The Grab GA Voters By The Pussy Tape

Listen this is not about whether he technically committed a crime. In fact, he may be too insane to have the requisite scienter. The point is what he did is wrong on every level, an abuse of office and trust, and should end his public career.

Prof. Eric Segall wrote that regarding the last Trump fuckery, which other legal minds (including Rick Hasen) believe pretty clearly is a crime that should be prosecuted, both under state and federal law. Hasen summarizes:

President Donald Trump likely broke both federal and state law in a Saturday phone call during which he encouraged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the state’s election results.

I don't have it in me to listen to that guy at all, but others who have underline the insanity of the hour long call. Just considering the effort required to craft that level of bullshit suggests the sort of horrible skill (some don't like to use words like "skill" in respect to horrible things, such a "bravery" for terrorists, but it is not an inherently positive thing) he has. There is a reason he got this far. Reasons, of course, including his enablers. Many plan to challenge the electoral count on Wednesday though this makes it a bit more painful to do so. Not that this call is somehow unique. Let's not fall into a THIS DOES IT trap. That's very old news at this point.

The article cites the law, but the direct federal provision cited in an earlier discussion is 52 U.S. Code § 20511. In relevant part:

A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office— (2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by— (B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held, shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Shall/would, oh well. The Slate article flags the "state of mind" issue, which makes it harder to prosecute these cases. At some point, some sort of rational observer test should be in place, at least for official acts. Plus, it's hard to believe that at this point the totality of the circumstances -- even if he believes he won -- includes some criminal acts. If only akin to police who lie to prove what they believe is true.

Despite the long odds, I would hope at least Georgia prosecutors will consider going after Trump, or that the House of Representatives might impeach him again with the goal of disqualifying from running in 2024. Lack of prosecution or investigation demonstrates that there’s little to deter the next would-be authoritarian—perhaps a more competent one—from trying to steal an election. Trump came a lot closer than he should have this time, and next time we may not be so lucky.

I'm not too optimistic about the desires of Georgian prosecutors here, even if the state is purple enough to vote for Biden. But, I'm glad at that at some point people like Rich "we shouldn't filibuster Gorsuch, there is nothing positive to come of it" Hasen thinks things are so bad that we need to draw a line in the sand here. This is EXACTLY what the impeachment manager warned about. (I thought the impeachment should have went further. If the other side wasn't going to act, let's put it all out there.) How many times is too much here? If you want to wait until after the Georgia Senate elections tomorrow, go right ahead. But, we can't just handwave it. Elections alone aren't enough.

2021 has begun, but 2020 still lingers on, especially with Trump still in office. I will end with something I saw, a finding by a UN panel that Trump's Blackwater pardons violated international law. There is some bare minimum a government should do to address war crimes and that advanced impunity.