Denying The Denials

"[You are acceding to pressure from] left-wing activists and former prosecutors in your office."

Moreover, you are apparently attempting to upgrade a misdemeanor charge to a felony using an untested legal theory."

Republican Jim Jordan James Comer, Bryan Steil letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

 "It's a very sad time for America to go through what we're going through now. People are being divided, and they think that justice might be biased."

"We have to make sure that we wait to see what comes out next week, and I hope they do their job. And I’ve said this, no one's above the law, but no one should be targeted by the law, especially through the political process."

"So we'll just wait and see next week. I hope they are very thorough."

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va

New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The disintegration of non-partisan cooperation and mutual respect in the United States is continuing on its dysfunctional trajectory with the historic indictment proceeding apace of a former president, one who foresees no impediment in his fraught position as the Republican candidate challenging the Democratic incumbent for the presidency in 2024. The more he portrays himself as an innocent who is being relentlessly pursued in a partisan vendetta, the greater his public appeal to Republican voters in a polarized country.

Prosecutions await Donald Trump at both the State and Federal level. In New York -- politically and legally dominated by Democrats -- the former President, detested by as many as admire and support him, will face a weighted partisan divide where every state judge with the potential to hear his case was elected on a partisan vote. "It would take a lot of courage for a judge to apply the law fairly and potentially ignore the voters desire for vengeance", Henry Olson wrote in the Washington Post.

In some arcane cases prosecutors are known for a tendency to expose jurors to a plethora of charges to present an aura of suspicion that with anyone who might have criminally offended the law in so many ways, there must be fire to cause the smoke alerting justice to wrongs that require righting. In the subtle influencing of jurors this produces the belief that with so many criminal charges the defendant must surely be guilty -- of something. Making conviction on one or a few of the charges a likelihood waiting to happen.

The current prosecution is that of a $130,000 payoff to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent a scandal prior to the 2016 presidential election; "hush money" to ensure the woman was silent about an affair with Trump. The money, according to Trump, was meant to put a halt to "false and extortionist accusations". The payment itself is not illegal but the breaking of campaign finance laws relating to the payout makes it a problem of criminal intent.

Falsifying business records is also a criminal event and the hush money had been recorded as "legal fees". Still not a felony in New York, unless it can be linked to a plan to shield discovery of a true crime; possible violation of campaign finance laws. The letter forwarded to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, responsible for prosecuting the charges, criticized him as well for pursuing a claimed federal campaign finance violation federal prosecutors had refused to prosecute.

The case rests solely on the evidence given by onetime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the go-between who handed the hush money to Daniels and for which he was later reimbursed partially by the Trump organization. Brag is viewed as a crusading Democratic district attorney who has targeted Trump and who boasted of his success in going after Trump during his campaign for election to the district attorney position.

Depending on the testimony of Michael Cohen, once Trump's trusted personal lawyer. to now sink the man he worked for will be a tricky sleight-of-hand operation. How credible can a man be who has spent time in prison for admitting to breaking campaign finance laws, along with tax evasion and fraud. A man who first denied paying Daniels, then denied being reimbursed, denied Trump was involved with the payment, all of which denials were subsequently backtracked. Denying the denials.

Donald Trump addressing supporters during a rally in Waco, Texas, in March.   Credit...Christopher Lee for The New York Times

A Pox On Both Their Houses

"Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the U.S. Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,"

"While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, the FBI is supporting our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in the communities we serve."

"Our efforts are focused on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity."

FBI Bulletin

 

"We're keeping a look across the entire country to make sure that we're monitoring, and that our Guards in every state are in close co-ordination with their local law enforcement agencies to provide any support requested."  

Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau

 

"A lot of people were energized by what happened last week, State capitals are a natural place where people might want to show up, especially assuming that they think there might be a huge presence of police and military in D.C. because of what happened last week."

"[The Capitol siege demonstrated the emergence of a new movement of] Trumpist extremists, so caught up in the cult of personality around Trump that they may be willing to break the law or engage in violence purely in support of Trump and whatever he wants."

Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow, Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism

 

"The FBI just can't passively sit in websites and forums and social media platforms, waiting to see who's going to present a direct threat versus just someone who is being highly radicalized."

"There has to be an investigative predicate for the FBI to then start even the lowest form of an investigation."

Javed Ali, former FBI senior intelligence officer

A team of FBI agents gather as demonstrators rally outside of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

"In light of events of the past week and the evolving security landscape leading up to the inauguration [the Secret Service has been instructed to begin security operations on January 13 rather than January 19]."

"[Federal, state, and local agencies] will continue to coordinate their plans and position resources for this important event."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf

Warning that "armed protests" could arise around events linked to the January 20 presidential inauguration in Washington, the FBI made it clear that all fifty state capitals in the U.S. will be susceptible to the potential for rampaging mobs to make their dissatisfaction with the removal of President Trump from office clear, in a nation bifurcated by toxic left-right disagreement. A totally polarized population has resulted from suspicion, fear and anger, well nourished by both the Democratic and Republican parties' elites.

The National Guard has been authorized to ensure that up to 15,000 troops will be on hand in Washington. Tourists are to be barred from access to the Washington Monument until January 24. The theme of the January 20 ceremony to inaugurate Joe Biden, the president-elect is to be "America United", as absurd and tone-deaf a chosen theme under the current toxic circumstances as any that might be imagined. The Democratic Party is playing nice now that one of their own is moving into the Oval Office.

When the Republican choice for president of the United States was elected four years earlier, the Democrats incited their faithful to demonstrate long and loud against an admittedly flawed personage with no experience, yet the choice of a majority of voters. Donald Trump, like him or loathe him, was duly, democratically elected. Indignant crowds of faithful Democrats came out to express their disgust that the White House would be ruled by a crass and crude man for the next four years, and they wanted him removed.

 

 

The Democratic Party itself did all it possibly could to restrain President Trump, to portray him as inept and disloyal to the country, themselves unwilling to sit as lawmakers under a man whom the world viewed askance and whose volatile and ill-chosen statements struck doubt in the hearts of allies. Yet, the democratic process so allegedly dear to Americans' hearts elected the unelectable fairly and squarely. America is decidedly anything but united. Over 70 million Americans voted for a candidate they held trust in and whom senior Democrats slurred. Wounding their own institutions in the process.

The country remains aghast that the bastion of democracy in the United States was attacked. No less so that the man who is their outgoing president did his best to incite the rioters to their task after having built their belief in a 'stolen' election both prior to and following the election that left him a one-term president. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser is anxious that last week's "unprecedented terrorist attack", not be repeated.

State capitals are preparing for the possibility of virulent protests disturbing the peace of the presidential transition at a remote on and around January 20. To that possibility they have responded by taking proactive, preventive measures of their own. On Monday the Michigan State Capitol Commission unanimously voted on banning the open carry of firearms inside the state capitol building, voting 6-0 for the measure.

 

"Given what's going on across the country, we moved up our meeting to consider the issue. It's now done and will be implemented by Michigan State Police", announced John Truscott, vice-chairman of the commission. No one wants a repeat of an event that sent lawmakers into fearful hiding, a riot, invasion and threat to America's democracy that took the lives of five people. Dozens who were part of the rampaging mob have been charged in the violence they took part in, with many more yet to be arrested.