08/02/23
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, August 2nd.
National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!
Let me tell you what I like? Well actually all of them but also… oh also two specific ice cream sandwiches – first, the Toll House ice cream sandwich. That’s the one with two chocolate chip cookies as the bread, and then vanilla ice cream on the inside. So good. They’re big guys! But delicious.
Also, the classic vanilla on the inside and a little chocolate cakey-outside thing as bread. You know what I mean? With the holes?
But also… didn’t they used to make those in Neapolitan? That sounds nice.
And now, the news.
Trump Crime Update Time
-via NY Times, The Guardian, CNN
This was supposed to be my week off, but if I’m here it can only be for one thing…
Trump Crime Update Time
Indictment special episode edition!
Yes, special episode. This one’s only about the indictment, so buckle on up.
Hey, do you remember the time that Trump was like, for real, some how, actually elected president in 2016. And he was terrible at it. Arguably, I guess, but still. And enough people were also not into his deal during his first term that they didn’t elect him for a second term. Which is normally nothing, except that his whole deal is trying to make people like him. Because if they like him, maybe he’ll like him. And if he likes him, then maybe (maybe maybe maybe) he can go back in time and find that his dad loves him. And wouldn’t that just fix everything? And so instead of accepting that he lost the 2020 election, he incited a mob to go to our country’s capital and literally carrying out a deadly insurrection in his honor.
Do you… remember that?
That’s right, this episode’s about the Insurrection Crimes Case.
And do not let my adorable little description confuse you – this is, in my eyes, the most serious crime he’s being charged with. What he did after losing the election was horrific and truly there is no coming back from this. While he has yet to be charged with it, these were seditious actions and that’s not something I say lightly.
People died. An organized mob went in search of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and others – in hope of killing them. The confederate flag was in the capital for the first time ever – that didn’t even happen during the Civil War.
And it was done in the name of, with the support of, and at the beckoning of, Donald Trump.
It was one of the darkest days in country’s history, made darker by the fact that it was all supported by someone who was, at that time, the sitting president.
Okay, so with FEELINGS out of the way… let’s talk the crime portion of Trump Crime Update Time. Because on Tuesday, August 1st, Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges to overturn the 2020 election.
The indictment has four counts:
One count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts related to efforts to obstruct the vote certification proceedings (that’s the fake electors scheme and it’s one count of obstructing the vote certification and one count of conspiring to do so), and one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights – which overturning election results would be.
And that one – conspiracy to violate civil rights – that one was originally known as the Ku Klux Klan Act and it was created, and first used, to make it a crime to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” exercising a right protected by the Constitution or federal law. And what they’re talking about there, the specific pieces of the Constitution it’s talking about, are the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments – aka the Reconstruction Amendments, which provided Black Americans with the rights of citizenship in this country.
And that’s one of the charges against him – a charge that is also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.
See, it’s all fun, games, and making fun of how his ties are always too long until we see the counts. Because those are… harrowing. Scary in general, but again, you have to look at it through the context of – this guy was the sitting president when he knowingly made the choice to defraud the country, attempt to overturn election results, and violate civil rights.
He made this choice happily and well-aware that of the fact that the election wasn’t stolen.
Let me say that again – the 2020 election was not stolen. It was a free and fair election.
Of course, Donald Trump was not alone in his attempt to burn the basis of our democracy to the ground because some men will literally do insurrection instead of going to therapy…
The indictment also lists six unindicted co-conspirators. They are unnamed because they have yet to be charged. Expect that to happen soon, but Jack Smith, aka Coach Beard, is looking for a speedy trial for Trump and so these co-conspirators could slow that down.
So who are these six little pals? Well, we can only kind of guess and assume because the indictment gives enough details that you can rule some people in and out. For example, NBC News says (and KiMSNBC agrees) that co-conspirator #1 appears in very likely America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani who is described in the indictment as: “An attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.”
#2 is likely John Eastman: “An attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.
#3 is likely Sydney Powell “An attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nonetheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.”
#4 is likely Jeffrey Clark – “A Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.”
#5 could be Kenneth Chesebro – a recount lawyer in Wisconsin who headed the fake elector schemes. He’s listed in the indictment as “An attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
And finally, #6 is a little harder to suss out, because they could be anyone! “A political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Could be anyone!
Again, this is all just kind of… reading between the lines so we’ll see.
There’s still a lot we don’t know – we don’t have confirmation on these six co-conspirators and we don’t know whether the trial will be televised or even when it’ll be. As I mentioned, Coach Beard is looking for a speedy trial (which is very necessary), so hopefully his speedy and our speedy are the same.
We do know that Trump will likely be arraigned on Thursday, so expect another special episode after that.
We also know the judge! The judge in this case is U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. She was appointed by President Obama in 2014 and, while you may not recognize her name, you may recognize her work: in 2021 she denied Trump’s motion to stop records from being turned over to the Jan. 6 committee, writing, "Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not president."
And finally, here is something else we know: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He lost the 2020 election and became the first candidate in history to refuse to accept the results of the election and, instead, attempt to overturn those results.
He, along with a cohort of supporters, planned to overturn those results in more and more manic and absurd ways, which ultimately ended in a deadly insurrection on January 6th.
He did that while knowing that the election wasn’t stolen. Knowing that he’d lost. And, most importantly, he did that as the sitting president. He sat in the oval office and chose, willingly and freely, to defraud the United States. To ignore and, in fact, attempt to burn to the ground, the same Constitution he took an oath to protect.
And regardless of this indictment, he is still the leading candidate for the Republican party.
And so it is the job of the Department of Justice to present a strong enough case that finding Trump guilty is the only option.
But is the job of every single voter, every person hearing this right now, to do everything we can to ensure that Trump, and every single one of his supporters, lose at the ballot box, by inarguable measures, in 2024.
Onward. Forward.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of… well no one that does insurrection crimes, that’s for sure.
I’m proud of ice cream sandwiches. I’m proud of Jack Smith aka Coach Beard. I’m proud of Rebecca Welton.
But more than that… more than a Nestle Toll House ice cream sandwich… because you are also a delight on a hot summer day… I’m proud of you.