7 ms·

Why shouldn't punishment or prosecution be suggested. I've worked with classified information, and I would have been held accountable for my actions, why should

Why shouldn't punishment or prosecution be suggested. I've worked with classified information, and I would have been held accountable for my actions, why shouldn't they? I'm tired of this Too Important To Have Consequences business. It defeats the whole purpose of having qualifications, and security, and rules of any kind.

rcpt 2y ago
Anything less than criminal prosecution would be an abomination of justice.
- wernercd 2y ago
  [flagged]
- Galanwe 2y ago
  Well once you've stated that the president is immune and can pardon whoever for whatever, there's really not much to do. The US needs a new constitution to enforce this, otherwise the very concept of justice cannot exist.
  - vFunct 2y ago
    Absolutely not going to happen with the opposition party existing simply to supply Israel with more weapons. Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking opposition leader, the other day openly stated "My job is to make sure the left supports Israel". Why would that level of anti-democratic corruption have any interest in justice, when the very core of that party is based on maintaining racist injustice around the world? The only thing we can hope for is that our system collapses and our economy weakens, while foreign economies grow.
  - maeil 2y ago
    In the US, you can fly multiple planes into skyscrapers, rape three whole kindergartens, and lynch an entire race to extermination. As long as you then win the next election before you get convicted, you're in the clear. This is the United States of America.
  - chrisco255 2y ago
    The U.S. doesn't need a new constitution. If you don't like the current president, you vote for a new one in 4 years. That's how it works.
    - uppost 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - Galanwe 2y ago
      If there is anything to learn from the current situation IMHO, it's that 1) the US needs a stronger constitution to prevent a take over, and 2) it needs a new election system to avoid binary elections, which lead to extreme policy turnover and candidate fatigue. There's nothing wrong with writing a new constitution. France is at its 5th iteration, and some candidates propose a 6th republic, nothing dictates that you're supposed to get it right on the first try.
      - chrisco255 2y ago
        The U.S. is the world's oldest democracy. It is functioning just fine. France has been toppled by internal revolutions and external enemies multiple times in the time that the U.S. has existed. It's not an example to aspire to.
        free_bip 2y ago
        The US has gone through a dozen constitutional crises in the past 2 months and you call that functioning "just fine"?
        lurkersince2013 2y ago
        It’s looking less and less functioning and less and less like a democracy every day. And give France a bit more credit; they were instrumental in the US’s own internal revolution against the British.
outside1234 2y ago
But have you considered that they are Billionaires and therefore can do whatever they want?
- cjohnson318 2y ago
  Like my dad always said, "money talks and shit walks".
- jjallen 2y ago
  I don’t think everyone involved in this fiasco are billionaires.
  - vichle 2y ago
    They will be before this is over.
- belter 2y ago
  The alternative explanation, is that they have so much dirt on Trump, they can't be fired...
hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
Do you honestly think that (a) Trump's Justice Department would prosecute any of these offenses, and (b) even if so, that Trump wouldn't just pardon anyone involved?
- cjohnson318 2y ago
  Yeah, there's no way anything is going to happen to these guys. I'm saying that's a great suggestion, and one that everyone should be able to agree on. But yeah, I agree with you. Nothing is going to happen. Just like no one at the top has been held to any kind of a standard at all since maybe Nixon. Who knows, if he had just stuck it out maybe he would have gotten off too.
- belter 2y ago
  The corruption is now, total and absolute. A complete Nero Court like the decadent days of the end of the Roman Empire. "Trump’s crypto empire set to expand with new stablecoin and investment fund offerings" - https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-social-etf-f11c47a99ea618aa06df4dd47b150800 https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-... "...Witkoff and his father, Trump’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial with Trump and his sons last year. Under the terms outlined on the company’s website, a Trump-owned company has the “right to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues” from World Liberty Financial after expenses..." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077789-dying-every-day https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077789-dying-every-day
  - _Tev 2y ago
    Just a nitpick: Nero was nowhere close to "the end of the Roman Empire".
- chrisco255 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
adrr 2y ago
Do you think they’ll get prosecuted? I am willing to bet money that congress won’t even have hearings on it.
- reverius42 2y ago
  Congress is already having hearings (at the committee level): https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/congress-yemen-signal-hegseth https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/congress-yemen-signal-hegse... But it's not clear that will progress to anything further.
- asteroidburger 2y ago
  The Senate Intelligence Committee already held a hearing today: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339484/signal-war-plans-congress https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339484/signal-war-plan...
  - belter 2y ago
    Where the director of the Intelligence Services, refused to say, if she was participating on the Signal thread with her government issued phone, or with her personal phone...
    - sethammons 2y ago
      Long pause: "I don't recall." The exact legal advice passed on to me around answering questions in a deposition played out live; wild.
- chrisco255 2y ago
  None of what they said was actually classified, and if the conversation included the president and vice president, then they inherently decide what is and is not classified. The power of the executive branch is vested in the president.
  - mullingitover 2y ago
    Doesn’t matter, they were conducting government business on a clandestine private system with the intent of evading public records laws. Literally the crime they endlessly accused Clinton of.
Aeolun 2y ago
> I'm tired of this Too Important To Have Consequences business Sure, but short of something similar to the UH CEO, do you think anything will actually happen to them? If they’re doing this then the president presumably knows and does too. Even if they get prosecuted and convicted (after years of legal nonsense) they’d just get pardoned.
- johntitorjr 2y ago
  [dead]
- cjohnson318 2y ago
  No, I don't think anything will change, but I'm still tired of it.
hamasho 2y ago
Honestly, I'm giving up hoping for even a fraction of deserved punishment too. It's hard to handle the emotional dissonance I feel repeatedly when I see injustice, so I've adjusted myself to expect minimal or no punishment and just hope things improve a little. I know this is exactly what those people who repeatedly do malicious things want to happen, and I'm not suggesting we give up seeking social justice. I just can't handle the rage I feel every time or I'll suffer from severe depression again. I need to save my willpower to still hope for a better world and to encourage or support people who are actually working to improve society.
- 0xEF 2y ago
  I'm in the same boat. This whole thing is a War of Attrition, and my enemies are willing because I am getting too old and increasingly stressed out to keep up with and counter their irrationality. I honestly don't know where they get the energy to continuously be so stupid as to take classified information to a group chat, encrypted or not, like they're planning a night out. These morons are going to get American citizens killed due to gross incompetence. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that half my country said "yep, let's go with these guys" when they saw a bunch of bungling Nazis yelling at clouds like something out of Hogan's Heroes. I'd laugh at the absurdity of it all if I didn't think we were in genuine danger.
  - mandmandam 2y ago
    > I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that half my country said "yep, let's go with these guys" when they saw a bunch of bungling Nazis yelling at clouds like something out of Hogan's Heroes. I'm still trying to square how 98% of American voters went for candidates promising to continue arming the world's most live-streamed genocide, even with all those protests; even with all the footage we've seen. How it didn't end after the Al-Nasr babies story, or after Biden was caught laundering lies about beheaded babies, or the NYT laundering lies about mass rape, I just don't know. And still the Greens couldn't get 5%? There's something deeply dark and disturbed across the entirety of American society, and it seems like most of us can't even see it... Well, the consequences will arrive regardless.

rcpt 2y ago

Anything less than criminal prosecution would be an abomination of justice.

wernercd 2y ago
[flagged]
Galanwe 2y ago
Well once you've stated that the president is immune and can pardon whoever for whatever, there's really not much to do. The US needs a new constitution to enforce this, otherwise the very concept of justice cannot exist.
- vFunct 2y ago
  Absolutely not going to happen with the opposition party existing simply to supply Israel with more weapons. Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking opposition leader, the other day openly stated "My job is to make sure the left supports Israel". Why would that level of anti-democratic corruption have any interest in justice, when the very core of that party is based on maintaining racist injustice around the world? The only thing we can hope for is that our system collapses and our economy weakens, while foreign economies grow.
- maeil 2y ago
  In the US, you can fly multiple planes into skyscrapers, rape three whole kindergartens, and lynch an entire race to extermination. As long as you then win the next election before you get convicted, you're in the clear. This is the United States of America.
- chrisco255 2y ago
  The U.S. doesn't need a new constitution. If you don't like the current president, you vote for a new one in 4 years. That's how it works.
  - uppost 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - Galanwe 2y ago
    If there is anything to learn from the current situation IMHO, it's that 1) the US needs a stronger constitution to prevent a take over, and 2) it needs a new election system to avoid binary elections, which lead to extreme policy turnover and candidate fatigue. There's nothing wrong with writing a new constitution. France is at its 5th iteration, and some candidates propose a 6th republic, nothing dictates that you're supposed to get it right on the first try.
    - chrisco255 2y ago
      The U.S. is the world's oldest democracy. It is functioning just fine. France has been toppled by internal revolutions and external enemies multiple times in the time that the U.S. has existed. It's not an example to aspire to.
      - free_bip 2y ago
        The US has gone through a dozen constitutional crises in the past 2 months and you call that functioning "just fine"?
      - lurkersince2013 2y ago
        It’s looking less and less functioning and less and less like a democracy every day. And give France a bit more credit; they were instrumental in the US’s own internal revolution against the British.

outside1234 2y ago

But have you considered that they are Billionaires and therefore can do whatever they want?

cjohnson318 2y ago
Like my dad always said, "money talks and shit walks".
jjallen 2y ago
I don’t think everyone involved in this fiasco are billionaires.
- vichle 2y ago
  They will be before this is over.
belter 2y ago
The alternative explanation, is that they have so much dirt on Trump, they can't be fired...

hn_throwaway_99 2y ago

Do you honestly think that (a) Trump's Justice Department would prosecute any of these offenses, and (b) even if so, that Trump wouldn't just pardon anyone involved?

cjohnson318 2y ago
Yeah, there's no way anything is going to happen to these guys. I'm saying that's a great suggestion, and one that everyone should be able to agree on. But yeah, I agree with you. Nothing is going to happen. Just like no one at the top has been held to any kind of a standard at all since maybe Nixon. Who knows, if he had just stuck it out maybe he would have gotten off too.
belter 2y ago
The corruption is now, total and absolute. A complete Nero Court like the decadent days of the end of the Roman Empire. "Trump’s crypto empire set to expand with new stablecoin and investment fund offerings" - https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-social-etf-f11c47a99ea618aa06df4dd47b150800 https://apnews.com/article/trump-crypto-world-liberty-truth-... "...Witkoff and his father, Trump’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial with Trump and his sons last year. Under the terms outlined on the company’s website, a Trump-owned company has the “right to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues” from World Liberty Financial after expenses..." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077789-dying-every-day https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077789-dying-every-day
- _Tev 2y ago
  Just a nitpick: Nero was nowhere close to "the end of the Roman Empire".
chrisco255 2y ago
[flagged]
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago

adrr 2y ago

Do you think they’ll get prosecuted? I am willing to bet money that congress won’t even have hearings on it.

reverius42 2y ago
Congress is already having hearings (at the committee level): https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/congress-yemen-signal-hegseth https://www.axios.com/2025/03/24/congress-yemen-signal-hegse... But it's not clear that will progress to anything further.
asteroidburger 2y ago
The Senate Intelligence Committee already held a hearing today: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339484/signal-war-plans-congress https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339484/signal-war-plan...
- belter 2y ago
  Where the director of the Intelligence Services, refused to say, if she was participating on the Signal thread with her government issued phone, or with her personal phone...
  - sethammons 2y ago
    Long pause: "I don't recall." The exact legal advice passed on to me around answering questions in a deposition played out live; wild.
chrisco255 2y ago
None of what they said was actually classified, and if the conversation included the president and vice president, then they inherently decide what is and is not classified. The power of the executive branch is vested in the president.
- mullingitover 2y ago
  Doesn’t matter, they were conducting government business on a clandestine private system with the intent of evading public records laws. Literally the crime they endlessly accused Clinton of.

Aeolun 2y ago

> I'm tired of this Too Important To Have Consequences business Sure, but short of something similar to the UH CEO, do you think anything will actually happen to them? If they’re doing this then the president presumably knows and does too. Even if they get prosecuted and convicted (after years of legal nonsense) they’d just get pardoned.

johntitorjr 2y ago
[dead]
cjohnson318 2y ago
No, I don't think anything will change, but I'm still tired of it.

hamasho 2y ago

Honestly, I'm giving up hoping for even a fraction of deserved punishment too. It's hard to handle the emotional dissonance I feel repeatedly when I see injustice, so I've adjusted myself to expect minimal or no punishment and just hope things improve a little. I know this is exactly what those people who repeatedly do malicious things want to happen, and I'm not suggesting we give up seeking social justice. I just can't handle the rage I feel every time or I'll suffer from severe depression again. I need to save my willpower to still hope for a better world and to encourage or support people who are actually working to improve society.

0xEF 2y ago
I'm in the same boat. This whole thing is a War of Attrition, and my enemies are willing because I am getting too old and increasingly stressed out to keep up with and counter their irrationality. I honestly don't know where they get the energy to continuously be so stupid as to take classified information to a group chat, encrypted or not, like they're planning a night out. These morons are going to get American citizens killed due to gross incompetence. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that half my country said "yep, let's go with these guys" when they saw a bunch of bungling Nazis yelling at clouds like something out of Hogan's Heroes. I'd laugh at the absurdity of it all if I didn't think we were in genuine danger.
- mandmandam 2y ago
  > I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that half my country said "yep, let's go with these guys" when they saw a bunch of bungling Nazis yelling at clouds like something out of Hogan's Heroes. I'm still trying to square how 98% of American voters went for candidates promising to continue arming the world's most live-streamed genocide, even with all those protests; even with all the footage we've seen. How it didn't end after the Al-Nasr babies story, or after Biden was caught laundering lies about beheaded babies, or the NYT laundering lies about mass rape, I just don't know. And still the Greens couldn't get 5%? There's something deeply dark and disturbed across the entirety of American society, and it seems like most of us can't even see it... Well, the consequences will arrive regardless.