I am asking here because all the political subs don’t allow a question, and US politics used to seemed so simple until to understand this man came along.

  • @xantoxis
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    1 year ago

    Part of it is because there are still looming constitutional questions about whether a president, current or former, can be indicted for his actions during his presidency. I think we’ve mostly resolved those, though. A substantial and powerful cadre of political thugs is still going to try to sue to throw every conceivable barrier in the way of a reasonable interpretation of the law, but that just takes time to wade through the bullshit.

    Another big problem is that Trump captured a huge amount of the judiciary, at all federal levels, by putting cronies into high ranking judicial seats. It’s the main thing Republicans have been doing for, like, 50 years. Putting a case in front of any one of those is a landmine, and that minefield has to be carefully navigated, and that also takes time. We’re basically done with that part, now.

    The much bigger problem, in my perspective, is that any criminal trial requires a jury.

    Almost 50% of the voting public voted for this motherfucker. His approval has dipped sharply since then, but still, a huge portion of the US public is willing to do just about anything to make sure “their guy” wins. They have proven nearly invulnerable to rational argument, emotional argument and any appeal to empathy or compassion. They will lie to get on that jury, and then they will vote for his acquittal if they don’t get caught. Voir dire–the process of choosing that jury–is going to be one of the most harrowing things any prosecutor ever has to do. And it has to be done correctly because it’s extremely important that once the wheels of justice start turning, that they reach the correct verdict.

    Any thinking person knows what that verdict has to be. But there’s no guarantee that we’ll get it.

    And if we don’t get it, we see the rule of law start to collapse at all levels. Remember the 1992 riots after the cops that beat Rodney King got acquitted? Imagine a whole country of that. The prosecutors in these cases are thinking about that. And that’s why they’re being extremely meticulous about every detail of these proceedings, because their errors could cost us a lot more than Trump getting away.

    • @[email protected]
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      121 year ago

      It feels like, while in theory it might be possible to convict a former president, in practice it’ll be literally impossible to find a jury who aren’t biased in one way or another, because everyone has a strong opinion about the man. I’d bet my life savings that for virtually every potential juror, how they voted in 2020 has a bigger impact on their verdict than any evidence either side could possibly provide.

        • @PickTheStick
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          11 year ago

          Okay, I’m going to take this on its best face and believe that you might just not have thought about the process. In a jury trial, each juror gets to decide for themself what they believe happened based on the ‘facts’ presented during the trial. If you have talked to any hardcore fan of a politician, then you have seen how they can disregard just about anything that is presented about their favorite fella.

          The concern that a juror who voted for Trump; watches nothing but Fox News, Newsmax, or other ‘conservative’ media; lives in an area where only other brainwashed masses live; talks about nothing political except for conservative talking points with said neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers coworkers; and is still willing to believe in Trump’s innocence despite all the public evidence we know about will vote innocent regardless of what is presented in court is a legitimate concern. Don’t be naive and think that somehow being in court will cause a tiger to change its stripes.

          whew That was one hell of a run-on sentence.

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        We knew something was very wrong when he even made it to the primary in 2015. The guy is a mockery of every aspect of what people traditionally considered to be decent.

      • Flambo
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        51 year ago

        Do you have anything to say, or are you going to leave it at nothing?

      • 520
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        21 year ago

        What, in your opinion, is the reason why we’re at where we are with regards to Trump?

      • subignition
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        11 year ago

        Nice, a three sentence callout without any refutation or detail.

        If you are so confident in their confident incorrectness, put at least a minimum of effort into furthering the discussion.