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News Transcripts

05/31/24

Good morning! It’s Friday, May 31st.

National Macaroon Day!

That’s the one with coconut.

And now, the news.

 

Trump Crime Update Time

-via Mass.Gov, AP News

Folks… we got em! That’s right baby it’s…

Trump Crime Update Time!

(I opened a bottle of champagne, but only had a couple sips, before recording this, edition)

In 1630, John Billington was accused of murdering John Newcomin (It was 1630 – there weren’t a lot of options for names, I guess). Billington was found guilty, and thus the American Colonies had its first jury trial.

Billinton was found guilty by a jury of his peers because in 1623, of the many things that pilgrims brought from England (some bad, some terrible, some good) was King John’s establishment of a trial by peers in the year 1215 (when I was but a wee teenager).

So in 1623, colony officials decreed: “That all criminal facts, and also matters of trespasse and debts betweene man and man should be tried by the verdict of twelve honest men to be impanelled by authority in forme of a jury upon their oath.”

This rule of law is so important, in fact, that it’s in two Amendments! The 6th Amendment says: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation…”

The 7th says: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

And so, for the last 401 years, we have followed that rule of law.

And I’m not saying our criminal justice system is perfect, but this right here, this right to a jury of your peers, is meant to protect the defendant.

401 years.

And yet, right now, we are rewriting history. Never before have we seen a president on trial before last year. Let alone, multiple times.

And in each of these cases, we have to rely on a jury of his peers to write history. To decide whether this system we have built is strong enough to hold a former president.

And on Thursday, for the third time, a jury of Donald Trump’s peers told us one singular truth – there is no height that someone can climb where they will not be held accountable for their actions.

Because on Thursday, May 30th, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts.

Let’s review what those counts were, because people are calling this a hush money case. And while the case did involve hush money, what it actually was about was this:

In 2016, Donald Trump, as well as a few of his cronies, carried out a plan, involving money and false business records, to keep information from you, the voter. The information he attempted to keep from you was salacious – he slept with a porn star.

But regardless of what the information he attempted to keep from you was, the fact remains the same: Donald Trump committed a crime in an attempt to keep, from you, the information you needed to cast the best possible ballot.

With all the money and power he proports to have, he lied to you. Over and over and over again. He lies like he breaths, so it shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. But it’s still unacceptable.

He will continue to lie now, as he tries to tell us all that the system is rigged. That our justice system is out to get him.

That’s a lie. That’s not what happened.

What happened is that he committed 34 crimes, and on May 30th, 2024, a jury of his peers found him guilty.

On all counts.

Twelve jurors and six alternatives.

I think a lot about this specific, perilous, moment our country is in. Because I am a NERD. And when you’re living through history, which we are doing in no less than seventeen different ways at each moment, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Or the trees for the forest. I’ve never really understood that saying.

It’s hard to get a bird’s eye view, is what I’m saying.

We don’t know what this means for the election. The sentencing hearing is in July, so we don’t know what this means for Trump in the short term, or for candidate Trump in the long term.

Will this move voters? Who knows! Polling will poll, but polls don’t decide elections.

So we don’t know what this means, but we do know one thing – there should be consequences for actions.

Regardless of elections and power and money… A jury of Donald Trump’s peers reminded us that there are consequences for actions.

And we don’t know who these jurors are, but we do know they’re just… normal people.

Ordinary people.

Like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who spoke out despite death threats, to tell the truth about the 2020 election.

Like Cassidy Hutchinson, who broke with the Trump team and, without any safety net at all, told the truth about January 6th.

Right in the middle of this genuinely scary moment for the future of our democracy, we don’t know what it will be that will save us. What specific moment or endorcement will change the election.

But what we can know for sure, what we can be absolutely positive about is this: it’s going to come down to the bravery of ordinary people.

After the guilty verdicts were all read out, Donald Trump came out to complain about how everyone’s against him (please, for the love of everything, get therapy), he said this:

“The real verdict will be November 5th, by the people.”

And he was so close to getting it right. Because the real verdict was actually the verdict. That already happened – he’s guilty. On all counts.

But on November 5th, a different verdict will be decided.

Do we want to be a country to elects someone like Donald Trump? Who was found guilty of lying and hiding information from you, so that you wouldn’t have all the information you needed to cast your ballot in 2016? Who lost in 2020 and turned around to plan and incite an insurrection? Who stacked the Supreme Court with Justices that stole the right to bodily autonomy?

Do we want to be a country that elects the person that ends our democracy?

Or will be re-elect Joe Biden?

The bravery of ordinary people.

We go to the ballot on the shoulders of all who came before us. Who fought, and died, for your right to cast a ballot.

At this point, who knows how many other guilty verdicts Donald Trump will collect. So far, he has been found guilty in every single case. He is not an innocent person.

None of those cases make him ineligible for election.

He can collect every guilty verdict under the sun, and if past is prologue, he certainly will.

But it is us, it is you and me, who will decide whether Donald Trump gets to be president again.

Are you, and is everyone you know, registered to vote?

 

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Big news!!!

That dude guilty!

Love to see it.

Hey, no news next week! No news for a week and a day!

I’ll be back June 11th

Kim Moffat