“Anything going on today?”[i]– Hillary Clinton
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,”[ii]– Donald Trump
The war on Trump has now escalated to a history shattering precedent, as for the first time in America, a former US president has been convicted. Joe Biden’s campaign will inevitably refer to their opponent as ‘Trump the felon’. This strategy was illustrated in a speech that Biden delivered at a fundraiser event in Connecticut, in which he declared the astounding precedent of a former president being convicted of a felony, and then said, “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”[iii] Biden and his cronies are claiming that Trump denouncing the verdict against him as rigged is “reckless” and is proof that if elected this year, he will exact revenge on Biden and his ilk.
Yet, in this case, just like the other three cases brought against Trump, it is evident that what matters is tarnishing Trump’s already distasteful image before the election. There is a plethora of evidence that these cases are intended to interfere in the US electoral process, but one significant example is Special Counsel Jack Smith’s attempt to have the J6 case, in which Trump has been federally indicted for allegedly ‘inciting’ the riot, or, ‘insurrection’, at the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, through his malicious, conspiratorial lies surrounding his claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, judicial process sped up by fast tracking Trump’s appeal on the grounds that the J6 case be dismissed because he had presidential immunity on that day, since he was still the US president.[iv] The Supreme Court rejected Smith’s request. The time it takes to debate Trump’s presidential immunity claims is not up to Smith and his team, and Smith’s insistence that the matter be concluded as rapidly as possible, and then a trial be scheduled quickly after, is overt interference into the political process.
In their request to the Supreme Court, Smith writes that “The Nation has a compelling interest in seeing the charges brought to trial.”, and he also notes that “The charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy.”[v] Such appeals show a blurring line between advocating for the rule of law and its even application, and political advocacy on behalf of his appointer, Merrick Garland. The charge that Trump was striking at the heart of democracy is a matter of opinion, not a criminal accusation and it is a claim with no tangible, legal basis. Importantly, it is an opinion that burnishes the anti-Trump narrative, that he and his movement are an existential threat to American democracy.
Each case against Trump works backwards from the notion that he is guilty. In the minds of many, he is guilty and must be jailed. How that happens is irrelevant. Alvin Bragg’s hush money case is the weakest of the four indictments Trump faces. The primary claim is that Trump falsely covered up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to protect his 2016 campaign.[vi] Apparently, this is a violation of campaign finance law, and it is what amounts to a misdemeanor stretched into 34 felony counts. The prosecution argued that Trump’s hush money coverup was an attempt to prevent the story from breaking and hurting his bid for The White House.
The foundation of this conviction, that Trump covered up hush money payments to protect his 2016 campaign is laughable, magical thinking. Think about all the outrageous statements and antics from Trump during his 2016 campaign, from saying that he would bring back waterboarding to proclaiming that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he would still be elected, and then try to imagine a story breaking revealing that Trump had his lawyer, Michael Cohen, falsify hush money payments changing the minds of millions who intended to vote for Trump. If the Access Hollywood tape, which broke a month before the 2016 election, did not sway enough voters in key states to change the outcome of the election, who honestly believes that the Stormy Daniels scandal was going to do it.[vii]
The other problem with this case is that the 2016 Clinton campaign is guilty of the exact charge brought against Trump. The infamous Steele Dossier, a document laden with hokum and claims that Vladimir Putin had a film in which Trump was urinated on by Russian prostitutes, was funded by the Clinton campaign, and it was mislabeled as legal fees.[viii] The money trail starts with Clinton’s 2016 campaign, then it goes to the law firm Perkins Coie, the research company Fusion GPS, and finally, into the pockets of Richard Steele, who then put together a file on Trump that would make spy writers like Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy proud.[ix] The punishment the Clinton campaign received for this was a paltry fine of just over 100,000 dollars.[x]
The Steele Dossier was part of an effort by the Clinton campaign to influence the 2016 election by smearing Trump as a Russian. This was done for two reasons, to distract from Hillary Clinton’s past ties to Russia, like her husband’s payment for a speech he did in Moscow, and to concoct a conspiracy theory that Trump was Putin’s puppet. That this conspiracy, of which the Steele Dossier was an essential component, was an attempt to swing the election in Clinton’s favor. This is further proven by the revelation that Clinton had personally approved the publication of claims that Trump had a backchannel affiliation with Moscow based Alfa Bank. Slate first broke this story, despite it being complete bunk.[xi]
In the effort to paint Trump and his administration as beholden to Russia, Clinton is the primary actor, however, she is not being indicted for misreporting campaign funding like Trump is now convicted of. Clinton recently created a new line of merchandise, like mugs and t-shirts, emblazoned with an image of Clinton saying “turns our she was right about everything”, and when announcing the release of her new merch, she said that “With your purchase, you’ll support Onward Together groups defending democracy… and get a pretty great mug to sip tea from,”[xii] Seals in the audience clapped away, blissfully unaware that they are dupes. Clinton should be convicted alongside Trump, sipping from a mug in a prison cell. The fact that she isn’t, that she is instead doing media tours and pompous speeches about defending democracy and liberty, proves beyond reasonable doubt that Trump’s conviction is not about the rule of law and defending liberal democracy, it is about the permanent regime ridding US politics of a ruffian candidate who, although he mostly went along with their policy of empire, was a rogue who constantly embarrassed them, blurting out harsh realities and denigrating other political and media elites.
Above The Law
The wildest claim about Trump’s guilty verdict is that it shows, in the words of Biden, that “the American principle that no one is above the law.”[xiii] This is absurd, not only because Biden himself has engaged in criminality throughout his entire decades long career as a Senator in his home state of Delaware, including being beholden to the financial company MBNA, who were his largest contributors during his time as Senator, gutting death row rights for prisoners and being a principal architect of the 1994 Crime Bill.[xiv] Further, as president, Biden is complicit in myriad domestic and international crimes, like his continued weapons sales to countries like Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as retaining US occupation of Syria and Iraq, despite withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan, As Ralph Nader notes in response to Biden’s claim that Trump’s verdict is proof that “no one is above the law”, “The overwhelming truth is that the majority of criminal laws are not a deterrent to the serious violations of law committed by sitting presidents of the United States.”, and that “This includes the incumbent Joe Biden, especially with regard to foreign and military decisions.”[xvi] This echoes a statement made by Noam Chomsky in the 1990’s, where he declared that, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.”, and he briefly details the international crimes of Harry Truman, (dropping two atomic bombs and mounting a devastating counter-insurgency in Greece), Dwight Eisenhower, (the CIA backed coups in Guatemala, Iran and invading Lebanon in 1958),John F. Kennedy (invading Cuba and beginning the fruitless and murderous US campaign in Vietnam), Lyndon B. Johnson (invading the Dominican Republic and continuing the Vietnam war), Richard Nixon (invading Cambodia and waging a secret war in Vietnam with the help of then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger), Gerald Ford (backing the near genocidal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia), Jimmy Carter (continued support of Suharto’s invasion and subsequent occupation of East Timor), Ronald Reagan (backing coups and insurgencies in Central America), and George H.W. Bush (the first gulf war in 1991, backed by a lie about ‘incubator babies’).[xvii]
Moving further along to the presidents who followed Bush Sr., the list of crimes only gets longer. Firstly, Bill Clinton (enacting a punishing sanctions regime on Iraq and the devastating bombing of Serbia), George W. Bush (Invading Iraq, Afghanistan, and instituting a global torture regime), Barrack Obama, (Authorizing the extrajudicial killing of US citizens abroad, conducting military operations in countries in which the US has not declared war, like Pakistan and Syria, and invading and occupying Syria without congressional authority), Trump (Starving Venezuela with harsh sanctions in an effort to overthrow its leader, Maduro, and expanding US drone operations by up to 300%).[xviii] All these crimes, along with numerous others, are not seen as crimes by the illiberal liberal class. Trump’s most heinous crimes were, like myriad other atrocities, done in defense of the faux liberal world order, that delusional cretins like John G. Ikenberry work overtime to defend. For a person who many in influential positions say is a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, that one of his most egregious crimes is paying hush money to a porn star and covering it up is ludicrous.
Trump’s conviction is not about the rule of law finally being applied equally to all citizens, including political and financial elites, it is about targeting Trump and his political movement. This is why the argument that the rule of law being applied to Trump is a positive, as Ben Burgis and others claim, is misleading.[xix] Burgis argues that Trump’s apologists who say that Trump’s conviction is overreach are wrong, since presidents and ex-presidents should not be above the law, however, Burgis admits that, in response to an article published by The National Review’s Editorial Board which decries the double standard in convicting Trump, that while many Democratic party officials are guilty of crimes as well, “The reality is that nearly all presidents who break the law, Democrats and Republicans alike, get away with it. If you’re bothered by elite impunity, shouldn’t it be encouraging that at least one president is finally facing the music?” [xx]Anyone bothered by elite impunity should see the conviction of Trump for what it is, a one-time exception to the norm that former presidents and government officials are above the law is being made for Trump.
After Trump is either jailed or defeated in the upcoming election, a spree of investigations and indictments of people like Obama and Bush will not follow. Burgis admits that they are guilty of crimes that merit investigation and conviction, but it is mystifying that he does not see how Trump is being convicted as an exception, not as the start of a new norm of holding elites accountable. It is obvious that Trump’s conviction is not the start of justice being applied equally. As Glenn Greenwald argues in his book With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, that from the Nixon Watergate scandal to Iran-Contra and the Bush era torture regime, Washington elites have escaped any scrutiny and justice for their horrendous crimes and violations of the US constitution.[xxi] Also, in a recent episode of his podcast, he argued that although he would be the first to cheer if Trump’s conviction was the beginning of justice for all, not some, however, the prosecutions of Trump are evidently about an exception being made for him and his allies, like Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, who have been ordered to serve four months in federal prison for violating congressional subpoenas from the J6 Committee, although there have been many examples of government officials flouting congressional subpoenas, and they have not faced any prison time.[xxii] Eric Holder, Anne Gorsuch, Harriet Mires and Joshua Bolten were all found in contempt of congress and were not prosecuted.[xxiii] Recently Hunter Biden declined a request by House Republicans to provide testimony, and the House is voting to hold him in contempt, however, it is unlikely that the same media complex who cheered the conviction of Trump and the imprisonment of Navarro and the upcoming jailing of Bannon will argue for equal treatment of Biden.[xxiv]
There is a blatant double standard in how Trump and his associates are treated by the US judicial system and how his opposition is treated. Burgis acknowledges this double standard, and he writes that “The solution to that double standard, though, isn’t to let Trump off the hook for conspiring to overturn a democratic election. It’s to indict George W. Bush. One president finally being subject to prosecution for some of his crimes isn’t nearly enough, but it’s a start.”[xxv] There are many problems with this statement. The main issue is that Trump is not being prosecuted for his worst crimes. He has been convicted for a misdemeanor that was distorted into 34 felony counts. It is not a start.
For it to be a start, there needs to be a clamoring for the indictment of Bush and Obama, and there will never be. Just like Nixon was about to be convicted for the least of his crimes, Watergate, Trump has been convicted of the least of his crimes. During the Watergate scandal, many saw the investigation of Nixon as proof that no one is above the law, including the president. In his reaction to Trump’s conviction, David Greenberg refers to this, writing that “Nixon’s good fortune is Trump’s misfortune. He now bears the permanent stain of being the first president convicted of a felony. That reaffirms — or so it seems for now — the Watergate-era precept that no one is above the law.”[xxvi] By Nixon’s good fortune, Greenberg is referring to Ford’s pardon of Nixon. Trump cannot hope to receive a similar blessing from Biden. What Greenberg gets wrong is that Nixon was above the law, even when he was about to be charged for his crimes around the Watergate break in and the subsequent cover up. Even if Nixon was convicted and jailed for that, he would have still escaped justice for his myriad crimes in Vietnam, Indonesia, Chile, Cambodia, and Laos.
Even though Trump has been convicted, it is not for his most egregious crimes. As Chris Hedges points out, the Trump problem is like the Nixon problem, and when Nixon started going after other elites, especially in the Democratic party and the corporate press, he was prosecuted. The same logic applies to the prosecution of Trump, because “He has to go, not because he is a criminal, but because he is not trusted by the ruling crime syndicate to manage the firm.”[xxvii] Trump may be pliable, but he is uncontrollable.
Conclusion
The long-standing norm that political opponents should not be investigated or prosecuted that existed until Trump ran for president has been shattered, but only in the case of Trump. Violating this norm and treating Trump as an aberration that, once removed from politics, will dissipate along with his political movement. Trump’s conviction in New York undermines both the other three cases pending against him, as it does not matter if they are stronger, that his first conviction was in what even some liberal legal analysts say is the weakest of the four charges against him will hinder the others and make it difficult to convince voters who are not ardent Democrats that the prosecutions are not purely political.
Even those who have no love for Trump recognize the danger of relentlessly pursuing such a weak case against Trump. For example, David Orentlicher, a CNN analyst noted that it is not just wrong for Alvin Bragg to have brought such flimsy charges, but that “it’s also unnecessary — charges can be brought for Trump’s serious misconduct on other matters. Unfortunately, bringing misguided charges is a recurring theme with Trump and has compromised the effort to hold him accountable.”[xxviii] Further, this feeds into Trump’s primary narrative about his candidacy and the reason for his legal woes, that the deep state is out to get him. Trump’s supporters will rally to support him, as they did immediately after his conviction, leading to his 2024 campaign raising 141 million dollars in the month of May alone.
Trump is not only being made a martyr, but, as Rich Lowry of The National Review notes, he is being turned into a folk hero, and his conviction in New York, with more legal cases to come, plays into his legend. Lowry writes that “A 2024 loss, with the politically motivated and legally outlandish trial having played a part, will do the same.”[xxix] If Trump does lose in November, then his conviction will be seen as a move by the Biden regime to impede his candidacy. Thus even if he does not claim that the election is stolen from him, which he probably will, he will have ample grounds to claim that it was at least rigged against him, as he did in 2020 because of the coordinated move by social media platforms and the corporate press to censor the New York Post and to smear their reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop as ‘Russian disinformation’, though it was recently used by the FBI as evidence in Biden’s trial, in which they declared it authentic.[xxx]
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley also makes this point, that a Biden victory is also a win for Trump’s victim narrative, as he writes, after outlining the main problems he sees in the New York conviction of Trump, “But if Biden wins the election before this conviction is overturned, history’s judgment will be deafening.”[xxxi] History’s judgment may take many decades, but it will surely be deafening, especially if Trump runs again in 2028, which he is likely to do if he loses to Biden this year. The political movement that Trump has created transcends traditional politics and that is why he is so confounding and is why his political opposition has failed at every turn to take him out. Lowry notes Trump as a transcendental phenomenon when he writes that “In other words, a defeated Trump may yet again not be diminished by his defeat because his phenomenon exists on a different plane than conventional politics.” He concludes by noting that If it comes to that, don’t count Trump out in 2028.”[xxxii] This may be the gravest consequence of this and other convictions of Trump. Instead of dampening his support, it will uplift him to extraordinary heights and lead to his nomination again in 2028. Since there is no law barring him from running if he loses in 2024, he would be well within his rights to run again. That is how, even if Biden does eke out another victory over Trump in November, the dirty tactics of Trump’s opposition will once again boost fervor for him, it will not reverse it.
[i] Kurtz, Judy. “Hillary Clinton Hawks ‘She Was Right about Everything’ Mugs after Trump Conviction.” The Hill. The Hill, May 31, 2024. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4697111-hillary-clinton-trump-conviction-new-york-hush-money-trial/.
[ii] Quinn, Melissa. “Trump Denounces Verdict as a ‘Disgrace’ and Vows ‘This Is Long from Over’ after Felony Conviction – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, May 30, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-reaction-guilty-verdict-new-york-criminal-trial/.
[iii] Collinson, Stephen. “Why Biden’s Escalation on Trump Guilty Verdict Is so Significant | CNN Politics.” CNN, June 4, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/04/politics/biden-slams-trump-convicted-felon-analysis/index.html.
[iv] Hurley, Lawrence. “Special Counsel Jack Smith Urges Supreme Court to Reject Trump Bid to Delay Election Trial.” NBC News, February 14, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/special-counsel-jack-smith-urges-supreme-court-reject-trump-bid-delay-rcna138906.
[v] Hurley. Special Counsel Jack Smith Urges Supreme Court to Reject Trump Bid to Delay Election Trial.”- The letter Smith and his legal team wrote is attached in this article.
[vi] Becket, Stefan. “What Was Trump Convicted Of? Details on the 34 Counts and His Guilty Verdict – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, May 31, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-charges-conviction-guilty-verdict/.
[vii] Wolf, Zachary B. “Analysis: The Moment Trump Defied Gravity Is Coming back to Haunt Him | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 4, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/04/politics/access-hollywood-trump-what-matters/index.html.
[viii] Cohen, Marshall. “The Steele Dossier: A Reckoning.” CNN, November 18, 2021. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/steele-dossier-reckoning/index.html.
[ix] Taibbi, Matt. Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another. New York: Or Books, 2019
[x] Montellaro , Zach . “Federal Campaign Watchdog Fines DNC, Clinton Campaign over Dossier Spending Disclosure.” Politico, March 30, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/dnc-clinton-campaign-fine-dossier-spending-disclosure-00021910.
[xi] Cohen, Marshall. “Hillary Clinton Personally Approved Plan to Share Trump-Russia Allegation with the Press in 2016, Campaign Manager Says | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 20, 2022.
[xii] Kurtz. “Hillary Clinton Hawks ‘She Was Right about Everything’ Mugs after Trump Conviction.”
[xiii] Hammond, Elise, and Nikki Carvajal. “Biden Says Trump Verdict Shows No One Is above the Law | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 31, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/biden-comment-on-trump-verdict/index.html
[xiv] CBS News. “MBNA Paid Biden’s Son as Biden Backed Bill.” http://www.cbsnews.com, August 25, 2008. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mbna-paid-bidens-son-as-biden-backed-bill/., Craven, Jasper. “Hunter Biden Snagged a Cushy Bank Job after Law School. He’s Been Trading on His Name Ever Since.” Politico, January 26, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/26/hunter-biden-first-nepotism-job-00137308., Eisen, Lauren-Brooke. “The 1994 Crime Bill and Beyond: How Federal Funding Shapes the Criminal Justice System.” Brennan Center for Justice, September 9, 2019. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice., and Segura, Liliana. “Gutting Habeas Corpus: The inside Story of How Bill Clinton Sacrificed Prisoners’ Rights for Political Gain.” The Intercept, May 4, 2016. https://theintercept.com/2016/05/04/the-untold-story-of-bill-clintons-other-crime-bill/.
[xvi] Nader, Ralph. “‘No One Is above the Law’ – Really Mr. Biden?” CounterPunch.org, June 3, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/03/no-one-is-above-the-law-really-mr-biden/.
[xvii] Chomsky, Noam. “If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied….” chomsky.info, 1990. https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/.
[xviii] Bovard, James. “Bill Clinton’s Serbian War Atrocities Exposed in New Indictment.” CounterPunch.org, June 30, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/30/bill-clintons-serbian-war-atrocities-exposed-in-new-indictment/., Gibbons, Chip. “When Iraq Was Clinton’s War.” jacobin.com, May 6, 2016. https://jacobin.com/2016/05/war-iraq-bill-clinton-sanctions-desert-fox., The Clinton White House outlined its policy against Iraq, including harsh sanctions, in the following document: The White House. “CONTAINING SADDAM HUSSEIN’S IRAQ.” clintonwhitehouse5.archives.gov, December 19, 1998. https://clintonwhitehouse5.archives.gov/WH/EOP/NSC/html/nsc-11.html., Cohn, Marjorie. “For 20 Years, Team Bush Has Escaped Prosecution for Their War Crimes in Iraq.” Truthout, March 20, 2023. https://truthout.org/articles/for-20-years-team-bush-has-escaped-prosecution-for-war-crimes-in-iraq/., Haghdoosti, Sara. “In Case You Forgot: George W. Bush Is a Horrific War Criminal.” jacobin.com, March 20, 2023.https://jacobin.com/2023/03/george-w-bush-iraq-war-crimes-lies-accountability-reparations-violence., Roth, Kenneth. “Barack Obama’s Shaky Legacy on Human Rights.” Human Rights Watch, January 9, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/09/barack-obamas-shaky-legacy-human-rights., Williams, Prince. “Barack Obama Is a War Criminal.” Harvard Political Review, September 29, 2021. https://harvardpolitics.com/obama-war-criminal/., and Hedges, Chris. “The Donald Trump Problem.” ScheerPost, March 27, 2023. https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/26/chris-hedges-the-donald-trump-problem/#:~:text=Donald%20Trump%20is%20not%20being.
[xix] Brescia, Ray. “Trump’s Verdict Was No ‘Disgrace.’ the Rule of Law Won.” The Daily Beast, May 31, 2024, sec. politics. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-verdict-was-no-disgrace-the-rule-of-law-won., Burgis, Ben. “The Rule of Law Being Applied to Trump Is Good.” jacobin.com, May 31, 2024. https://jacobin.com/2024/05/trump-law-criminal-conviction-presidents.
[xx] Burgis. “The Rule of Law Being Applied to Trump Is Good.”
[xxi] Greenwald, Glenn. With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2013.
[xxii] Greenwald. “Trump Trial Guilty Verdict: The Legal and Political Implications ahead of the 2024 Election.” YouTube, May 31, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQy6Hw-VYA&t=831s.
[xxiii] Legare, Robert. “Trump Ally Steve Bannon Ordered to Report to Prison July 1 in Contempt of Congress Case – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, June 6, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-bannon-sentence-prison-contempt-of-congress/.
[xxiv] Bresnahan, John. “Miers, Bolten Contempt Filings Delayed.” Politico, November 9, 2007. https://www.politico.com/story/2007/09/miers-bolten-contempt-filings-delayed-005750., Pilkington, Ed. “Eric Holder Held in Contempt of Congress after Historic Vote.” The Guardian, June 28, 2012, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/28/eric-holder-contempt-historic-congress-vote., and Russakoff, Dale. “Prosecution of Gorsuch Ruled Out.” Washington Post, December 25, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/12/18/prosecution-of-gorsuch-ruled-out/d8a72321-c45b-42b1-85f9-1099a6bd14e9/.
[xxv] Burgis. “The Rule of Law Being Applied to Trump Is Good.”
[xxvi] Politico Magazine, and David Greenberg. “22 Experts Predict What the Trump Conviction Will Mean for 2024 and Beyond.” Politico, May 31, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/31/trump-trial-verdict-conviction-consequences-00160933
[xxvii] Hedges. “The Donald Trump Problem.”
[xxviii] Orentlicher, David. “Opinion: Why the Manhattan District Attorney’s Case against Trump Is so Weak.” CNN, April 5, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/05/opinions/weakness-manhattan-district-attorney-trump-case-orentlicher/index.html.
[xxix] Lowry, Rich. “They’ve Made Trump into a Folk Hero.” National Review, June 10, 2024. https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/06/theyve-made-trump-into-a-folk-hero/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in-tag&utm_term=third.
[xxx] NBC News. “Hunter Biden Trial Highlights: FBI Agent Testifies about Hunter Biden’s Drug Use and Large Cash Withdrawals.” NBC News, June 4, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/live-blog/hunter-biden-trial-live-update-rcna155305.
[xxxi] Turley, Jonathan. “Bragg’s Thrill Kill in Manhattan Could Prove Short-Lived on Appeal.” The Hill, June 1, 2024. https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4697118-braggs-thrill-kill-in-manhattan-could-prove-short-lived-on-appeal/.
[xxxii] Lowry. “They’ve Made Trump into a Folk Hero.”
References
Becket, Stefan. “What Was Trump Convicted Of? Details on the 34 Counts and His Guilty Verdict – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, May 31, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-charges-conviction-guilty-verdict/.
Bovard, James. “Bill Clinton’s Serbian War Atrocities Exposed in New Indictment.” CounterPunch.org, June 30, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/30/bill-clintons-serbian-war-atrocities-exposed-in-new-indictment/.
Brescia, Ray. “Trump’s Verdict Was No ‘Disgrace.’ the Rule of Law Won.” The Daily Beast, May 31, 2024, sec. politics. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-verdict-was-no-disgrace-the-rule-of-law-won.
Bresnahan, John. “Miers, Bolten Contempt Filings Delayed.” Politico, November 9, 2007. https://www.politico.com/story/2007/09/miers-bolten-contempt-filings-delayed-005750.
Burgis, Ben. “The Rule of Law Being Applied to Trump Is Good.” jacobin.com, May 31, 2024. https://jacobin.com/2024/05/trump-law-criminal-conviction-presidents.
CBS News. “MBNA Paid Biden’s Son as Biden Backed Bill.” http://www.cbsnews.com, August 25, 2008. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mbna-paid-bidens-son-as-biden-backed-bill/.
Chomsky, Noam. “If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied….” chomsky.info, 1990. https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/.
Cohen, Marshall. “The Steele Dossier: A Reckoning.” CNN, November 18, 2021. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/steele-dossier-reckoning/index.html.
Cohen, Marshall. “Hillary Clinton Personally Approved Plan to Share Trump-Russia Allegation with the Press in 2016, Campaign Manager Says | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 20, 2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/20/politics/hillary-clinton-robby-mook-fbi/index.html.
Cohn, Marjorie. “For 20 Years, Team Bush Has Escaped Prosecution for Their War Crimes in Iraq.” Truthout, March 20, 2023. https://truthout.org/articles/for-20-years-team-bush-has-escaped-prosecution-for-war-crimes-in-iraq/.
Collinson, Stephen. “Why Biden’s Escalation on Trump Guilty Verdict Is so Significant | CNN Politics.” CNN, June 4, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/04/politics/biden-slams-trump-convicted-felon-analysis/index.html.
Craven, Jasper. “Hunter Biden Snagged a Cushy Bank Job after Law School. He’s Been Trading on His Name Ever Since.” Politico, January 26, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/26/hunter-biden-first-nepotism-job-00137308.
Eisen, Lauren-Brooke. “The 1994 Crime Bill and Beyond: How Federal Funding Shapes the Criminal Justice System.” Brennan Center for Justice, September 9, 2019. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice.
Gibbons, Chip. “When Iraq Was Clinton’s War.” jacobin.com, May 6, 2016. https://jacobin.com/2016/05/war-iraq-bill-clinton-sanctions-desert-fox.
Greenwald, Glenn. “Trump Trial Guilty Verdict: The Legal and Political Implications ahead of the 2024 Election.” YouTube, May 31, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQy6Hw-VYA&t=831s.
———. With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2013.
Haghdoosti, Sara. “In Case You Forgot: George W. Bush Is a Horrific War Criminal.” jacobin.com, March 20, 2023. https://jacobin.com/2023/03/george-w-bush-iraq-war-crimes-lies-accountability-reparations-violence.
Hammond, Elise, and Nikki Carvajal. “Biden Says Trump Verdict Shows No One Is above the Law | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 31, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/biden-comment-on-trump-verdict/index.html.
Hedges, Chris. “The Donald Trump Problem.” ScheerPost, March 27, 2023. https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/26/chris-hedges-the-donald-trump-problem/#:~:text=Donald%20Trump%20is%20not%20being.
Hurley, Lawrence. “Special Counsel Jack Smith Urges Supreme Court to Reject Trump Bid to Delay Election Trial.” NBC News, February 14, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/special-counsel-jack-smith-urges-supreme-court-reject-trump-bid-delay-rcna138906.
Kurtz, Judy. “Hillary Clinton Hawks ‘She Was Right about Everything’ Mugs after Trump Conviction.” The Hill. The Hill, May 31, 2024. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4697111-hillary-clinton-trump-conviction-new-york-hush-money-trial/.
Legare, Robert. “Trump Ally Steve Bannon Ordered to Report to Prison July 1 in Contempt of Congress Case – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, June 6, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-bannon-sentence-prison-contempt-of-congress/.
Lowry, Rich. “They’ve Made Trump into a Folk Hero.” National Review, June 10, 2024. https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/06/theyve-made-trump-into-a-folk-hero/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in-tag&utm_term=third.
Montellaro , Zach . “Federal Campaign Watchdog Fines DNC, Clinton Campaign over Dossier Spending Disclosure.” Politico, March 30, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/dnc-clinton-campaign-fine-dossier-spending-disclosure-00021910.
Nader, Ralph. “‘No One Is above the Law’ – Really Mr. Biden?” CounterPunch.org, June 3, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/03/no-one-is-above-the-law-really-mr-biden/.
NBC News. “Hunter Biden Trial Highlights: FBI Agent Testifies about Hunter Biden’s Drug Use and Large Cash Withdrawals.” NBC News, June 4, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/live-blog/hunter-biden-trial-live-update-rcna155305.
Orentlicher, David. “Opinion: Why the Manhattan District Attorney’s Case against Trump Is so Weak.” CNN, April 5, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/05/opinions/weakness-manhattan-district-attorney-trump-case-orentlicher/index.html.
Pilkington, Ed. “Eric Holder Held in Contempt of Congress after Historic Vote.” The Guardian, June 28, 2012, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/28/eric-holder-contempt-historic-congress-vote.
Politico Magazine, and David Greenberg. “22 Experts Predict What the Trump Conviction Will Mean for 2024 and Beyond.” Politico, May 31, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/31/trump-trial-verdict-conviction-consequences-00160933.
Quinn, Melissa. “Trump Denounces Verdict as a ‘Disgrace’ and Vows ‘This Is Long from Over’ after Felony Conviction – CBS News.” http://www.cbsnews.com, May 30, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-reaction-guilty-verdict-new-york-criminal-trial/.
Roth, Kenneth. “Barack Obama’s Shaky Legacy on Human Rights.” Human Rights Watch, January 9, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/09/barack-obamas-shaky-legacy-human-rights.
Russakoff, Dale. “Prosecution of Gorsuch Ruled Out.” Washington Post, December 25, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/12/18/prosecution-of-gorsuch-ruled-out/d8a72321-c45b-42b1-85f9-1099a6bd14e9/.
Segura, Liliana. “Gutting Habeas Corpus: The inside Story of How Bill Clinton Sacrificed Prisoners’ Rights for Political Gain.” The Intercept, May 4, 2016. https://theintercept.com/2016/05/04/the-untold-story-of-bill-clintons-other-crime-bill/.
Taibbi, Matt. Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another. New York: Or Books, 2019.
The White House. “CONTAINING SADDAM HUSSEIN’S IRAQ.” clintonwhitehouse5.archives.gov, December 19, 1998. https://clintonwhitehouse5.archives.gov/WH/EOP/NSC/html/nsc-11.html.
Turley, Jonathan. “Bragg’s Thrill Kill in Manhattan Could Prove Short-Lived on Appeal.” The Hill, June 1, 2024. https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4697118-braggs-thrill-kill-in-manhattan-could-prove-short-lived-on-appeal/.
Williams, Prince. “Barack Obama Is a War Criminal.” Harvard Political Review, September 29, 2021. https://harvardpolitics.com/obama-war-criminal/.
Wolf, Zachary B. “Analysis: The Moment Trump Defied Gravity Is Coming back to Haunt Him | CNN Politics.” CNN, May 4, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/04/politics/access-hollywood-trump-what-matters/index.html.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
Leave a comment