America's Most Wannabe

The Justice Train keeps barreling down the tracks toward Accountabilityville. Now at its third stop, the District of Columbia. There's only one passenger: America's Most Wannabe.

Bob Englehart

A couple weeks ago, T**** was served with a "target letter," indicating that he is a target of another federal investigation. A target letter often precedes an indictment, so for two weeks, we've been on pins and needles, waiting for the federal indictment surrounding the events that occurred on January 6, 2021. Yesterday, it came.

The Indictment

It is important to remember that this indictment – as all felony indictments – was agreed upon by a majority of between 16 and 23 citizen members of the federal Grand Jury of the District of Columbia. The members of the Grand Jury have to find that there is probable cause that a person committed a crime. No one person has the power to bring charges. The MAGAt crowd doesn't care to understand this; they are a hopeless cause.

It is another well-written, concise short story outlining the two months preceding January 6, 2021. It doesn't take long to read the 45-page document. Read it here. And if you want some nifty annotations served alongside, read the New York Times's version here or CNN's here. Please do read it. We have another historic document, one that outlines the criminal acts of a president of the United States in the attempt to subvert the will of the people and overturn the results of a free and fair election. 

The Charges

There are four federal felony charges against the single defendant, D***** J. T****. 

1.  Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
2.  Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
3.  Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding
4.  Conspiracy Against Rights

Count One: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. T**** is accused of conspiring to use all kinds of "dishonesty, fraud, and deceit" to prevent the government from its processes of certifying the election results.

Count Two: Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding. The Defendant is accused of conspiring to attempt to interfere with the certification of the electoral vote on January 6, 2021.

Count Three: Obstruction of, and Attempt to Obstruct, an Official Proceeding. Without conspirators, he is accused of outright obstruction and impeding the certification of the electoral vote. Counts two and three have been used to successfully convict other defendants for their January 6 doings.

Count Four: Conspiracy Against Rights. He is accused of conspiring to "injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate" United States citizens of their right to vote and to have their votes counted. 

The evidence for all the counts is laid out in pages 3-42 of the indictment. 

Jack Smith's Statement

Shortly after the indictment was unsealed, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith appeared before the cameras for a brief statement. He entreated all Americans to read the indictment for themselves, and he lauded the law enforcement agents who defended the Capitol that day, as well as the many agents and attorneys working on the People's behalf to bring justice. He also reminded us that the Defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty by a jury of citizens in a court of law.

Does anyone else have a crush on this man?

Watch his less-than-three-minute statement here:

The Unindicted Co-conspirators

There are six co-conspirators, who are unnamed and unindicted (a legal note: in an indictment, if you name them you must indict them and if you indict them you must name them). It's easy to guess who most of them are, based on what we know from the January 6 Congressional Hearings last year. They are described well in the indictment itself. 

Co-conspirator 1: Rudy Giuliani

Co-conspirator 2: John Eastman

Co-conspirator 3: Sidney Powell

Co-conspirator 4: Jeffrey Clark

Co-conspirator 5: Kenneth Chesebro

Co-conspirator 6: described as a "political consultant," pundits so far do not know who this person is. This co-conspirator helped with the Pennsylvania piece of the plot. When I heard "political consultant" in the context of a criminal charge, my mind went immediately to Roger Stone. He had his fingers all over these shenanigans. Newsweek is speculating that it is Ginni Thomas. Oooh that it would be her and that she would be charged! Other names bandied about: Steven Miller, Steve Bannon, or the pillow salesman.

To remind you who the known nefarious players are, the Washington Post can refresh your memory.

All Indictments are Not Created Equal

This indictment is not just another tick-box on T****'s legal list. What makes this one more grave than the others? This goes to the very bedrock of our democracy. It concerns the aspects of our democracy that we hold most sacrosanct: the right to vote and have our votes counted, the peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law. These pillars hold up our republic. Without them, it's in shambles. This person must be prosecuted and he must be held accountable. If not, then what?

The Judge

Judge Tanya Chatkin, federal district judge for the District of Columbia, is an immigrant from Jamaica. She was appointed to the district court in 2014 by President Obama. Previous to that, she was a District of Columbia public defense attorney. She has overseen many January 6 cases and is known for meting punishments that often exceed prosecutors' requests. She also ruled against T**** in hearings surrounding the release of documents where T**** tried to exert executive privilege. She was the one to write, “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.” Go, Tanya!

Given her extensive public defender background, I believe she will be a resolute, fair judge. And wouldn't it be delicious if a strong immigrant woman of color is the one to pronounce sentence on this odious person?

What about the co-conspirators? Why aren't they charged?

It's apparent that Smith wants this to be a streamlined, speedy case. Charging the co-conpsirators adds a layer of complexity that would slow things down. Not charging them also gives them a chance to flip. If not, there will be time to charge them later. The statute of limitations still has a couple of years left. 

What is smart about this case?

It's clean - four simple charges. Obstruction is a clear, easy charge. Smith just needs to prove two or more people planned a crime, even if the crime isn't successful or even carried out. It's a straightforward charge, and from the indictment, it appears there is plenty of evidence. It leaves open the path to charge the co-conspirators later or give them the opportunity to make a plea deal and cooperate.

What is missing?

A charge of sedition and a charge of incitement. Why weren't these charged? Most likely because it would be too hard to prove, and there are First Amendment issues that come with his words on that day. The charge of conspiracy is much easier to prove and convict. If charges are never brought for sedition, history will surely put them there. And in the end, maybe it doesn't matter as long as the madman is in jail. 

Though the indictment doesn't outright say that he incited the mob to attack the Capitol, it says that he exploited the riots to further pressure lawmakers to implement his plot. When you think about it, this may be even a more serious charge. 

"The Defendent's Exploitation of the Violence and Chaos at the Capitol" starts on page 39 and is a frightening read. Among the absurdities: calls were made throughout the day to lawmakers, even as they were being escorted to safety in underground bunkers. Long after the mob had been evicted from the building, co-conspirators were calling and emailing lawmakers, as well as Pence's counsel, as late as 11:44 p.m., asking them to suspend the Electoral Count Act and delay the certification. 

Thankfully, Pence took his oath to the Constitution seriously, Congress reconvened, and the election was certified in favor of Joe Biden at 3:41 a.m. on January 7, 2021. 

The Pence Factor

Maybe the most sobering, if there is such as thing as "most" with regard to January 6, is that the indictment gives us a very good snapshot of T****'s relentless badgering of Vice President Mike Pence and his resistance to T****'s pressure to subvert the will of the people and commit illegal acts. The fact that Pence is named throughout and that his "contemporaneous notes" are offered into evidence suggests that he cooperated fully with the investigation. The Pence factor is outlined concisely starting on page 32. 

Some of the more startling bits about Pence in the indictment:

• T**** was more vocal about Pence and his supposed role in certifiying the election than I remember was outlined in the hearings. For example, on December 23 he retweeted a memo titled "Operation PENCE CARD," which falsely asserted that Pence could disqualify the electors from the disputed states. 

• A Merry Christmas phone call from Pence was turned into another pressure campaign to reject the electoral votes on January 6. Pence pushed back, saying, "You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome."

• On New Year's Day, five days before January 6, Pence was again goaded by his boss. Pence again pushed back and the Defendant told him, "You're too honest." Shortly after that conversation, djt tweeted about the "BIG protest rally in Washington, D.C."

• On January 5, in a private meeting between Pence and T****, Pence again refused to agree to the plan. T**** "grew frustrated and told the Vice President that he would have to publicly criticize him. Upon learning of this, the Vice President's chief of staff was concerned for the Vice President's safety and alerted the head of the Vice President's Secret Service detail." OMFG

• On January 5 and 6, in multiple tweets, T**** set up his mob to believe that Pence did have the authority and implied that Pence would indeed do this. 

• After the last entreaty to Pence, and Pence's last refusal, at 11:15 a.m. on the morning of January 6, T**** decided to re-insert comments (comments that his advisors had had him remove), singling out the Vice President and again falsely claiming that he had the authority to reverse the electoral certification. 

• Giuliani and Eastman also invoked Pence during the January 6 rally, falsely claiming to the mob that Pence could and should reverse the states' certification. 

• And after all that, the Defendant told the mob that "fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you were allowed to go by very different rules." And he sent them to the Capitol saying, "We fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore."

We know the rest of the story.

"Hang Mike Pence!"
photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

A few other bombshell tidbits from the indictment

There was some new stuff or stuff I hadn't fully understood before that became clear after this reading. There were also some just plain elegant bits scattered around. 

The purpose of the Conspiracy. In black and white it states, "the purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified." Pretty fº¢king serious stuff.

T**** has a right to lie. It says so right on page 2. "The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won." It's just that, well, you can't use deceit and lies to intimidate, threaten, obstruct, and undo free and fair elections.

The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 is fittingly invoked for Count 4. The House of Representatives's history website explains that this law made it a crime for anyone to "deny any group or individual 'any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the Constitution.'" "Anyone" includes the president of the United States. "Any individual" is you and me.

The heroine poll workers Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman will forever be cemented in the history books. You remember them from the hearings, telling their story of false accusations from the leader of the free world about their actions while working the polls in Georgia. Their ugly encounter with Rudy Giuliani, and the death threats that followed, are outlined (though they are unnamed) on page 14. 

Not only lies, but threats: paragraph 31 on page 16 reminds us that not only did T**** try to pursue Georgia officials to "find" some 11,000 votes that he did not receive, but he threatened the Georgia Secretary of State with a "criminal offense."

Clarification of the fake electors scheme: the indictment clarifies the fake elector scheme. It's now clear to me that the fake electors around the country were duped ("tricked" is the word Smith used). They were told that their slate of certificates would "be used only if the Defendant succeeded in litigation" in each state. That being said, all of the fraudulent Michigan "electors" have recently been charged in that state for their part in the scheme.

The New Mexico piece. It wasn't brought up in the Congressional hearings, as far as I remember, but T**** and his co-conspirators sought to also fraudulently certify New Mexico for T****, even though he had lost by more than a 10% margin there. Because there was no pending litigation in New Mexico regarding contesting the results, T****'s campaign "filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico at 11:54 a.m., six minutes before the noon deadline for the electors votes as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent collectors voted." In the end, New Mexico did not convene a set of fake electors.

The list of people who told the truth – that there was no fraud and that Joe Biden won the election – is extensive! Look at pages 7 and 8 for all the times T**** was told he was wrong.

The Jeff Clark affair. As you recall, Jeff Clark was a low-level attorney in the Attorney General's office, but one supremely lip-locked T**** ass-kisser. The indictment illustrates that Clark was admonished over and over to not make contact with the Whitewash House "to guard against improper political influence." Not only did he continue to make contact to the point of willingness to accept an acting A.G. job in the waning days of the presidency, he tried to blackmail the sitting acting A.G and Acting Deputy A.G. to send a draft letter containing false statements to state officials by saying he would decline the Defendant's offer of the position of Acting Attorney General if they did so.

"That's why there's an Insurrection Act," is what Jeffery Clark said in response to concerns that there would be riots in the streets if the election was overturned. Dude. Really?

"Give that to the next guy," is what T**** said in response to a foreign crisis and that his administration didn't have time to mount a response. Though there's tons of evidence that people told him that he lost, this is good evidence that he knew inside his head that he had lost. 

Really, read the whole indictment for a clear, concise summary of the evidence.

What's clear

This document makes it clear that the events on January 6 were just the coup de grâce of the months-long attack on our democratic processes and principles. In fact, the fact that Smith didn't charge for the actual insurrection on January 6 illustrates the previous machinations more starkly.

My hope, though, is that someday somehow he is charged with sedition. It's only right.

Possible Punishment

Count 1 has a punishment of up to five years in prison.

Count 2 and 3 are both punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Count 4 is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

There are no mandatory minimums for any of the charges. If convicted on all charges, the sentences could in theory be consecutive, but as in any criminal case, the judge has leeway in the ultimate sentence.

T****'s reaction

*Yawn* it's the same ol' thing. Witchhunt blah blah blah. He called it "prosecutorial misconduct" and "election interference." But this time he also said that the indictment is “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.” First, gross. And second, project much?

Denials with regard to the substance of the charges? *crickets*

The Effects on the 2024 Campaign

For a "witch-hunt" that is a "fake" left-wing conspiracy to derail his campaign, it seems to be failing. The multiple indictments haven't affected his ranking in the polls against his GOP rivals. With each indictment, his poll numbers against other GOP candidates goes up. As do his coffers, though his PAC is bleeding dollars with the massive legal bills. 

Walt Handelsman

He has his eye, as always, on the bottom line. He will milk this for more money from his poor (in the literal and figurative sense) supporters and have them bankroll his defense. 

John Darkow

What's next?

Tomorrow the 45th president* of the United States will be arrested for a third time and will appear before a magistrate judge in the District of Columbia to be arraigned on charges of defrauding the United States and denying rights to her citizens. Tomorrow the Defendant will enter a plea for these, the latest of scores of felonies charged against him. 

After that, Judge Tanya Chatkin will set a trial date. 

The citizens of Washington, D.C. are more liberal in general, so a jury more sympathetic to the People and less to the Defendant will be likely. 

Co-conspirators will be flipping? Perhaps. They may have already. Eastman's lawyers have already confirmed that his is Co-conspirator #2. I could have sworn I read Giuliani's attorneys also confirmed, but I can't find it now. In any case, perhaps the six can get a deal, but they should certainly be punished in some fashion whether they flip or not. Prosecutors: please use the example of Watergate. 

Cameras in the courtroom? Not for the arraignment, but media sources are clamoring for cameras to be allowed for the trial, as well as for the documents trial. I believe we should all be witness to this trial. It is a crime against every single United States citizen. We, the victims, should be able to face our would-be oppressor.

What about the other cases? 

Fani Willis of Fulton County, Georgia, has promised an indictment by the end of this month for T****'s criminal actions to try to interfere with that state's election. Strap in. It's gonna be a tilt-a-whirl over the next several months.

The New York Times has made this for you to keep track of the various and sundry criminal cases levied against the 45th president* of the United States (thanks, big sister resister Pagrs for this nifty interactive tool!).

The Bottom Line

It's important to remember that 1,093 other people have had federal charges brought against them for their actions surrounding January 6. The ringleader and instigator, who had sworn to uphold the Constitution, should be punished bigly.

Let's do it.