Trump admits to his aides, that he is worried about all the state and federal prosecutions that are impending after he loses the election. Hey, if you can't do the time, don't commit the crimes !
Today from Salon;
In response to:
President Trump tells advisers that he fears prosecution if he loses the election: report
Trump fears not only the state and local investigations already underway but also possible new federal probes
Roger Sollenberger
November 3, 2020 2:02AM (UTC)
With Election Day approaching and his poll numbers still flagging, President Donald Trump has allegedly begun to express concerns to aides about the potential criminal liabilities which may await him in a post-White House life.
The threats are broad: Trump's businesses are currently under investigation by the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney's office for possible tax and financial crimes. He is also worried about the potential for new federal investigations, according to a new report from The New York Times.
Trump has reportedly expressed these concerns to advisers "for weeks." Aside from the known state and local probes, The Times did not specify which specific liabilities might have unnerved the president at the federal level.
The difference is significant, because presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes; they do not extend to state and local levels. The constitutional question of whether Trump would pardon himself before leaving office — which no president has tried — has simmered throughout his term. It even came up during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings last month.
While former special counsel Robert Mueller's final report did not directly accuse Trump of any crimes, "it also does not exonerate him." Though Mueller laid out what many legal experts called textbook examples of obstruction of justice, he did not make a decision "either way" about whether to prosecute Trump. The lack of conclusion maddened the president's supporters and detractors alike.
That decision largely — but not solely, according to testimony from Attorney General William Barr — hinged on existing Department of Justice guidance which bars a sitting president from be criminally prosecuted. That same guidance deterred federal prosecutors from listing Trump as a co-conspirator by name in the indictment which ultimately sent his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to federal prison.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York claimed in that case that Cohen had an accomplice in his hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, an unindicted co-conspirator whom the charging document against Cohen referred to as "Individual-1" — someone who had run "an ultimately successful campaign for president of the United States."
Because communications about those payments extended into 2017, it may be argued that the five-year statute of limitations would not apply to Trump's involvement in that crime as a co-conspirator if he were to be prosecuted in 2021.
Ken Starr, the independent prosecutor who investigated former President Bill Clinton, said before Mueller submitted his report in 2018 that he believed the former special counsel would either refer Trump to Congress for impeachment or he would face indictment once he is no longer president.
"Those are the two avenues that I see," Starr said at the time.
Further, there has been no reporting about what happened to the counterintelligence investigation that the FBI opened into Trump in 2017, and Mueller was prevented from digging into Trump's finances as a result of a decision from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the investigation's early stages. ....
(continued in my first comment below)
I've read that Trump walked out on an interview by Leslie Stahl, because the questions were too tough for him.
He was also supposed to take part in an interview with Mike Pence, but didn't come back for it.
Joe Biden was also interviewed and simply answered their questions without storming out like a 3 year old.
Perhaps it will be another nail in the coffin of the Trump reign of terror.
Is it even possible, that there are still some people out there, that actually still think, that Trump is smart ?
In response to:
Satire from The Borowitz Report
Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Month of November
By Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald Trump stirred controversy on Friday by signing an executive order that would ban the month of November.
While legal scholars protested that he did not have the right to reduce the number of months in a year from twelve to eleven, Trump argued that “the Constitution doesn’t say anything about how many months you have to have.”
“All of those smart guys like Jefferson and Madison, those beauties, this is something they didn’t think of,” he said. “I got them on the months.”
Trump said that eliminating November from the calendar was “long overdue,” calling it “a rigged month.”
“November is a hoax,” he said. “Some people say it may not even be a real month.”
Responding to a reporter’s question about the future of Thanksgiving, Trump said that “nobody will miss it.”
“Just ask anyone in this country,” he said. “Nobody has anything to be thankful for.”
Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author
and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998.
He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.
Well, we may not have has much to be thankful for so far in 2020.
But, I have a good feeling, that a LOT of people will be saying "Thank God !!" in a few days.
From the NY Times;
In response to:
BREAKING NEWS
Stocks suffered their biggest weekly drop since March, as the jump in coronavirus cases and new restrictions in Europe added to investors’ worries.
Friday, October 30, 2020 4:17 PM EST
Stocks fell on Friday, dropping for the fourth time in the past five days, a retreat that has added up to Wall Street’s worst week since financial markets were gripped by panic over the pandemic and the economic damage that shutdowns and stay-at-home orders would cause.
Perhaps now Trump will finally actually do something to prevent the spread of the virus, rather than deny
it's existence and importance, since to him, stocks are much more important than human lives.
Or create your own photo caption, if you like.
Here's the photo;
FiveThirtyEight has Biden up BIG TIME !
They give Biden an 89% chance of winning the election
and only 11 percent for Trump.
Now THAT'S more like it should be.
See for yourself;
Today from The New York Times;
In response to:
Covid-19 Live Updates: The U.S. Hits the 9-Million Mark as Infections Keep Surging
Some public health experts are backing Biden’s “national mask mandate” idea. The virus is threatening to bring Europe’s health care systems to the brink of collapse.
With daily reports of coronavirus cases in the United States surging to previously unseen heights, the country has crossed the threshold of nine million known infections since the pandemic began.
On Thursday, the U.S. set another record for new daily cases, more than 86,600, topping the record set last Friday when the country recorded 85,000. It’s the equivalent of about one new case every second.
“There is no way to sugarcoat it: We are facing an urgent crisis, and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors,” said Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
Over the past week, new cases in the United States have averaged more than 75,000 a day, and eight states reported daily records on Thursday. More total cases have been identified in the U.S. than in any other country, though some nations have had more cases in proportion to their populations.
In Wisconsin, more than 200 coronavirus deaths have been announced over the last week, and as case numbers explode, hospitals have been under increasing strain.
Wisconsin, home to eight of the country’s 15 metro areas with the highest rates of recent cases, was among the first states to lose control of the virus this fall. But the surge that started in the Upper Midwest and rural West has now spread far beyond, sending infection levels soaring in places as disparate as El Paso, Chicago and Rexburg, Idaho.
Idaho’s governor, Brad Little, this week imposed new restrictions on businesses and gatherings. “Hospitals throughout the state are quickly filling up or are already full with Covid-19 patients and other patients, and way too many health care workers are out sick with Covid-19,” Mr. Little said.
Twenty-one states added more cases in the seven-day period ending Wednesday than in any other seven-day stretch of the pandemic against a backdrop of a bitter presidential contest.
President Trump, in the closing days of his campaign, has assured voters that the virus is vanishing, brushing aside the devastation it has wrought and even mocking people who take precautions — including measures his own health advisers recommend — to slow the spread of the disease.
Daily reports of deaths from the virus remain far below their spring peaks, averaging around 780 a day. But those, too, have started to tick upward.
There are not many hopeful signs in the recent data.
(continued below)
Today from The Week;
In response to:
Trump is reportedly mad his FBI director isn't hurting Biden before the election, might fire him
Peter Weber
Thu, October 22, 2020, 12:25 AM EDT
"President Trump and his advisers have repeatedly discussed whether to fire FBI Director Christopher A. Wray after Election Day," less than four years into his 10-year term, The Washington Post reports. "Trump often complains about members of his Cabinet and contemplates dismissing them, without doing so," the Post concedes, but he is "increasingly frustrated" that "federal law enforcement has not delivered his campaign the kind of last-minute boost that the FBI provided in 2016."
Specifically, the Post says, Trump is agitated that neither Wray nor Attorney General William Barr has announced that "Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, or other Biden associates are under investigation," as then-FBI Director James Comey did with Hillary Clinton 11 days before the last presidential election, sending Clinton's poll numbers sliding.
Comey's decision to publicly disclose a reopened, ultimately fruitless investigation of Clinton's emails so close to the election was sharply criticized by Democrats and the Justice Department inspector general. It was also the official reason Trump fired Comey four years into his 10-year term.
Trump hasn't exactly kept his feelings secret. As his poll numbers remain dire weeks before Election Day, Trump "has intensified public calls for jailing his challenger, much as he did for Hillary Clinton," the Post notes. "Trump has called Biden a 'criminal' without articulating what laws he believes the former vice president has broken."
Sticking to his latest campaign messaging, Trump baselessly calls Hunter Biden a criminal, then turns the question on the reporter: "You know who's a criminal? You're a criminal for not reporting it."
Of course we know who the REAL criminal is Mr. Trump University, Mr. Tax Evader, Mr. Money Launderer, Mr. Obstruction of Justice, Mr. Tiny c's on the Housing Applications, Mr. Emoluments Violater, Mr. Rapist, Mr. Impeached.
However, we all will have to await you being dragged out of the White House by your tiny orange hands in late January before you get prosecuted. That is, if you don't escape the country first.
Moments ago from The New York Times;
In response to:
U.S. reports more than 500,000 cases in a week, a record, as cities and states enact new restrictions.
The United States has reported a record of more than 500,000 new cases over the past week, as states and cities resort to stricter new measures to contain the virus that is again raging across the country, especially the American heartland.
The record was broken on the same day the Trump administration announced what it called its first-term scientific accomplishments, in a press release that included “ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC” written in bold, capital letters.
The first coronavirus case in the U.S. was confirmed on Jan. 21, and the country did not record 500,000 total cases until April 11. Testing was severely limited in the early days of the pandemic.
The new restrictions range from a nightly business curfew in Newark, N.J., to a two-week stay-at-home order in El Paso, Texas, to a halt in indoor dining in Chicago.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Tuesday that he was stopping indoor dining and bar service in Chicago, effective at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30.
The city joins New York and Wisconsin, states that earlier this month issued restrictions or outright bans on indoor dining in restaurants and bars to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The restrictions have been loudly opposed by a restaurant industry that has been decimated by the pandemic.
Chicago is now averaging more than twice as many coronavirus-related hospital admissions per day as it was a month ago, Mr. Pritzker’s office said, and the share of tests that are coming back positive has almost doubled since the beginning of October.
The U.S. has reported a record daily average of about 71,000 new cases over the past week, an increase of about 40 percent from the average two weeks earlier. Eighteen states, including Illinois, have recorded their highest seven-day average of new cases, and three states (Tennessee, Wisconsin and Oklahoma) have set a record seven-day average for deaths. On Tuesday, Oklahoma and Wyoming broke single-day death records and Kentucky reported a new daily cases record.
Mr. Pritzker’s announcement follows a similar indoor dining ban that includes southern Cook County, just outside Chicago, which was announced Monday.
In Chicago, outdoor service will be allowed if tables are spaced six feet apart; reservations are required, and service shuts down at 11 p.m. All social gatherings in the city will be limited to 25 people or 25 percent of the venue’s capacity, whichever is less.
“We can’t ignore what is happening around us,” Mr. Pritzker said in a statement. “Because without action, this could look worse than anything we saw in the spring.”
Rising infections and over 225,000 dead Americans. Oh yeah, quite an "accomplishment".
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