Timeline
Free Speech DOES NOT Excuse Sedition
Trump's lawyers are in a bind. The only defense they're leaning on is the right to freedom of speech.
In a desperate grasp for any kind of defense of his seditious activity, Trump's team has sunk to using the most non-sensical argument yet. Trump will soon find out that free speech does not protect criminal activity. "There is no First Amendment privilege to commit crimes just because you did it by speaking," as former federal prosecutor Samuel Buell stated.
An Unprecedented Assault on Democracy
Trump and six uncharged co-conspirators knowingly lied about mass voter fraud as part of a detailed plan "to remain in power," despite knowing he had lost the election.
The four-count federal indictment includes conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiring against people’s civil right to have their vote counted. The indictment accuses Trump of orchestrating "an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.”
Doubling Down on Documents Charges
The special counsel has added new charges on one of Trump's four ongoing investigations. The 37 criminal counts on the Classified Documents Case will now be 40.
When a third separate indictment about Trump's plot to overturn the 2020 election was expected, special counsel Jack Smith, instead, doubled down on a previous indictment. New evidence has been found that shows intentional acts on Trump's part to obstruct the recovery of the stolen classified documents he stashed in Mar-a-Lago. Specifically, IT and maintenance crew employees were forced to delete 45 days of security footage.
Third Indictment Looming
Donald Trump's lawyers met with special counsel Jack Smith after receiving a letter last week notifying Trump that he was the target of an investigation on the plan to overturn the 2020 election.
Although no indictments were charged on Thursday, this will be the third separate case charging Trump when indictments are returned. All signs are pointing to a bad outcome for the former president. From Rudy Guiliani, Trump's former lawyer, admitting to lying about election fraud in Georgia; to Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, cooperating with the federal Jan. 6 investigation.
Michigan's Seditious Sixteen
Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes, but that did not stop 16 fake electors who conspired to overturn the election by forging election certificates that falsely claimed Trump won the 2020 election.
Trump's most loyal supporters often end up in jail. Eleven of his top associates have been criminally indicted and over a 1,000 January 6 rioters have been arrested. Now add 16 GOP fake electors charged with 8 felony counts for submitting to the U.S. Senate and the National Archives forged election law documents falsely claiming that Trump won the state and that they were Michigan's electors “duly organized” and in “the manner provided by law.”
Trump is a Criminal Target—Again.
After a weekend vowing to prosecute his enemies, Trump announced that he is the target of federal prosecutors investigating the January 6 Insurrection.
Trump and his GOP enablers are failing to intimidate federal and state prosecutors with threats of vengeance and retribution. Trump has already been indicted by two separate grand juries and is likely to be indicted in two additional courts for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Trump's target letter is further proof that prosecutors have the evidence to indict Trump in federal court, and the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected Trump's attempt to block prosecution by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Insane, Ludicrous, and Absurd
For six hours, Jim Jordan and House Republicans attacked Trump's appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray with conspiracy theories, threats, and accusations of political bias.
Once the party of law and order, Republicans are now threatening to defund the FBI in an attempt to defend Trump for his mishandling of classified documents and for attempting to overturn the 2020 elections. A lifelong Republican, FBI director characterized GOP conspiracy theories that the FBI orchestrated the January 6 Attack on the Capitol and is unfairly targeting conservatives as “Insane,” “Ludicrous,” and “Absurd.”
Caught on Camera
The search warrant authorizing the search of Trump's residence lists video evidence that his indicted valet moved boxes in order to hide classified documents from Trump's own attorney and the FBI.
As the evidence mounts on Trump's efforts to obstruct justice and his refusal to turn over federal documents, the special prosecutor has been targeting Trump's lawyers Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. It has also been recently revealed that Trump's senior advisor Mike Roman and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani are cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Supreme Court Goes Medieval
The Supreme Court rulings are a direct assault on the legal protections for people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, and young people.
The conservative majority on the Supreme Court is determined to legislate from the bench. The court ignored decades of precedent by overturning affirmative action in college admissions, overruling laws that protect same-sex couples, and ignoring the legal authority granted by the HEROES Act to cancel student debt. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor exposed the hypocrisy of the court who “subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society.”
Caught on Tape
The former President was recorded telling members of his staff about classified documents that he took after his term about a military offensive on Iran.
Trump just cannot seem to stop confessing to his crimes on tape. This conversation, which originally occurred in 2021, clearly lays out Trump's line of thinking and his obvious disregard for the law. In the tape, Trump confessed to not only knowingly taking the classified documents after the end of his term, but still deliberately showing "secret information" to staffers who didn't have the clearance. Then, he again brags about how he could have declassified it as president, but not anymore.
Supreme Hypocrisy
Republican leaders attack the FBI and DOJ for investigating Trump's crimes and ignore the obvious ethics violations of conservative Supreme Court justices.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury gifts from GOP billionaire donors while Republican leaders make unsupported accusations against President Biden. The evidence Donald Trump committed crimes is overwhelming, but, instead, Republicans choose to investigate the FBI. Rep. George Santos is under multiple criminal indictments, but House Republicans vote to censure Rep. Adam Schiff in revenge for the House impeachment of Trump.
FBI Delayed Trump Investigation
Top DOJ and FBI officials feared appearing partisan and blocked early proposals to investigate Trump and his allies for more than a year.
One full year after the January 6 Insurrection, only four prosecutors were assigned to investigate Trump. This long delay prevented agents from interviewing key witnesses and securing evidence such as email and phone records. Only after being publicly embarrassed by the House January 6 Committee and investigative journalists, did the DOJ leadership determine there was sufficient evidence to investigate Trump directly. Jack Smith was appointed as special counsel in November of 2022.
The Emperor Has No Clothes
On Tuesday, June 13th, Donald Trump was arrested and booked in a Miami federal court but his promised protesters failed to show up.
Trump is still the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee, but after being arrested twice and facing multiple criminal investigations, his grip on the Republican party may be slipping. Trump called for “protest, protest, protest,” at his Miami criminal booking, but only a handful of his supporters bothered to show. GOP political insiders are privately worried that Trump’s legal problems will hurt them in the 2024 elections and some Republican leaders are starting to publicly speak out, including Rep. Don Bacon who said of Trump, “I just think the emperor has no clothes.”
Trump and GOP Promise Political Violence
Experts on political violence warn that GOP leaders issuing public threats encourages deadly attacks on public figures and institutions by violent extremists.
In the wake of the 37 count federal indictment, Donald Trump and his Republican supporters are calling for "War" and threatening public officials and the news media with gun violence. Rep. Andy Biggs tweeted, "Eye for an eye." Trump's future daughter in-law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, posted on Instagram Trump's photo with "RETRIBUTION IS COMING." And failed Arizona candidate, Kari Lake directly threatened the President, the DOJ, and the news media with gun violence adding “That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”
Trump Indictment Unsealed
“The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he had taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith, unsealed a detailed 49 page indictment that incriminates Trump using his own words from public statements, text messages, and voice recordings. The 38 count indictment is as follows:
Counts 1-31: Willful Retention of National Defense Information
Count 32: Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
Count 33: Withholding a Document or Record
Count 34: Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record
Count 35: Concealing a Document in a Federal Investigation
Count 36: Scheme to Conceal
Counts 37: False Statements and Representations
Trump Indicted—Again!
Trump has been ordered to surrender to a Federal court on Tuesday to answer for illegally retaining more than 300 classified documents.
A federal grand jury in Florida has indicted Trump on seven charges, including the Espionage Act making false statements and conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding. The evidence against Trump is compelling, including federal agents discovering over 150 sensitive documents from his Florida home at Mar-a-Lago and a voice recording at Trump's club at Bedminster, N.J. where the former president knowingly shared classified documents and can be heard bragging that, “As president, I could have declassified them, now I can’t.”
Will Meadows Testify Against Trump?
The Department of Justice may be close to asking a grand jury to indict Trump for obstruction of justice and violating the Espionage Act.
Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been cooperating with the special prosecutor and may have cut a plea deal in exchange for testifying against his former boss. The January 6 Committee previously revealed that Meadows asked Trump for a pardon. Other revelations include that a second grand jury has been hearing testimony in Florida and that over two dozen secret service agents assigned to Trump have been interviewed by the special prosecutor.
Trump Flooded by Legal Problems
A suspicious flood at Mar-a-Lago is further evidence that Trump may be guilty of obstruction of justice.
Two months after the FBI seized classified documents from Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago, critical surveillance footage of moving classified documents was lost when an employee "suspiciously" flooded the server room. This convenient flood is further evidence that Trump, his employees, and even his lawyers may be guilty of obstructing the DOJ investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents. Especially in politics, the cover up can be worse than the crime.
Trump Caught on Tape—Again!
The DOJ special prosecutor has a recording of Trump bragging about keeping a classified military document about Iran.
Donald Trump has a habit of confessing his crimes on tape. This includes the Access Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about groping women. There is the recording of Trump pressuring Georgia's Secretary of State to "find 11,780 votes." On January 6, Trump told his supporters to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell." And in Trump's most recent confession caught on tape, he acknowledges that he illegally held onto a classified national security document.
White Supremacy—Not Just for White People
Nick Fuentes, Enrique Tarrio, and the Texas mall shooter are part of a disturbing trend of non-whites being radicalized by a violent, right-wing ideology.
White supremacy groups and neo-Nazis are trying to broaden their appeal and that often means recruiting non-whites to support their extremist views. In 2017, the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer started a Spanish language version. White supremacy is often rooted in personal insecurity, and non-whites are sometimes attracted to the hate of white supremacist movements to feel some kind of power and exert dominance over other groups such as immigrants, Jews, and women.