Dan McLaughlin recently published a piece in National Review explaining what's missing from the Georgia Donald Trump indictment: any criminal act by Trump. He's been charged with conspiracy; in fact, every text he sent and every phone call he made was part of the conspiracy, and those on the other end were conspirators. He allegedly led a conspiracy to defraud the United States. But Andrew McCarthy makes a similar point in The Messenger: Where's the crime?
'There’s a giant hole in [DA Willis'] case: the lack of a clear crime to which Trump and his co-defendants can plausibly be said to have agreed.' Read @AndrewCMcCarthy on the deeply flawed indictment targeting Trump and 18 others. https://t.co/Sfz6ivOt9R
— Byron York (@ByronYork) August 19, 2023
McCarthy writes:
… even though prosecutors bear the burden of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt before there can be a conviction, we can easily understand why the defendants have been charged. If they are charged with conspiracy, the indictment will clearly state the crime they allegedly agreed to commit — e.g., drug trafficking, bank robbery, murder, extortion. Whatever the objective crime may be, we understand that the prosecutors, the police, and the grand jury have established to the court’s satisfaction that there is enough evidence to establish probable cause that the alleged conspirators agreed to commit a crime.
That is what’s so strange about DA Willis’s indictment. She alleges that the 19 people named in her indictment are guilty of conspiracy because they agreed to try to keep Donald Trump in power as president — specifically, to “change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” Maybe they shared such an aim, maybe their 19 minds met regarding that objective, but in and of itself, trying to reverse the result of an election is not a crime. You may have noticed that neither Al Gore nor Stacey Abrams was ever led away in handcuffs.
Recommended
Here's where we run the video of Rep. Jamie Raskin and others trying to get Trump's electoral votes thrown out in 2016.
Maybe conviction is not the goal 🤔
— PAXPORT1 (@paxport1) August 19, 2023
Good point. They did request the trial start the day before Super Tuesday.
It’s a disgusting misuse of the legal system.
— SazzygirlinCali (@RjbRocklin) August 19, 2023
Yeah... well, when you just try to make good on a campaign promise to "Get Trump" and there's no "there" there... you have to make something up or else you look like the FRAUD you are!#RefundtheMoneyFani
— Brad Michaels (@BradMichaels65) August 19, 2023
“While constitutional due process guarantees that every American is presumed innocent, it also dictates that no American can be charged with a crime and forced to stand trial unless there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.”
— Susan Groff (@SusanGroff1) August 19, 2023
There appears to be no consistency among lawyers what exactly Trump is criminally accused of in any of these cases.
— Ezra (@EzraEpizon) August 19, 2023
It's not about crime, it's about politics
— Almost_3mpty (@3mptyAlmost) August 19, 2023
They don’t care. It’s not the end goal.
— SJWs are the new CommieNazis (@colddeadhands65) August 19, 2023
Yeah, but it's a Fulton County jury. So McCarthy's points may be moot.
— RookieUmpire (@RookieUmpire) August 19, 2023
We wouldn't call McCarthy a huge Trump fan. It's not like they're charging Trump with bribery, which is an impeachable offense in the Constitution.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member