February 4, 2023
IT'S A RICO CASE:
Trump 2016 Campaign to Pay $450,000 to Settle Non-Disclosure Case (Zoe Tillman, February 3, 2023, Bloomberg)
Former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a years-long legal fight over non-disclosure agreements that it required workers and volunteers sign, new court documents show.
Jamie Raskin on why Trump charges are 'almost inevitable' (Jordan Rubin, 2/03/23, MSNBC)
Jordan Rubin: Obviously, you believe that there's a good case that Donald Trump and others have committed federal crimes. What would it mean if charges did not ultimately come?Rep. Jamie Raskin: Even before entertaining that hypothetical challenge, I'd rather focus on the idea that it's almost inevitable that there will be charges, because the evidence is just so overwhelming.Interference with a federal proceeding -- in this case, the joint session of Congress, counting Electoral College votes -- was not only the crime, but it was the whole point of "Stop the Steal." That was Donald Trump's complete and obvious and naked intent to get people to go in and interfere with the counting of votes and to stop it, delay it, postpone it by any means necessary. So that just seems completely straightforward. And that's just one of the referrals.We think there will be charges probably on some things we didn't even have, because we don't have all of the prosecutorial resources that the Department of Justice has, and so we think they probably collected a lot more evidence than we got.Now, if he were to somehow escape the grasp of the criminal justice system here, this would be a painful thing for the country and for millions and millions of people who have held on to the idea that we have one system of justice. And it doesn't make sense that more than 900 people can be charged and prosecuted and convicted and sentenced for things like assaulting federal officers and destroying federal property and seditious conspiracy, which means conspiracy to overthrow the government, and yet the guy who's at the very top of the pyramid, who set all of the events into motion, somehow walks off scot free. I mean, I think that is a blow to our justice system.On the other hand, he's facing lots of other criminal charges and civil charges around the country. He's basically a one-man crime wave. And so he might get his comeuppance in some other jurisdictions first, I don't know about that. But ultimately, we have to believe that the justice system is going to work.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 4, 2023 12:00 AM
