Lou

Special counsel Jack Smith delivered a powerful indictment of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday for his alleged scheming and actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump was criminally charged Tuesday with illegally conspiring to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020., following a sprawling investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency.

The indictment accuses Trump of three conspiracies: . Trump was also charged with a fourth count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

The first charge alleges a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. “by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” according to the Justice Department.

The second details “a conspiracy to impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional proceeding where the election results were certified.

The third was “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted,” said DOJ in a statement.

Trump was also charged with a fourth count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

The charges signify an extraordinary moment in US history: a former president, in the midst of a campaign to return to the White House, being charged over attempts to use the levers of government power to subvert democracy and remain in office against the will of the voters.

In sweeping terms, the indictment described how Trump and six co-conspirators employed a variety of means to reverse his defeat in the election almost from the moment voting ended.

It depicted how Trump promoted false claims of fraud, sought to bend the Justice department toward supporting those claims, oversaw a scheme his vice president, Mike pence, to use the fake electors to subvert the certification of the election at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 2021, that was cut sort by violence at the Capitol.

The indictment did not name the co-conspirators, but the descriptions of their behavior match publicly known episodes involving prominent people around Trump. They are Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark and John Cheesman.

This is the third indictment for the twice impeached, sexual assaulter (and likely rapist) leader of the Republican Party. It is a sad day for the country but a good day for democracy and the rule of law. We will be severely tested in the upcoming months whether we can hold on to our democracy for ourselves and our children. Are we up to the task?! We must be.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday posted a campaign ad promoting his legislative wins by using clips from a recent speech GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gave at the Turning Point Action Conference where she compared Biden to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs, that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete,” Greene said in the video set to cheerful music.

The ad continues with another clip from the speech Greene gave over the weekend in which she explains the Biden administration’s investments. “Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid labor unions, and he still is working on it,” Greene said.

In response to Greene’s speech, the White House tweeted: “Caught us. President Biden is working to make life easier for hardworking families.”

The conservative Supreme Court made 3 rulings this week.

• The Supreme Court ended the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions, overruling nearly 50 years of precedent and depriving selective universities of a tool essential for keeping campuses diverse. Vote was 6 to 3.
• The Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s controversial proposal to cancel $400 billion in higher education loan repayments. Vote was 6 – 3.
• The Supreme Court ruled that a Christian graphic artist can refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, saying a Colorado anti discrimination law violates the First Amendment, spelling a major defeat for gay rights at a time when anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is erupting across the nation. Vote was 6 – 3.

State legislators are considering a bill that could help track and address noise complaints from local airports in the state — something Danvers residents say is needed to help stop noise issues from arising at Beverly Regional Airport.

The bill, filed as H.3358 and presented by Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, and Rep. Sally Kerans, D-Danvers, went before the Joint Committee on Transportation at the Statehouse Tuesday morning during a public hearing on proposed bills.

It calls for the Massachusetts Aeronautics Division to collect and post all noise reports and complaints made to each municipal or regional airport in the state between April 1 and Oct. 1 regularly on its website, according to the bill.

It would also instruct airport towers to record the number and duration of all “touchand- go” maneuvers between April 1 and Oct. 1, data which would also appear on Mass Aeronautics’ website forever.

These maneuvers specifically have caused some of the strife between Beverly Airport and its neighbors in the Anthony Lane area of Danvers.

For months, residents there have complained to the airportand local officials that these touch-and-goes — when an aircraft lands on a runway then immediately takes off again, often as part of flight training — and an increased number of flyovers have polluted their properties with excessive noise.

Trump was indicted last week on 37 counts related to more than 100 classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago in August. The charges include willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. It’s the first time in American history that a former president has faced federal charges.

Trump traveled to the courthouse in a 12 car motorcade. Who possibly could have been in those 12 cars? Appears that in his mind, he is still the President or at least wants to appear that he is.

Former President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities at the federal courthouse in Miami just before 2 p.m. ET. At his initial court appearance, Trump was represented by attorney Todd Blanche and former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise. The court required that Trump be represented by a Florida lawyer. Probably, due to the fact that Trump’s reputation for not paying his lawyers and that his lawyers typically need lawyers, he did not engage Mr Kise until the morning of the arraignment.

Trump was fingerprinted, used a previous mugshot, pleaded not guilty and left the courthouse roughly two hours later. Trump sat stoically with arms crossed and said nothing during the proceeding.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Goodman presided over the arraignment, but the case will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who ruled in Trump’s favor in an earlier dispute in the investigation.

Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump and a co-defendant, did not enter a plea today because he did not have local counsel. He faces six federal criminal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct, withholding a document or record and scheme to conceal. Trump is holding Nauta very close to him. He still works for Trump, traveled with him to the court and they walked out together. If Nauta flips, it obviously would be bad for Trump.

Trump signed a bond document that prohibits him from discussing his case with certain witnesses (i.e. Nauta and most everyone at Mar-A-Lago) — an unusual anti-witness-tampering provision added by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman that the prosecution had not sought. I have no idea how this would be enforced.

Trump previously proclaimed that if was ever indicted that the country would rise up in protest and he again urged his supporters to come to Miami. There was no nationwide protest and as before in NY, there was not a large number of protesters at the courthouse. However, we are all relieved that he did not provoke another January 6 type response.

Trump and Republicans repeated say that Trump is being treated differently and that there are two sets of rules, one for Democrats and another for Trump. I think they are correct. Others who have taken classified documents, have been swiftly brought to justice, they are fingerprinted, have mug shots taken, have passports taken, have bonds set and many are incarcerated until their trial. Compare Trump to Massachusetts resident Jack Texeira recently arrested for posting classified documents. Not saying Texeira was treated too severely, as in my opinion he was not, but that Trump is certainly being treated less severely than anyone else.

Trump also faces criminal charges in a New York state court where he pleaded not guilty in April to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In addition, he still faces investigations surrounding attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and the special counsel’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

For those keeping score, the score now is Trump 71 felony counts, all other presidents 0.

After the arraignment, Trump flew back to New Jersey, where he gave a speech to supporters at his golf club in Bedminster. Trump brought out all his greatest hits: “witch hunt”, “hoax”, “fake”, “Hilary Clinton”, “treated unfairly”, attacked the prosecutor and his wife, etc, etc. (we know the script well now) and at one point, he confessed to taking the documents because it was his right and he said he was “too busy” to look through the boxes.