this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024

88 points (96.8% liked)

politics

19623 readers

2923 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Judge dismisses several counts against Trump in Georgia election criminal case, others still remain (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 11 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's important to note that this was not an exoneration, but rather more procedural. The judge's argument is that the charges brought are not specific enough as to what elements of their oaths were broken. Now, the prosecutors will either have to drop those charges or refile them in front of a grand jury with more specific charges. The racketeering charges remain and are unaffected by this ruling.

We also still haven't heard anything on the removal of the prosecutor for an alleged inappropriate relationship. This case is a clusterfuck.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The alleged inappropriate relationship, which was it's own box of mess all on its own still never indicated why that was prejudicial to the case.

Y'know - the main point of brining it up? Unless the whole point was to create smoke and noise to delay and obfuscate. Or else they just got in there and then - didn't have anything.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

It's one of those things where it's obviously intended to derail the case, but I'm still pretty upset with everyone involved for leaving themselves open to this. When you shoot for the king, you better not miss. If you're not interested in being a super clean goody-goody, don't take this job. It's part of the obligations for the important job you chose to do.

But yeah, agreed. I don't think the defense's argument is that it would be prejudicial to their case, but rather just arguing that there is other incentive for the prosecutor to be removed. Having the lead prosecutor removed just completely screws a case in the short term.

[–] xmunk 8 points 10 months ago

It's also important to realize that this is how our justice system works. Participants will rarely file a single charge if there are thirty that may apply - it's essentially free to file those 29 extra charges and it's extremely punishing if you file one and choose poorly. The early stages of trial are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

This seems like lazy reporting in an effort to be first…

“On its own, the United States Constitution contains hundreds of clauses, any one of which can be the subject of a lifetime’s study,” McAfee wrote.

Why is this included? It seems like it would be important to the story, but there’s no context or explanation…

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Full quote for visibility

"Defense lawyers for Trump and the others argued, among other things, that the indictment charging them with that specific count did "not detail the exact term of the oaths that are alleged to have been violated,” McAfee noted in his order.

McAfee agreed, saying that the language in the indictment accusing the defendants of soliciting elected officials to violate their oaths to the U.S. and Georgia constitutions “is so generic as to compel” dismissal of the charges."

I understand dismissing a charge of "failure to uphold and oath" when the accuser cannot establish which part of an oath was broken through specific actions in a legal case.

I'm not exactly familiar with the law, or the oath in question.

Hopefully oaths become more legally binding with updated, specific, terminology and do away with generic, vague platitudes that are entirely open to interpretation.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If you're trying to keep track of where we're at in the Trump prosecutions:

Updated 03/13/2024

New York
34 state felonies
Stormy Daniels Payoff

Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - March 25th, 2024
As with the January 6th trial, Trump lawyers are attempting to delay citing Presidential Immunity, despite the fact that Trump was not President when the crimes were committed.
Conviction
Sentencing

Washington, D.C.
4 federal felonies
January 6th Election Interference

Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - The trial, originally scheduled for March 4th, has been placed on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential Immunity. They are due to hear those arguments on April 25th.
Conviction
Sentencing

Florida
40 federal felonies
Top Secret Documents charges

Investigation
Indictment
Original indictment was for 37 felonies.
3 new felonies were added on July 27, 2023.
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - May 20, 2024
Conviction
Sentencing

Georgia
10 state felonies
Election Interference
As of 3/13/24 - Judge McAfee cleared 6 charges, 3 against Trump, saying they were too generic to be enforced.

Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
All 19 defendants have surrendered.
Trial - A trial date of Aug. 5, 2024 has been requested, not approved yet.
Three defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and bail bondsman Scott Hall, have all pled guilty and have agreed to testify in other cases.
Conviction
Sentencing

Other grand juries, such as for the documents at Bedminster, or the Arizona fake electors, have not been announced.

The E. Jean Carroll trial for sexual assault and defamation where Trump was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million before immediately defaming her again resulting in a demand for $10 million is not listed as it's a civil case and not a crimimal one. He was found liable in that case for $83.3 million.

There had been multiple cases in multiple states to remove Trump from the ballot, citing ineligibility under the 14th amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled on March 4th that states do not have the ability to determine eligibility in Federal elections.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/video/united-states-supreme-court-overturns-colorado-supreme-court-donald-trump-ballot-ruling/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Prosecutors have a bad habit of throwing the kitchen sink at anyone they come across and tossing a charge because it's too broad is okay - it can always be re-filed with added specificity. I would hope it would be.

[–] Impound4017 1 points 10 months ago

The weakness of our system is that it often assumes everyone is acting in good faith

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Judge Scott McAfee appointed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. In case you were wondering.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I might catch flak for this here, but I have watched a lot of the televised proceedings in this case and I think Judge McAfee has been more than fair so far in this case. This sucks but it is a legitimate procedural issue and a judge has to rule on these things. Frankly, I'm disappointed in the prosecution at this point. Between this and the relationship allegations, they have let multiple outside factors interfere in what might have been the best case against Trump for his election interference.