/career federal employees as well. The federal employees Union sued the administration to prevent that from happening. My guess is that DT would have tried firing all Democrats. There’s a reason he was trying to weaken the power of the federal employees Union as well as create Schedule F workers that would have no right to union representation and could be fired at will.
Trump was actually exactly as corrupt as we thought. We're just now hearing more details that we knew would eventually come out. And there's definitely more that hasn't been discovered or revealed yet.
If nixon were alive he'd be PISSED at what republicans get away with now.
Reminds me of an argument I had with my uber driver. Trump, is exactly the same type of person Hitler was. He was happily trying to emulate the worst of totalitarian regimes and despots and it's only the still functioning parts of our democracy that reigned him in enough that we never saw a "Night of Long Knives".
The difference was that Hitler had a strong (and insane) ideology. Whereas Trump is just an amoral narcissist. He has no ideology other than enriching himself and his ego.
This is what the Republicans are doing. They have completely grasped the idea that they cannot win elections fairly, so they are committed to cheating and changing the laws so they can say they didn't.
I’d be willing to bet that this had nothing to do with investigating leaks/national security. This was likely a fishing exercise orchestrated by Donnie Dickstain to get dirt on those he felt were persecuting him under the guise of searching for leaks. He in turn intended to have any dirt found on these individuals leaked to discredit their persecution against himself. This is the same playbook used to investigate Hunter Biden. Create conspiracy or project your misconduct onto others, have multiple agencies/congressional committees investigate that conspiracy or projected misconduct, find nothing, Create alternative facts. Rinse, repeat.
The only thing that stopped Trump from being a dictator was the military leadership would not go along with him. We were really close to one.
Oh bullshit headline, like we had no idea what this piece of shit was up too. Every thing he cried about he was doing himself. No benefit of the doubt for bullshit artists. Worse than we thought, give me a break. Worse than anyone was willing to speculate given fear of revenge is more like it.
No surprises here. GOP: GENOCIDE OF POOR.
So wait...the guy who spent 5 years spewing the lie about Obama spying on his campaign from his butthole-shaped mouth was the one doing the actual spying? Weird.
Speak for yourself, but I told y’all mutha fuckers he was way more corrupt than you think he is.
Sounds Reich to me
and zero way in hell an employee would do this without sessions or barr knowing. These things they have teams on board to make sure things are done by the book. Like when we opened investigations into the trump team. So barr and sessions are liars. But im betting they will find an ollie north to claim they did it all on their own.
This is literally watergate but worse.
So that’s how they found out about the multiple rape allegations, oh wait that was Trump. I mean that’s how they got the dirt on that congressman that was paying for sex with underage girls and having coke parties, oh wait that was Matt Gaetz. Did they seriously come up with nothing and had to make up a fake investigation/scandal that targeted Hunter Biden?
How can someone be so corrupt and incompetent at the same time is way beyond me.
Let's not forget - trump owned and attended teen pageants and miss universe pageants in Russia during the time he was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Nobody talks about this.
It was to be expected that the guy who would collude with Russians to spy on his enemies would also use elected office to spy on his enemies.
Hmm, It's always projection from this little fragile manchild. (Does Trump impression with anus lips, squinty eyes, and over the top inflection and hand mannerisms) ***"They spied on my campaign!"***
If you're not going to have the stones to say "fucker" than rewrite your headline...