Gilead
Donald Trump
It seems like an awful lot of stuff is happening quickly now. This, of course, creates an anticipation that indictments are imminent, and indeed, they are widely expected in the Stormy Daniels matter. I’m not sure, however, that that actually follows. In other matters, I’ve been saying I’ll believe there are charges when there actually are charges, in significant part because there has seemed to be an endless supply of excuses that have long since taken on the appearance less of delay and more of desperate avoidance.[1]
Indeed, the case that is now the campaign finance violation case involving hush money apparently paid to Daniels was widely thought to be dead.[2] As it turns out, Alvin Bragg, having expressed “doubts about taking a case against [Donald] Trump, personally, to court, . . . refocused [it] . . . returning to the matter that originally sparked their investigation into Trump a number of years back: the hush money payment.”[3]
Time will tell, but for now, I do not have the same impression of Bragg I have of the endlessly dithering Merrick Garland,[4] who eventually appointed Jack Smith as special counsel.[5] And Smith, to all appearances, and somewhat to my surprise, is pursing his investigation aggressively,[6] suggesting we might, after all, see charges here as well.
It’s all still really speculation. But there is hope I was wrong.
Coup attempt
Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
David Remnick, “The Curtain Rises on Trump’s Legal Dramas,” New Yorker, March 18, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-curtain-rises-on-trumps-legal-dramas
Charlie Savage, “Dissecting Charges That Could Arise From the Trump Investigations,” New York Times, March 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/19/us/politics/trump-investigations.html
Bess Levin, “Donald Trump’s Lawyers Seem Pretty Panicked He’s Going to be Indicted in Georgia Too,” Vanity Fair, March 20, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/donald-trump-potential-fulton-county-georgia-charges
Jeremy Barr, “Judge sounds skeptical of some Fox arguments in Dominion lawsuit,” Washington Post, March 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/03/21/judge-sounds-skeptical-some-fox-arguments-dominion-lawsuit/
Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, “Trump denounces ‘crime-fraud’ ruling forcing attorney to testify in documents probe,” Politico, March 21, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/21/trump-crime-fraud-attorney-documents-probe-00088215
Josh Dawsey et al., “Trump lawyer must turn over evidence on classified documents, court rules,” Washington Post, March 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/22/trump-appeal-lawyer-classified-documents/
Charlotte Klein, “Judge Doesn't Seem Convinced by Fox News' Arguments in the Dominion Lawsuit,” Vanity Fair, March 22, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/fox-dominion-hearing
Tina Nguyen, “Is the Republican Primary Already Over?” Puck, March 22, 2023, https://puck.news/is-the-republican-primary-already-over/
Sam Levine, “Why Dominion is already the winner of the $1.6bn lawsuit against Fox News,” Guardian, March 23, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/23/dominion-fox-news-defamation-lawsuit-winner
John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, and Jonathan Karl, “Meadows, other top Trump aides ordered to testify in Jan. 6 probe as judge rejects claims of executive privilege,” ABC News, March 24, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/US/meadows-top-trump-aides-ordered-testify-jan-6/story?id=98101813
Stormy Daniels
Fig. 1. Stormy Daniels at Ron Jeremy’s birthday party. Photograph by Luke Ford (Lukeisback.com), March 10, 2007, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.
John Wagner and Hannah Allam, “Trump warns of ‘potential death & destruction’ if he’s charged in hush-money case,” Washington Post, March 24, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/24/trump-hush-money-death-destruction/
Illiberalism
Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.
Shira Rubin and Steve Hendrix, “Netanyahu vows to push through judicial overhaul amid nationwide protests,” Washington Post, March 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/23/israel-judicial-reform-netanyahu-protests/
Dan Williams, “Israel ratifies law limiting conditions for a Netanyahu ouster,” Reuters, March 23, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-ratifies-law-limiting-conditions-netanyahu-ouster-2023-03-23/
Times of Israel, “AG says Netanyahu is breaking the law and in violation of conflict of interest deal,” Times of Israel, March 24, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/ag-says-netanyahu-is-breaking-the-law-and-in-violation-of-conflict-of-interest-deal/
- [1]David Benfell, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time,” Not Housebroken, March 3, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/24/it-is-now-even-more-urgently-orange-jumpsuit-time/↩
- [2]William D. Cohan, “The Billion-Dollar Trump-Wall Street Mystery,” Puck News, April 6, 2022, https://puck.news/the-billion-dollar-trump-wall-street-mystery/; Jane Mayer, “Why Does New York’s Criminal Investigation of Donald Trump Appear All But Over?” New Yorker, February 24, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-does-new-yorks-criminal-investigation-of-donald-trump-appear-all-but-over; Corinne Ramey and Deanna Paul, “Two Prosecutors in New York Investigation of Donald Trump Resign,” Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-prosecutors-in-new-york-investigation-of-donald-trump-resign-11645650257; Corinne Ramey and Deanna Paul, “Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor Who Resigned Said He Believed Trump Committed Numerous Felonies,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ex-manhattan-prosecutor-who-resigned-said-he-believed-trump-committed-numerous-felonies-11648087035↩
- [3]Bess Levin, “Is Donald Trump Going to Prison? And Answers to Every Other Burning Question About His Likely Indictment,” Vanity Fair, March 20, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/donald-trump-indictment-explainer↩
- [4]David Benfell, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time,” Not Housebroken, March 3, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/24/it-is-now-even-more-urgently-orange-jumpsuit-time/↩
- [5]Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman, “Jack Smith Named Special Counsel to Lead DOJ Probes of Donald Trump,” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/garland-to-name-special-counsel-to-determine-whether-trump-should-face-charges-11668796152↩
- [6]Josh Dawsey et al., “Trump lawyer must turn over evidence on classified documents, court rules,” Washington Post, March 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/22/trump-appeal-lawyer-classified-documents/; Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, “Trump denounces ‘crime-fraud’ ruling forcing attorney to testify in documents probe,” Politico, March 21, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/21/trump-crime-fraud-attorney-documents-probe-00088215; Bess Levin, “Merrick Garland’s Special Counsel Is Zeroing In On Trump’s Inner Circle,” Vanity Fair, January 10, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/donald-trump-jack-smith-special-counsel-investigation; David Remnick, “The Curtain Rises on Trump’s Legal Dramas,” New Yorker, March 18, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-curtain-rises-on-trumps-legal-dramas; John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, and Jonathan Karl, “Meadows, other top Trump aides ordered to testify in Jan. 6 probe as judge rejects claims of executive privilege,” ABC News, March 24, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/US/meadows-top-trump-aides-ordered-testify-jan-6/story?id=98101813; Charlie Savage, “Dissecting Charges That Could Arise From the Trump Investigations,” New York Times, March 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/19/us/politics/trump-investigations.html; Chris Walker, “DOJ Is ‘On a Path to Charge’ Trump, Former U.S. Attorney Says,” Truthout, December 12, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/doj-is-on-path-to-charge-trump-former-us-attorney-says/; Shan Wu, “Trump’s Special Master Suit Is Dead—Now the Real Case Begins,” Daily Beast, December 12, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-special-master-suit-is-deadnow-the-real-case-begins↩