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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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politics
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The RICO charge carries a mandatory 5 years that can't be pardoned and can't be paroled. And RICO is stunningly easy to get a conviction on. It was built to catch mob bosses who directed activity but didn't get their hands dirty.
Until the RICO charge, I didn't think he'd see prison either... but now... looks pretty good.
Unrealistic optimism aside, the chances of any of these cases getting to trial before the 2024 election are slim. Trump is a master of delay tactics, and even the prosecution seems willing to defer to him in ways that they wouldn't do for any other defendant. Add 19 co-defendants to the mix and the chances of trial before the election drop like a rock.
And prosecutors need to stop dog-piling the charges on. Not that he doesn't deserve it. But every new set of charges lends credibility to the argument he makes saying "I have so many legal cases on my plate that I cannot adequately contribute to my own defense, therefore we need to delay this trial." .
And he's 77 years old, living on a steady diet of big macs, and essentially already living on borrowed time. There's the very real possibility he could simply drop dead of natural causes long before he's ever in real danger of seeing the inside of a prison cell.
There's the very real possibility he could simply drop dead of natural causes long before he's ever in real danger of seeing the inside of a prison cell.
We can only hope. . . .
He certainly can contribute to his own defense. He is choosing to run for president (to try and avoid accountability for his crimes). If he seriously wanted to beat the charges, he could suspend his campaign.
He is a defendant, and a rich one at that. There are countless defendants in cases every day that have to choose between hiring sufficient counsel that can offer a good defense and paying rent or buying groceries for their children.
Trump is affluent enough (and has enough people willing to donate to pay his legal bills) to be able to focus on these charges and nothing else, but he tries to get sympathy for his own choices.
I have none to offer him.
He is being charged in four different jurisdictions and counting up and down the east coast, not counting his civil lawsuits. Yes, he absolutely should suspend his campaign. But he's not going to because even he knows it's the only way he's avoiding being found guilty. But even if he weren't a presidential candidate, asking one person to be able to competently contribute to their own defense in multiple jurisdictions in such a short time becomes more unreasonable with each case. You're absolutely correct if we're talking about one case or even two. But once you're talking about so many charges in so many jurisdictions in just one year, and the argument that he can't competently contribute to his own defense becomes more and more valid. And the last thing you want is an appeals court throwing a conviction out later based on that.
Of course, the simple way he could have avoided the issue is to not commit crimes in the first place, but here we are. And even Trump deserves to be able to competently contribute to his own defense.
Oh he absolutely has the resources to hire competent counsel (assuming he can find any willing to take him on). But those legal teams would have to worry about 1 case each. He still has to participate in four. You would be describing a situation of ineffective counsel. I'm talking about the sheer number of cases in such a short time impacting his ability to contribute to his own defense.
I don't think anybody does. But I want him to be able to contribute to his own defense competently when he's found guilty so the case doesn't get thrown out on appeal.
Why would he suspend his campaign? It's his campaign that's paying his legal bills. If he suspended campaigning he'd have to pay for all that shit out of the $2 Billion Jared got from the Saudis.