The former US president once described himself as “the most innocent man anywhere in the history of the United States”.
It’s the kind of thing innocent people are so fond of saying, right? Well, he now has more evidence for the claim after being acquitted on charges of inciting a violent insurrection over the weekend.
He was so innocent, in fact, that several Republican senators argued he was guilty of inciting January’s riot at the Capitol Building minutes after they’d voted to acquit him of that charge.
Trump has an investigations-to-convictions ratio that would make John Gotti proud.
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The Mueller report
For the first three years of Trump’s presidency, the report undertaken by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election was the last hope of centrists everywhere. The election was illegitimate, just as we suspected, and now the system can reassert itself!
Those people were always going to be disappointed but perhaps no one was prepared for what an anti-climax it turned out to be.
Of course, it was also miles from the “total exoneration” Trump claimed. It found, among other things, that the Russian government tried to help Trump’s campaign and that Trump’s campaign advisers had a lot of troubling ties to Russia. Further, Trump tried several times to influence or stop the investigation.
But the smoking gun — irrefutable evidence of direct criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia — never came. Mueller did not recommend any charges.
Profiting off the presidency
Soon after Trump took office, members of Congress voiced concerns he would illegally profit off the presidency.
Their concerns were well-founded: Trump spent tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars visiting his own properties and hosting campaigns and committees there. He was hosting then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at his private Mar-a-Lago resort when North Korea launched a test missile, prompting a wave of social media attention for the crisis by candlelight.
The initiation fee for membership at the club doubled following Trump’s inauguration. US servicepeople stayed and played golf at a Trump resort in Scotland, former vice-president Mike Pence spent time at a remote Trump resort in Ireland and a $30,000 Christmas party was hosted at Trump’s DC hotel.
At a G7 summit, Trump brazenly advertised his Miami resort to other world leaders, bidding to host the next years’ event there.
Attorneys argued Trump benefitted whenever foreign or state governments visited Trump International hotels in Washington and New York. The Supreme Court dismissed the cases as moot as Trump was no longer president.
Family ties
Anti-nepotism laws bar presidents from hiring relatives to cabinet or agency jobs. But technically, the White House doesn’t count as an agency in the eyes of the law.
This was the consensus of Trump’s legal team, who were hired after the president announced plans to give his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner key roles in the White House. The pair made up to US$640 million while working there and pro-democracy groups are still fighting to close the legislative loophole.
Impeachment number one
There was always talk — some serious, some fanciful — of impeaching Trump. But, until 2019, it remained just that: talk. It was then that a whistleblower revealed an impeachable act so brazen, careless and unapologetic as to defy belief.
It was revealed that, in a phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump sought an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter — thus damaging the Democratic frontrunner’s chances in 2020 — in return for ongoing military aid. This and the White House’s attempts to obstruct Congress, as Guy Rundle put it at the time, are “exactly the sort of thing that impeachment articles were put into the constitution for”.
But what was true in 2021 was also true in 2020: impeachment is a political process more than a legal one. In both cases there were enough Republicans in the Senate to ensure Trump was acquitted.
Sexual misconduct accusations
One woman accused Trump of sexual assault in 1994, at a party thrown by Jeffrey Epstein. She dropped the suit after allegedly receiving threats. Another woman who accused Trump of forcibly kissing her dropped her lawsuit saying Trump had just too many resources.
As of this year, 26 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
What’s to come?
Now that he is out of office, Trump faces a wave of defamation lawsuits, including from Summer Zervos and E Jean Carroll; both women, who have accused Trump of assault and rape, have been called liars by Trump. Stormy Daniels also expects her defamation case to start back up.
A lawsuit launched by Trump’s niece is also expected to kick off. She has accused Trump and his siblings of defrauding her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars.
Of course, this is a story that is a long way from being finished. In Georgia, there’s a criminal probe into Trump’s conduct after the election. He faces a broad criminal investigation from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into whether the Trump organisation breached state laws around — among other things — insurance and tax fraud.
And in Washington, the District of Columbia attorney-general has said Trump could still face criminal charges for his role in the storming of the Capitol.
Wrenched from the legal protections of the Oval Office, Trump will have ample opportunity to continue proving his innocence.
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Donnie should be allowed to run in 2024, the Yanks deserve him, much the same here with Scomo`s crowd, they say you get the government you deserve.
Count the votes that went to the Liberals, on their own they would never make it. They only got in because of the Nats, Palmer and Hanson.
When do we get a similar analysis of Joe Biden, family and friends? You will need a lot more words for that story.
The Mueller Report
(The report that Mueller barely know the content of)
You have missed out some key facts about the Russia collusion conspiracy – please google Kevin Clinesmith, Carter Page, John Durham.
There is a massive miscarriage of Justice story here that you seem to have glossed over.
Profiting of…
So why didn’t they impeach Trump for Profiting off the Presidency? If there is criminal behavior then why impeach over Russia Collusion for which there is no evidence? Alternatively it was a missed opportunity for an additional impeachment. Or is it just more media BS.
Family Ties
“The pair made up to $640m US while working there”
Are you saying that they were paid $640m by the US taxpayer, or from their own businesses? What evidence do you have for this?
Impeachment Number 1
FBI was already investigating Hunter Biden by the time of the first impeachment. However this was only revealed last year. You forgot to mention this rather important fact.
Sexual Misconduct
skipping this subject.. perhaps just google creepy Joe..
Whats to come..
More wars, more big tech censorship, less freedom.
As far as I can tell, not one Biden, other than Joe, is serving in a role in the administration. But, hey ‘Jimbo’ if you’ve got proof – you know, evidence, facts, things people believe – feel free to share. Waiting, unexpectantly…
As the article says, Trump hasnt broken any laws in hiring relatives to perform Whitehouse roles.
In relation to your comment… not one Biden other than Joe, is serving in a role in the administration.. its early days. Hunter is too tarnished by the FBI investigation into his alleged financial crimes, as well as the sexually explicit imagery, and pictures of him smoking a crack pipe etc etc on his laptop, The same goes for Joes brother who is also under FBI investigation for financial crimes.
Perhaps the grand children might get a Whitehouse job at some point. And if they do, so what.
Seems that the tapes in which the hero bonespurs described his right to assault women whenever he felt like slipped past your scrutiny somehow.
Perhaps a few other things did as well? Like proof?
And perhaps a few convenient oversights have been included such as the dismissal of the claims made by that well known purveyor of facts one Guiliani, he of the melt down fame.
If it wasn’t such a danger to democracy the holding onto stories such as those would simply be a joke.
No the tapes didnt skip past my scrutiny.. And I assume you are referring to the Billy Bush tapes…thats Billy Bush from the Bush family. Nephew of Jeb Bush who Trump beat in the Primaries. And nephew of George W, ex US President.. The tape was a failed attempt to ensure Trump lost the election.
How many private conversations have you had that would show you in poor light if they were released to the public. All context removed etc etc.
Interestingly..
If you click on the 26 women link in the article above, one of the headings in the linked article is…
Here’s a complete accounting of all 34 credible sexual-misconduct allegations against Joe Biden and Donald Trump
I assume that the retainer for your waddaboutism, however meagre, is still worth more than your soul.
I observe that the Biden administration has appealed the Assange non extradition decision by the British high court. More of the same in this game of Dem/Repub and Lib/Lab two faces one party allusion.
Two cheeks around a single orifice.
Poor commentary on the Mueller Report. I wonder if the full, unredacted version will ever see the light ofr day. The then Attorney-General released a “summary” of the Report but did not release it – nothing to see here!
The bloke that may have released a full copy is banged up in Belmarsh prison, enjoying good English torture as a warm-up for the hard Yankee torture that will follow shortly.
Yes it doesn’t make me proud to be Australian when I think of Julian Assange -deserted by his own Country’s Politicians. Only a few have spoken out – Andrew Wilkie ,George Christensen & also I think Barnaby Joyce.
The gutless Labour Party will never ever get my vote again. I well remember Gillard also denouncing Julian.
Me too
And did Bob usedCarr when he was Foreign Minister.
He has recently changed his tune and proclaims that he was always at war with Eurasia.
We have had the privilege of witnessing America’s ‘If only…’ moment played out before our distant eyes in real time. I predict that in a decade from now the world and many Americans (some retired senators even) will look back on the day and say ‘If only…’ Sadly, it was not to be. They have now further emboldened a deluded, divisive and dangerous demagogue, devoid of decency and empathy but replete with ignorance and a lifelong sufferer of mythomania. His legacy on leaving office this time was 450,000+ dead Americans. Avoidable dead Americans. I dread to think what his legacy will be at that future moment when we say ‘If only…’
Acquittal in the sense of an impeachment trial requiring 60% of the senators to vote for conviction when 50% of those senators are republicans with the track record they have doesn’t really stand the sniff test when you try to label it an ‘acquittal’.
Nonetheless the USA is now facing the possibility of increasing acts of right wing terrorism as the supporters of that man who was ‘acquitted’ take the law into their own hands along with their weapons.
He has said it has only just started. If he had been in congress when that insurrection started he would have trampled everyone on his way to escape, and those cowards who voted to acquit, and know it, don’t deserve to remain in politics.