The chilled end of the work week quickly approaches this Friday evening here in California’s Central Valley and the season continues in fashion — a New Year hastily coming quickly around the cold-ass corner!
In the shadow of the Elon Musk bullshit on Twitter, the T-Rump might be going beyond his superhero cards and might someday (hopefully) be set up for a mug shot prior to being jailed.
We can only hope:
Scoop: Jan. 6 committee considering criminal referral against Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud — among a range of recommended options that the panel was still discussing days before its final meeting. @GuardianUS https://t.co/7BWgu6yJM3
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 16, 2022
Details from the Guardian this afternoon:
The House January 6 select committee is considering a criminal referral to the justice department against Donald Trump for obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States on the recommendation of a special subcommittee, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The recommendations on the former president – made by the subcommittee examining referrals – were based on renewed examinations of the evidence that indicated Trump’s attempts to impede the certification of the 2020 election results amounted to potential crimes.
The select committee could pursue additional criminal referrals for Trump and others, given the subcommittee raised the obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud statutes among a range of options, including insurrection, and discussions about referrals continued on Thursday, said the sources.
The referrals could also largely be symbolic since Congress has no ability to compel prosecutions by the justice department, which has increasingly ramped up its own investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and subpoenaed top aides to appear before federal grand juries.
The recommendations presage a moment of high political drama next Monday, when the full panel will vote publicly to adopt its final report and formally decide on making referrals, and increase pressure on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to seek charges over January 6.
The recommendations presage a moment of high political drama next Monday, when the full panel will vote publicly to adopt its final report and formally decide on making referrals, and increase pressure on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to seek charges over January 6.
Trump could be referred for obstruction of an official proceeding, the subcommittee is said to have concluded, because he attempted to impede the certification and did so with a “consciousness of wrongdoing” – as the panel has previously interpreted the intent threshold.
The former president was seen to have met the elements of the offense since he relentlessly pressured Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral college votes for Joe Biden, despite knowing he had lost the election and had been told the plan was illegal.
Trump could also be referred for conspiracy to defraud the United States, the subcommittee suggested, arguing the former president violated the statute that prohibits entering into an agreement to obstruct a lawful function of government by dishonest means.
The conspiracy charge was seen to be broadly applicable because Trump’s agreement with key lawyers – and potentially even the rioters – did not need to be overt, while the plan to have Pence reject Biden slates of electors with Trump slates that did not exist was deceitful.
And in context, the committee’s move will be a historic action against a historic piece of shit — via Time, also this afternoon:
The referrals would be largely symbolic, but experts say that symbolism—and the evidence behind it—can still carry a lot of weight.
“Symbols are hugely important,” says Debra Perlin, the policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who argues a criminal referral of Trump would “frame a discussion” around the deadly attack on the Capitol and the events that preceded it.
“It can help prevent and counteract misinformation and disinformation in the society that we thrive in,” Perlin says, “because you can point to something authoritative, coming from Congress, that says that this happened, that there needs to be accountability, and that says that criminal prosecution is the path that needs to be taken moving forward.”
If the Committee votes to send criminal referrals, it means “they figured that writing a report wasn’t enough,” says Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University and a former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
Donald Trump’s “the only president to have ever tried to overturn an election,” Naftali continues. “So, yea, this is a unique referral. It’s also a unique moment in our history.”
We’re living in such a freaky period that way-goes beyond ‘a unique moment in our history‘– especially if the T-Rump starts living in a jail cell.
And addition to the possible J6-committee criminal referrals, yesterday House Democrats filed motions to keep the orange-tinted asshole from seeking the presidency ever again — via CBS News this morning:
House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would bar former President Donald Trump from holding any federal office in the future, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The legislation is spearheaded by Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, of Rhode Island, who was a House manager for Trump’s second impeachment, and the bill also has 40 co-sponsors, all Democrats. It cites the provision in the 14th Amendment that says no one who has held government office and who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” shall be able to hold federal office again.
“Donald Trump very clearly engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 with the intention of overturning the lawful and fair results of the 2020 election,” Cicilline argued in a statement. “You don’t get to lead a government you tried to destroy. Even Mitch McConnell admits that Trump bears responsibility, saying on the Senate floor that ‘[t]here’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.'”
“The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again and, under Section 5, Congress has the power to pass legislation to implement this prohibition,” Cicilline continued.
The legislation goes into detail about how Trump pushed then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results, failed to do anything to denounce the mob assaulting the Capitol for hours, and intervened with government officials who didn’t support his false claims of mass election fraud, among other things.
The bill would need to pass both chambers of Congress, with only days before Republicans take control of the House and a substantial end-of-year agenda remaining. The legislation drops as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol prepares to release its final report next week. That committee is only authorized to operation until the end of the year.
We’ll have to wait and see. Although a good move, supposedly the bill would fail in the Senate. So there’s that.
And yesterday, former T-Rump lawyer, Ty Cobb, believes the Orange-Turd will be criminally referred:
Criminal for sure, yet once again here we are…
(Illustration out front is of a New York state high-school student exhibit: ‘The piece was displayed during student-driven art show at Shenendehowa High School. It consisted of at least 12 identical black-and-white pictures of Donald Trump. There was also a sign above the pictures that read, “Draw on Me.” Using markers from the art classroom, some students opted to scribble critical messages and profanities on the pictures‘ — and found here.)