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I know it is campaign finance fraud that is the actual charge, but that fact that of all the possible things they could have charged him with, it's something ti

I know it is campaign finance fraud that is the actual charge, but that fact that of all the possible things they could have charged him with, it's something tied to a sexual act feels so both disappointing and so American. It's likely they can actually get a conviction, so I guess there's that. You can already assume right-wing media will spin this into "Really? All you could get him for was a BJ?" Feels a bit like the late-night comedy of the Clinton impeachment.

zamalek 4y ago
The sex stuff is merely more along than the others, and it opens him up to more discovery. For example, Trump's client attorney privilege was pierced just this week due to his using lawyers to commit crimes (in the classified documents case).
rippercushions 4y ago
[flagged]
- norwalkbear 4y ago
  [flagged]
- anon291 4y ago
  Americans have insurrections all the time. For example, there was an insurrection in Tennessee today. It's an american tradition. Literally no American is going to stand to have any politician indicted for having passionate voters. This is surprising to many non-americans, but America does not like stifling speech. It's simply a small minority of prominent Americans that are calling for Trump to face any charges for 'inciting an insurrection'.
  - anon291 4y ago
    There was another insurrection in Florida today
djha-skin 4y ago
I don't know. It feels a lot like the indictment of Al Capone. His lawyers were always concentrating on the big picture but they ignored the small stuff and the government was able to catch him on tax evasion. Getting indictment of any sort can lead to larger ones.
- stuckinhell 4y ago
  I see this alot. Donald Trump isn't Al Capone,and the analogy fails enormously. Donald Trump is a former president of the United States. He's beloved by his base in quasi-religious way, even across the globe. Italy had parade with a "God-emperor Trump". Trump cannot be treated with like Al Capone. He has run as the anti-establishment candidate, and by god you better have a bulletproof case on him or you have just angered millions of people. He literally won half the country, his rallies ALWAYS have huge turnsouts. This guy is a Napoleon or Caesar in the making, and New York has just given him something to boost his profile when it was failing against Desantis. Donald Trump isn't Al Capone, that analogy does them both a disservice and distorts reality. Donald Trump was literally president of the united states for 4 years, any prosecution has to be air fucking tight or the whole system collapses.
  - laidoffamazon 4y ago
    Trump and Capone were both indicted. Though to be fair Capone never lost an election and then claimed he didn’t.
  - Jedd 4y ago
    Potentially angering millions of people is not a compelling reason to not pursue criminals through your legal system, of course. > He literally won half the country ... Well that's not true, no matter how you slice it, or which election you look at. In neither did he win more than 50% of the vote (2016 it was 46.1% of voters, compared to 48.2% who voted for Hillary - and in 2020 it was 46.8%, compared to the 51.3% for Joe). And while that sounds tantalisingly close enough to half, it overlooks the fact that in those two elections, respectively, only 59% and then 70% of eligible voters (or 54% and 55% of age-and-citizenship-eligible-but-not-registered) actually voted. So that means that you're looking at less than half of roughly 2/3's of the voting population -- a demographic that in turn is only around 3/4 of 'the country'. He literally, therefore, won about 20% of US citizens, or 25% of eligible voters. > ... his rallies ALWAYS have huge turnsouts. That's neither true or compelling. Garry Glitter and Elvis used to have huge crowds.
stanleydrew 4y ago
This is just one indictment based on the evidence gathered by one local prosecutor related to one set of potential criminal acts. Other indictments are likely coming from other ongoing investigations.
norwalkbear 4y ago
[flagged]
scruple 4y ago
If I squint my eyes it looks like the sex stuff is being dragged into the sunlight to get a big part of his base (the loud Christian one that outwardly claims they're aghast at infidelity) to reconsider their allegiances.
- poulsbohemian 4y ago
  Of all the conversations I’ve heard in the last 24 hours, this is one of the more unique takes - great point, thanks for raising it
esalman 4y ago
There are a couple more investigations potentially resulting in indictments, maybe in next few months or so. One is influencing Georgia election, another is misplaced confidential documents.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > another is misplaced confidential documents. No, the Special Counsel’s investigation is not just the documents issue, though that was the case most in the news at the time the Special Counsel was assigned both DoJ Trump-connected criminal investigations once Trump declared his candidacy for 2024. The issues assigned to the Special Counsel were: (1) “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification ofthe Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021” (excluding charges already being prosecuted and future “prosecutions of individuals for offenses they committed while physically present on the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.”) (2) the documents issue.
dragonwriter 4y ago
> I know it is campaign finance fraud that is the actual charge No, you don’t know what the actual charges are. You know the central focus of the investigation was a particular campaign finance fraud. What the–reportedly more than 30–charges that have come out of the investigation are, is another question. What are they? We’ll see.
SideQuark 4y ago
There's quite a few active other legal cases forming. This is the first case with an indictment, which is not too surprising given the age of the activity compared to most of the other state and federal cases.

zamalek 4y ago

The sex stuff is merely more along than the others, and it opens him up to more discovery. For example, Trump's client attorney privilege was pierced just this week due to his using lawyers to commit crimes (in the classified documents case).

rippercushions 4y ago

[flagged]

norwalkbear 4y ago
[flagged]
anon291 4y ago
Americans have insurrections all the time. For example, there was an insurrection in Tennessee today. It's an american tradition. Literally no American is going to stand to have any politician indicted for having passionate voters. This is surprising to many non-americans, but America does not like stifling speech. It's simply a small minority of prominent Americans that are calling for Trump to face any charges for 'inciting an insurrection'.
- anon291 4y ago
  There was another insurrection in Florida today

djha-skin 4y ago

I don't know. It feels a lot like the indictment of Al Capone. His lawyers were always concentrating on the big picture but they ignored the small stuff and the government was able to catch him on tax evasion. Getting indictment of any sort can lead to larger ones.

stuckinhell 4y ago
I see this alot. Donald Trump isn't Al Capone,and the analogy fails enormously. Donald Trump is a former president of the United States. He's beloved by his base in quasi-religious way, even across the globe. Italy had parade with a "God-emperor Trump". Trump cannot be treated with like Al Capone. He has run as the anti-establishment candidate, and by god you better have a bulletproof case on him or you have just angered millions of people. He literally won half the country, his rallies ALWAYS have huge turnsouts. This guy is a Napoleon or Caesar in the making, and New York has just given him something to boost his profile when it was failing against Desantis. Donald Trump isn't Al Capone, that analogy does them both a disservice and distorts reality. Donald Trump was literally president of the united states for 4 years, any prosecution has to be air fucking tight or the whole system collapses.
- laidoffamazon 4y ago
  Trump and Capone were both indicted. Though to be fair Capone never lost an election and then claimed he didn’t.
- Jedd 4y ago
  Potentially angering millions of people is not a compelling reason to not pursue criminals through your legal system, of course. > He literally won half the country ... Well that's not true, no matter how you slice it, or which election you look at. In neither did he win more than 50% of the vote (2016 it was 46.1% of voters, compared to 48.2% who voted for Hillary - and in 2020 it was 46.8%, compared to the 51.3% for Joe). And while that sounds tantalisingly close enough to half, it overlooks the fact that in those two elections, respectively, only 59% and then 70% of eligible voters (or 54% and 55% of age-and-citizenship-eligible-but-not-registered) actually voted. So that means that you're looking at less than half of roughly 2/3's of the voting population -- a demographic that in turn is only around 3/4 of 'the country'. He literally, therefore, won about 20% of US citizens, or 25% of eligible voters. > ... his rallies ALWAYS have huge turnsouts. That's neither true or compelling. Garry Glitter and Elvis used to have huge crowds.

stanleydrew 4y ago

This is just one indictment based on the evidence gathered by one local prosecutor related to one set of potential criminal acts. Other indictments are likely coming from other ongoing investigations.

norwalkbear 4y ago

[flagged]

scruple 4y ago

If I squint my eyes it looks like the sex stuff is being dragged into the sunlight to get a big part of his base (the loud Christian one that outwardly claims they're aghast at infidelity) to reconsider their allegiances.

poulsbohemian 4y ago
Of all the conversations I’ve heard in the last 24 hours, this is one of the more unique takes - great point, thanks for raising it

esalman 4y ago

There are a couple more investigations potentially resulting in indictments, maybe in next few months or so. One is influencing Georgia election, another is misplaced confidential documents.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> another is misplaced confidential documents. No, the Special Counsel’s investigation is not just the documents issue, though that was the case most in the news at the time the Special Counsel was assigned both DoJ Trump-connected criminal investigations once Trump declared his candidacy for 2024. The issues assigned to the Special Counsel were: (1) “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification ofthe Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021” (excluding charges already being prosecuted and future “prosecutions of individuals for offenses they committed while physically present on the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.”) (2) the documents issue.

dragonwriter 4y ago

> I know it is campaign finance fraud that is the actual charge No, you don’t know what the actual charges are. You know the central focus of the investigation was a particular campaign finance fraud. What the–reportedly more than 30–charges that have come out of the investigation are, is another question. What are they? We’ll see.

SideQuark 4y ago

There's quite a few active other legal cases forming. This is the first case with an indictment, which is not too surprising given the age of the activity compared to most of the other state and federal cases.