Why I Like the Law, (Edited)

Though, Law plus Politics really sucks. (Updated August 30, 2024)

 

1 Introduction

The recent fourth indictment of Donald John Trump has pulled back the curtain on a situation many people purport to include The Law as part of the purpose. At this point I’m going to make the assertion that this is how things were supposed to work, though I have little confidence. As shown in the Trump indictment, criminal charges end up being similar to a leap into a lake, both feet first. This is counter to what many politicians do as they wade in slowly, or not at all, depending on the promises made; some of which they may or may-not keep. 

It should be noted with these indictments of Trump, when coupled with the recent plea deal offered up by the lawyers of Hunter Biden that The Law is known to be not always applied fairly; or at least that is what H. Biden’s lawyers seem to have assumed; this shows that while The Law may be nonpolitical, the legal system is far from following suit. Italy, until recently, was possibly the most politicized country in the G7 group of countries; this might explain the saying, ‘apply the law to your enemies and interpret the law for your friends’ or something like that. 

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer and I’ve never played one on Television, and there is no legal advice intended; in fact I will probably be wrong on many points if I tried. This is why when I do site a statute and so I will try to provide a link to the actual statute or source from which I’m quoting. 

I’m going to follow the Corporate Medias’ mainline narrative and put Trump(i) first and will barely mention Hunter Biden(ii); starting with the indictments as shown below:

1.1 The Indictments

1.1.1 Donald John Trump - Federal indictments:

a (T.2) A June 2023 federal indictment related to classified government documents, in which Trump faces 40 criminal counts alleging mishandling of sensitive documents and conspiracy to obstruct the government in retrieving these documents. The trial is scheduled for May 2024. 

b (T.3) An August 2023 federal indictment related to attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump faces four criminal counts of conspiring to defraud the government and disenfranchise voters, and corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. This trial is scheduled for March 4, 2024. 

1.1.2 Donald John Trump - State indictments:

a (T.1) A March 2023 indictment in New York, in which Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The trial is scheduled for March 2024.

b (T.4) An August 2023 indictment in Georgia, in which Trump faces 13 criminal counts related to alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden's victory in Georgia, alongside 18 accused co-conspirators(iii). 

1.1.3 Robert Hunter Biden – State Charges:

a (B.1) WILMINGTON, Del. – The United States Attorney for the District of Delaware filed charges today against Robert Hunter Biden (“Hunter Biden”) of Los Angeles.  Hunter Biden has been charged with two misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense and has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to the tax offenses and enter into a pre-trial diversion agreement with regard to the firearm charge at a proceeding to be scheduled by the assigned United States District Court judge. [Updated June 20, 2023]

NOTE: Each indictment has been labeled with the first initial of the last name and the order the indictment came down. 

Moving on:

Here are some of the things that I’ve come to understand: 

1. The President of the United States (POTUS) is allowed to issue a pardon for a person(s) convicted under a Federal statute but not a State statute, 

2. A state Governor, is allowed to issue a pardon for a person(s) convicted under a State level statute but not a Federal statute,

3. The Racketeer Influenced, and Corruption Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law and has been adopted in some of the member states. The RICO act provides extended opportunities for criminal charges for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization, 

i The statute of limitations on RICO seems to be 4-5 years depending on who you ask. 

ii To any Canadian criminals, Canada also has a RICO act, though I haven’t looked into the details; so gangsters beware. 

4. A diversion agreement is where the accused requests or is offered to perform something such as community service in exchange to have the charges withdrawn or dropped,

5. The side bringing the case goes first in court as that side bears the burden of proof, allowing the defense to have the last word thus leaving the last impression,

6. Previously contended US elections: 1800 (Jefferson v. Burr), 1824 (Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and Clay), 2000 (Gore v. Bush), and 2020 (Trump v. Biden),

7. On and or about January 7th 2021, Trump conceded loosing the 2020 Presidential election to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. 

8. For the indictment to overturn the 2020 presidential election (T.3), the Attorney General's office turned over approximately 11.5 pages of documents.  Assuming that the document were handed over on August 27th, with a trial date of March 4th 2024 would provide 188 days. The resulting math indicates that 61,170 pages would need to be read each and every day. 

2 Sorting things out:

Lawfare is defined as ‘the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent(iv)’ and this is, in my opinion, what is going on with these Donald J. Trump indictments. One has to remember that many of the judicial positions involved that come with power are based on the electoral process, while others are appointed; as such not only is it important to be able to read the room, one has to know which room to do the reading in.

When measuring an individual, no matter what the situation, it is important to judge the balance their interest between heart, head, ego, and bank account; this quadrilateral of personality traits may seem obvious but remember this describes a trapezoidal picture. Keep in mind that when a person’s intents are to be considered the lengths of the sides and the angles, must shift over both time and situation. 

Now, armed with the situation and a framework, I’m going to take a stab at what might be going on. The court appearances are lining up pretty well with the RNC event calendar for their ‘big events’.

While January kicks off the RNC Primary(v) in New Hampshire event is in March, the court date for Trump to appear in court, in New York, due to the first indictment, as found in item (T.1); this imposes a hardship for Trump’s campaign as the New York RNC Primary isn’t held until April. The second indictment, found in item (T.2) is to be held in Florida during the month of May 2024, and the Florida GOP Primary is March 19th. Currently the other two indictments have no dates attached though it looks like the fourth indictment is looking to be scheduled for just prior to Super Tuesday on March 5th. It will be interesting to see what the court dates for the remaining two indictments are. 

The paragraph above shows how strategically filed court cases can be used to derail Trumps campaign efforts. The ‘court of public opinion’ is typically the battle ground of politicians, and for that one needs the cooperation of the Corporate MEDIA. In the last six months Trump has been charged with 91 criminal offenses, including the RICO charge in Georgia, this will leave many people who look at the sheer number of charges assuming that someone with that many charges must have done something wrong. 

With the USA being what it is, I’ll assume Trump will have to pay for his own flight/drive to, New York, Florida, Delaware, and Georgia to face the charges he has been slapped with; keep that second to last word before the semicolon in mind for later please. Another side effect of these indictments is the impact it will have on the idea of privilege within the client/lawyer relationship. The New York indictment implies that Trump was guilty of thirty-four counts of §175.10(vi) (intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime…) through the use of his lawyer. Meanwhile, in the Georgia indictment there are claims that Trump’s lawyers were guilty by following Trumps instruction, and this is why they too were slapped with charges under the RICO act. 

3 Analysis/Strategy

In a broad sense, the Democrats via this political maneuvering have just squeezed the toothpaste out of the tube; and while putting the toothpaste back into the tube is possible, such a task would not be trivial. I can’t know if these four legal maneuvers are being done in coordination or are unique endeavors on a per District Attorney basis; as there is a lack of evidence in one direction or the other at the time of this writing.

The reason for the lack of evidence is that no-one seems to be digging into what is happening to Trump, at least for now, though this might change in time; we will see. Now it is time to remember that word ‘slapped’, though now the ‘ed’ is going to be dropped. A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP suit) refers to lawsuits brought by individuals and entities to dissuade their critics from continuing to produce negative publicity. Some of the states that have Anti-SLAPP laws are Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and New York. It should be noted that there are no anti-SLAPP laws at the Federal level in the USA. 

Back to me NOT being a lawyer, I’d like to read the reason as to why Trump’s current lawyers don’t bring forward an anti-SLAPP suit or four; or at least a gag order on media distribution, but that is not how America works and so this is the situation Trump has to deal with. Though in looking at the charges, with the exception of the Florida indictment which does seem to have some legal ‘meat on the bone’ as that saying goes. I suspect that the other indictments would fail under an anti-SLAPP suit if reviewed by an independent judge.

For me it seems that some of these Democrat politicians and the DNC in general have forgotten the old saying ‘no-one wins forever’; or perhaps they feel that they only have to win for long-enough. This situation will turn very interesting if Donald J. Trump wins the 2024 Presidential election as Trump is not well known for his ‘forgive and forget’ stance  for those people he sees as an antagonists. 

So it looks like Trump jumped in two feet first and then the Democrats followed suit(s) as it were, at this point all I can say is – ‘We will see’. 

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i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictments_against_Donald_Trump

ii https://www.justice.gov/usao-de/pr/tax-and-firearm-charges-filed-against-robert-hunter-biden

iii https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/1ccdf52e-1ba2-434c-93f8-2a7020293967.pdf

 iv https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lawfare

 v https://www.270towin.com/2024-presidential-election-calendar/ (sorry for the adds)

 vi https://www.manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-Indictment.pdf