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Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

nytimes.com

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Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#271

Post by pessimizer »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #218
anonu wrote: post #172

[flagged]

I’ve not looked recently but when I paid more attention trumps base made up 25% of the electorate. The key question will be if mainstream republicans continue to stick by him, especially if he is convicted of paying off a porn star to hush up an extramarital affair while his wife was pregnant. It’s one thing to say it’s nonsense and a witch hunt by an over zealous politically motivated DA, but a conviction by a jury…

> especially if he is convicted of paying off a porn star to hush up an extramarital affair while his wife was pregnant.

We already know he did it. This is something that has had at least 100K articles written about it. The indictment isn't for that, it's for a campaign finance violation. Paying prostitutes to sign NDAs isn't a crime.

edit: So I think a conviction will make absolutely no difference. I also think 25% is a good estimate for Trump's absolutely militant, committed base. That's a larger, and more united base than any other group in this country. It's also a group that's been dreaming about this for decades, armed to the teeth and mixed up in religious eschatology about the end of the world.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#273

Post by seizethecheese »

mbgerring wrote: post #55

Nearly the entire point of the United States at its founding was that the law should apply to political leaders. We are overdue for setting the precedent of a former President being charged with a crime, and we ought to go back and charge a few other former Presidents with crimes while we’re at it.

The reason nobody should be above the law is because it’s important for our sense that the law is impartial.

This is also why it’s important to not use the law as a political tool. Otherwise trust in the law is undermined.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#274

Post by norwalkbear »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #167

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…

[flagged]

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#275

Post by stanleydrew »

norwalkbear wrote: post #246
mbgerring wrote: post #55

Nearly the entire point of the United States at its founding was that the law should apply to political leaders. We are overdue for setting the precedent of a former President being charged with a crime, and we ought to go back and charge a few other former Presidents with crimes while we’re at it.

[flagged]

To make this claim you have to argue that the indictment is illegitimate. And I suppose there are a lot of people who will make that claim.

Presumably the reason Obama, Bush and Clinton won't be charged with crimes is that there isn't enough evidence that they committed any crimes for a prosecutor to seek an indictment.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#276

Post by anonu »

vlovich123 wrote: post #207
anonu wrote: post #172

[flagged]

Genuine question. Do you think the Democratic Party itself is conspiring with the DA to bring these charges? Is it at all possible that Bragg is bringing these charges because Trump broke the law and his former lawyer already went to jail for this exact same crime Given that what he did was at Trump’s direct behest? Ie how would this look different if this wasn’t something that the DNC was trying to orchestrate as a…

> conspiring

I wouldn't use that word. Of course, if you break the law, you should be brought to justice no matter who you are. But come on.. Let's not be overly naive and believe that everyone operates in their own virtuous bubble.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#277

Post by anonymouskimmer »

norwalkbear wrote: post #269
jmull wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind we don’t know the charges yet, or details of the case, like what evidence there is. If you pronounce it a joke or predict the disbarment of Bragg now , you aren’t doing it based on the merits of the case.

[flagged]

A political prosecution isn't wrong per se. Many, many prosecutions are political at heart (as seen in "tough on crime", or even "reform a corrupt system" DA offices).

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#278

Post by sbaiddn »

snozolli wrote: post #209
at_a_remove wrote: post #110

[flagged]

please note that for the future, during the point when the Hunter Biden Laptop thing reaches some kind of courtroom, if ever. How can it? The fools who handled it bungled every single step. They passed it around, completely destroying any chain of evidence, and started modifying the copies that they made. The most damning thing on it was homemade porn, effectively making their publishing of it run afoul of revenge po…

Well there are those pesky pictures of Hunter smoking crack while saying he's clean on a federal gun background check. Thats a biggie.

Also, unless he was in Reno, paying for prostitutes is illegal.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#279

Post by robomartin »

keithnz wrote: post #223
robomartin wrote: post #120

[flagged]

HN isn't really an archive of news though, we should be able to talk about it thoughtfully, even with your own personal bias

That is not what is happening. Go have a look at the downvotes and flagged posts. One sided. Violently so. And it will not get better. That is not a good thing. As a centrist this is what I detest most about where our society is at the moment. This idea of "thoughtfully" left the stage a long time ago.

If you want don't agree, post a thoughtful comment against this indictment right now. Not defending Trump, just express the most solid case you can make against this indictment. Then watch and see what happens to your post. If you actually believe there's balance on HN, do that. I'll be you'll be very surprised.

Re: Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump

#280

Post by dmix »

rvz wrote: post #176
adrr wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve prosecuted a vice president candidate for similar crimes. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-senator-and-presidenti...

Exactly. I also guarantee you that this 2011 prosecution was of remote interest and wasn't raced to the top of HN at the time and even if it was posted it would be either ignored, or flagged to oblivion as it is off-topic. Furthermore, I don't see how is this whole thread is related to 'Hacker News', or where this is 'intellectually interesting' as it is already reported in the news. It is only for pure politics and…

The “how is this related to HN?” is the most boring category of comment on HN. If it wasn’t of interest to our demo and was mostly producing flamewars it would be quickly flagged off the frontpage.

We don’t need heavy handed moderation to determine what’s relevant to HN, like Reddit pretends it needs. The community does a good job and the mods step in when necessary.

And if HN occasionally doesn’t flag stuff and it bothers you then don’t click on it. We don’t always get it right.

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