Law & Crime – Page 135 – The Tarbabys Blog

Which 2024 GOP candidates would pardon Trump if they won the presidency?

CBS News

Which 2024 GOP candidates would pardon Trump if they won the presidency?

Cristina Corujo – June 14, 2023

As former president Donald J. Trump was pleading not guilty to all 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents Tuesday in Miami, some of his Republican rivals were asked about whether they would pardon Trump if he were convicted.

Who’s running for president in 2024? Meet the candidates – and likely candidates – vying for your voteVivek Ramaswamy

Hours before Trump’s arraignment, biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy said he’d pardon the former president as soon as he’s sworn in.

“This is my commitment, on Jan. 20th 2025 if I’m elected the next U.S. president — to pardon Donald J. Trump for these offenses in this federal case,” Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy even went to the Miami federal courthouse where Trump was arraigned and held a press conference, during which he challenged his Republican opponents to sign an agreement committing to do the same if any of them win.

Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, said she would be “inclined” to pardon her former boss, although she added that “it’s really premature at this point, when he’s not even been convicted of anything.”

During a radio interview with Clay Travis, Haley, who is also the former governor of South Carolina, said that “if the claims in the indictment are true, Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security, and that’s not okay.”

Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said of Trump on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Wednesday, “I can’t imagine if he gets a fair trial that I would pardon him,” adding, “to accept a pardon, you have to admit your guilt.”

Christie also dismissed the idea that Trump could use the Presidential Records Act as a defense. “He’s dead wrong,” Christie said, and added, the Presidential Records Act “does not cover national security and national intelligence documents.

Christie, who was the first major Republican politician to endorse Trump in 2016 and a key adviser during Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, now says he was “wrong” about Trump and called the evidence in the indictment “pretty damning” during Monday’s CNN town hall.

Asa Hutchinson

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has also slammed Trump, and called on him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, said that a pardon “should have no place in the campaign.”

In an interview Wednesday with Scripps News, Hutchinson said that pardoning the former president would be a “misuse of the pardon power” and should have no place in the office of the president.

After Trump was indicted last week, Hutchinson called on him to drop out of the race, excoriating him for “his willful disregard for the Constitution” and “his disrespect for the rule of law.”

Larry Elder

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder told Scripp News it’s “very likely” he would support pardoning Trump for the federal charges he is facing. But Elder, who supported Trump’s presidency, said that Trump’s electability is at stake, and he said that if he felt that the former president were “electable,” he “wouldn’t be running.”

Presidential candidates who have not weighed inRon DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s main political rival in the primary so far, has not said publicly whether he’d pardon Trump. DeSantis has criticized the Justice Department as “weaponized” in pursuing prosecutions “against factions it doesn’t like” but also said over the weekend, after Trump had been indicted, “As a naval officer, if I would have taken classified [documents] to my apartment, I would have been court-martialed in a New York minute.”

CBS News has reached out to DeSantis’ campaign to ask if he would pardon Trump if he were convicted in the documents case.

DeSantis has also been asked whether he’d pardon those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. He told conservative radio hosts Clay Travis & Buck Sexton if he’d consider pardoning defendants convicted for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. DeSantis said his administration “will be aggressive at issuing pardons… on a case-by-case basis.”

Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence has not weighed in on a pardon for the former president, but in a conversation with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board on Tuesday, the day Trump was indicted, Pence said he had read the indictment, and “these are very serious allegations.” He added, “I can’t defend what is alleged. But the President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.”

But he expressed concern about “the suggestion that there were documents pertaining to the defense capabilities of the United States and our allies, our nuclear program, to potential vulnerabilities of the United States and our allies,” and added, “Even the inadvertent release of that kind of information could compromise our national security and the safety of our armed forces.”

Although he has not made clear if he would pardon Trump, Pence told radio hosts Travis and Baxton Wednesday afternoon that he took “the pardon authority very seriously.”

“It’s an enormously important power of someone in an executive position and I just think it’s premature to have any conversation about that right now,” Pence said.

Tim Scott

Asked whether he’d pardon Trump, the South Carolina Republican said he wouldn’t “get into hypotheticals,” but he added, “We are the city on the hill. We believe that we are innocent until proven guilty.”

Donald Trump

The former president has not publicly mentioned pardoning himself since he was indicted last week. If he were to win the presidency, his ability to pardon himself remains an open question. In 2018, when conditions were different — that is, while he still occupied the White House — Trump claimed he could.

“As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong,” he tweeted in 2018.

Aaron Navarro contributed to this report.

Trump makes legal claims about classified documents, experts push back: Fact check

ABC News

Trump makes legal claims about classified documents, experts push back: Fact check

Alexandra Hutzler – June 15, 2023

Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump, speaking to supporters hours after his arraignment, outlined potential legal arguments as he defends himself against his second indictment.

Trump took the stage at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club just hours after his appearance in a Miami courtroom, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts in relation to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“This day will go down in infamy,” he said.

MORE: Following arraignment, Trump narrowing list of potential attorneys to join his legal team: Sources

Trump unloaded on the charges and in the process mischaracterized aspects of the Presidential Records Act and the Espionage Act, experts told ABC News.

Here’s a more in-depth look at the former president’s claims.

He cites the Presidential Records Act

“Under the Presidential Records Act, which is civil not criminal, I had every right to have these documents,” Trump said.

The 1978 law, not mentioned in the indictment, states just the opposite, as it requires records created by presidents and vice presidents be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations.

“On the contrary, the former President had absolutely no right to have taken any presidential records with him to Mar A Lago,” Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at NARA, told ABC News in an email.

“Under the Presidential Records Act, the Archivist of the United States assumed legal custody of all Trump White House official records immediately upon President Biden’s swearing in as President,” Baron said. “Every piece of paper constituting an official document, whether it was classified or unclassified, should have been turned over to NARA. Moreover, when NARA staff asked for the return of the records improperly taken, the former President should have immediately given NARA every official document in his possession.”

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, N. J., on June 13, 2023. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

MORE: Explainer: DOJ probes draw attention to the Presidential Records Act

Among the documents found at his Florida estate, according to prosecutors, were ones marked “top secret” and some about the country’s nuclear programs.

“I think it is misleading because the Presidential Records Act just isn’t the statute at issue,” Margaret Kwoka, a law professor at Ohio State University, told ABC News of Trump’s remarks.

“There’s no reason to think that the Presidential Records Act somehow overrides the Espionage Act,” Kwoka added. “And so this is not, in my view, going to provide a very strong sort of basis for defense against the charges in the indictment.”

He alludes to a judge’s decision in a case involving former President Bill Clinton

“Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision states under the statutory scheme established by the Presidential Records Act, the decision to segregate personal materials from presidential records is made by the president during the president’s term and in the president’s sole discretion,” Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly pointed to a case involving former President Bill Clinton in the wake of the indictment.

In 2010, the conservative group Judicial Watch sued the National Archives and Records Administration, arguing audio tapes kept by Clinton for interviews he did with historian Taylor Branch during his years in office — and which he afterward allegedly kept in a sock drawer — were “presidential records” and should be made available to the public.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the case, and Trump and his allies have taken to quoting different parts of her opinion in their defense.

MORE: No, Donald Trump’s classified documents case is not like Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton cases

The Presidential Records Act does contain an exception for personal records, according to Baron, including items such as “diaries, journals, and other personal notes that were never used in the transaction of government business.”

“President Trump had the right to keep those types of records. But the argument being made by some that he had some kind of absolute authority while president to declare classified records or other official records about government business as his personal records is absurd in its face,” he said. “It is also contrary to law. The decision by Judge Jackson cited prior precedent from the D.C. Circuit that stands for the opposite proposition.”

That citation included in Jackson’s opinion reads, in part, that the Presidential Records Act “does not bestow on the president the power to assert sweeping authority over whatever materials he chooses to designate as presidential records without any possibility of judicial review.”

“Judge Jackson went on to speculate about the level of deference to be afforded a president making a categorical decision about whether records of his were personal, but she never ruled on that issue,” Baron said. “Instead, the case was dismissed on the grounds that plaintiff had no standing to compel the Archivist to seize materials not in the government’s possession.”

There are also significant differences between the materials in question in the two cases.

“In that case, the records were very different and really did seem arguably personal,” Kwoka said of the Clinton matter. “We’re just sort of nowhere near the situation that we’re discussing today with the records that President Trump kept.”

He claims he was still negotiating with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

“I was supposed to negotiate with NARA, which is exactly what I was doing until Mar-a-Lago was raided,” Trump said.

Trump continued to make an argument he and his team have been for months, asserting he’s allowed to negotiate with NARA over which documents are personal and what’s presidential after leaving office.

NARA, in a June 9 statement, said the law requires a president to separate personal and presidential documents “before leaving office.”

MORE: Trump federal indictment: How serious are obstruction charges?

“There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through, such as for a two-year period as described in some reports,” NARA said.

He says he’s being treated like a spy

“The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies. It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents,” he said.

Trump has been charged under 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) of the Espionage Act, which prohibits unauthorized retention and disclosure of national defense information, and does not require that information be classified or disseminated to a foreign government.

Neither did the indictment charge him with disseminating information with the intent to harm the U.S.

Still, Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed he’s accused of being a spy.

“This is not an uncommon argument for defendants to make,” David Aaron, a senior counsel at Perkins Coie and former federal prosecutor with the Justice Department’s national security division, told ABC News. “The title Espionage Act is kind of a misnomer because it includes much more than espionage.”

“Espionage is a different section entirely of Title 18. He’s charged simply with willfully retaining national defense information,” Aaron said. “He’s not charged with disclosing classified information to foreign governments or to anyone else, although there are references in the current indictment to his alleged disclosure to unauthorized people.”

GOP Strategist Shreds Whatabouting Republicans With Her Own ‘What About?’ Questions

HuffPost

GOP Strategist Shreds Whatabouting Republicans With Her Own ‘What About?’ Questions

Lee Moran – June 15, 2023

CNN conservative commentator Alice Stewart ripped Republicans defending Donald Trump’s classified documents indictment by trying to spin it into attacks on his political rivals, including President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

“The difficulty is that many Republicans are consumed with espousing ’whataboutisms,’” Stewart, a former adviser to multiple GOP presidential candidates, wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday.

“’What about Joe Biden? What about Hillary Clinton? What about Pence?’” Stewart imagined them saying, before adding her own “what about” questions:

“What about Donald Trump being responsible for his own actions? What about his absconding with intel secrets? What about the former president facing retribution for his lifetime of shameful and illegal behavior?”

Stewart also told supporters of the 2024 GOP front-runner Trump to “take your head out of the sand” about his chances of regaining the presidency.

“Take off your bedazzled rose-colored glasses and take a good hard look at the reality of this losing proposition,” she demanded, saying it was “time to turn the page on Trumpism.”

Jon Stewart Gives Trump-Defending GOP Governor A Blistering Legal Fact-Check

HuffPost

Jon Stewart Gives Trump-Defending GOP Governor A Blistering Legal Fact-Check

Ben Blanchet – June 15, 2023

Jon Stewart pointed out on Thursday that former President Donald Trump really is proof of a “two-tiered justice system” after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) complained about the 37-count federal indictment of Trump.

Youngkin, commenting last week on Trump’s Espionage Act indictment for mishandling classified documents, wrote on Twitter that Trump was being victimized by selective prosecution that ignores some people’s lawbreaking.

Other Trump-defending Republicans have offered similar selective-prosecution arguments, including 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio).

Stewart, host of “The Problem with Jon Stewart” retweeted a clip from his show acknowledging the existence of a “two-tiered justice system” before schooling the Republican governor on Trump’s place in it.

“Trump has used privilege and wealth to protect himself from legal accountability at every turn,” said Stewart in a clip initially shared in April following Trump’s indictment on charges involving hush money payments.

“He has lived his entire adult life in the space twixt illegal and unethical. He’s in the tier where you get the platinum arraignment package — no cuffs, no mugshot, all-you-can-eat fingerprint ink.”

Stewart went on to question if regular people surround themselves with a “meat shield of henchmen to go to prison in their place,” a reference to the many Trump associates who have been prosecuted.

The former “Daily Show” host later analyzed the New York state attorney general’s civil lawsuit against Trump’s now-defunct charitable organization, which Trump was ordered to settle for $2 million.

“Yes. It’s all selective prosecution,” Stewart said. “And when you’re in the good tier, you can do whatever you want and you’re probably going to be fine.”

“In fact, you might even be elected president — twice.”

Two more property insurance companies scaling back coverage in Florida

CBS 47 – Action News Jax

Two more property insurance companies scaling back coverage in Florida

Rich Jones – June 15, 2023

Florida homeowners have fewer options for property insurance. Just two weeks into hurricane season, The Farmers Group and AIG say they’re scaling back policy coverage.

Both companies point to their vulnerability to natural disasters like hurricanes and flood.

Over the past 18 months in Florida, 16 property insurance companies have decided to stop writing new business to new homeowners in one form or the other.

WOKV Consumer Warrior Clark Howard says insurers are pulling out of Florida and California because the risks have become incalculable.

LISTEN: Clark Howard on Florida insurance companies leaving, steps that homeowners can take

“Florida and California will need to offer state-backed reinsurance so that insurers can issue actuarially sound policies.”, Clark said.

Clark suggests shopping for insurance through an independent agent and then get quotes for a high deductible, the highest your mortgage company will allow you take.

“You’re eliminating for the insurer what they refer to as nuisance claims. So you become a less risky, less costly person for them to insure.”, Clark said.

CLARK HOWARD BEST AND WORST HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE COMPANIES

Clark says the Florida Legislature is going to need to step in and address Citizens Insurance, the insurer of last resort. He says the state will have to take over the role of reinsurance, eliminate Citizens, which could allow regular insurers to come back.

“That insurers would be liable for losses up to a ceiling, whatever that is. And then after that the Florida reinsurance would cover it.”, said Clark.

Facebook Post: MAGA trump sheeple; you did this to yourselves !

June 14, 2023

Hillary Clinton’s Emails: A Nation Struggles to Unsubscribe

The New York Times

Hillary Clinton’s Emails: A Nation Struggles to Unsubscribe

Reid J. Epstein and Katie Glueck – June 13, 2023

Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking at the 92nd Street Y on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

WASHINGTON — It is the topic that the nation just can’t delete from its political conversation: Hillary Clinton’s emails.

In the days since Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to face federal charges, Republicans across the ideological spectrum — including not only Trump and his allies but also his critics and those who see prosecutors’ evidence as damaging — have insistently brought up the 8-year-old controversy.

They have peppered speeches, social media posts and television appearances with fiery condemnations of the fact that Clinton, a figure who continues to evoke visceral reactions among the Republican base, was never charged.

The two episodes are vastly different legal matters, and Clinton was never found to have systematically or deliberately mishandled classified information. Still, Republicans have returned to the well with striking speed, mindful that little more than the word “emails” can muddy the waters, broadcast their loyalties and rile up their base.

“Lock her up,” chanted a woman at last weekend’s Georgia Republican Party state convention, where Trump sought to revive the issue of Clinton’s email use. “Hillary wasn’t indicted,” he said in a speech at the event. “She should have been. But she wasn’t indicted.”

Campaigning in North Carolina, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bashed Clinton’s email practices while being far more circumspect in alluding to Trump, his top rival for the Republican nomination.

Even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made criticizing Trump a central theme of his presidential campaign, said on CNN recently that the Justice Department “is at fault for not charging Hillary Clinton,” while casting the facts laid out against Trump as “damning.”

“The perception is that she was treated differently,” Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor, a 2024 presidential candidate and a Trump critic, said in an interview Monday. “Perception can become a reality very quickly.”

Hutchinson, once a chief Clinton antagonist from former President Bill Clinton’s home state — he helped guide impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton — said he saw distinctions between Hillary Clinton’s email episode and the charges Trump faced. But, he added, “If the voters say it’s relevant, it becomes relevant politically.”

Taken together, the moment offers a vivid reminder of the ways the ghosts of the 2016 campaign continue to shape and scar American politics.

“There are few politicians on the Democratic side of the aisle that raise the ire of Republicans more than Hillary Clinton,” said Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster.

Clinton and her supporters, of course, have not forgotten the email saga. After Trump’s indictment, the episode to many of them serves as a symbol of a political system and a mainstream news media often focused on the superficial at the expense of the substantive.

Clinton backers now make light of what they view as comparatively flimsy and unproven accusations she faced about her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. And some relish the fact that the man who crowed about “Crooked Hillary” finds himself facing a range of serious charges and the prospect of prison if he is convicted.

Speaking Monday with the hosts of the “Pod Save America” podcast at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Clinton laughed when a host noted the tendency of some Republicans to make parallels to her emails.

“When in doubt, right?” she said. “I do think it’s odd, let’s just say, to the point of being absurd, how that is their only response. You know, they refuse to read the indictment, they refuse to engage with the facts.”

On Friday, Clinton posted an edited photo of herself on Instagram wearing a black baseball hat that reads, in pink letters, “BUT HER EMAILS.” That three-word phrase has become something of a shorthand among Democrats for frustration at the grief she received for how she handled classified correspondence compared with the blowback Trump confronted for all the legal and ethical norms he busted while in office.

She included a link to buy the hat for $32 on the website of her political group. (Asked about that decision, Nick Merrill, who served as a longtime spokesperson for Clinton and remains an adviser, replied, “We’re seven years past what was widely viewed as, at worst, a stupid mistake. And reminding people that a piece of merchandise exists in order to raise money to preserve our democracy is something I’m very comfortable with.”)

Substantively, there are many clear differences between the episodes.

A yearslong inquiry by the State Department into Clinton’s use of a private email server found that although it increased the risk of compromising classified information, “there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”

The indictment against Trump, by contrast, accuses him of not only mishandling sensitive national security documents found at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida but also willfully obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. He has been charged with 37 criminal counts related to issues including withholding national defense information and concealing possession of classified documents.

Robert Kelner, a Republican lawyer and Trump critic who is a partner in the white-collar defense and investigations practice group at Covington & Burling, said Trump most likely would not have been indicted had he cooperated with the government’s requests to return classified documents he took from the White House.

“There were lots of things to criticize about the way the Hillary Clinton investigation was handled — none of which, however, in any way to my mind, suggests that the case against Donald Trump is unfounded,” Kelner said.

Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted Trump, seemed to anticipate efforts to bring up Clinton’s emails. The indictment cited five statements Trump made during his 2016 campaign about the importance of protecting classified information.

For veterans of Clinton’s campaign, the Republican attempt to resurface their old boss’s email server to defend Trump’s storage of boxes of classified documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom and other places would be comical had their 2016 defeat not been so painful.

“The best evidence that Trump’s actions are completely indefensible is the Republican Party’s non-attempt to defend it and instead rehash 7-year-old debunked attacks on somebody who is no longer even in politics,” said Josh Schwerin, a former Clinton campaign spokesperson who for years after the 2016 election had a recording of Trump saying his name as his voicemail greeting.

Merrill said that if there was a single word for “particularly acute hypocrisy,” it would apply to Republicans now.

For Republicans, “whether you believe she was cavalier or you believe that she should be tried for treason for the risky position she put Americans in by sending correspondence about yoga or whatever,” he said, “Donald Trump has done the most severe possible thing. It’s not a close call with him.”

Trump acolytes are now delighting at the prospect of reviving one of their favorite boogeywomen.

“Republicans believe there’s been an unequal application of justice,” said former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who as chair of the House Oversight Committee investigated myriad Clinton episodes leading up to the 2016 election. He added, “What is it that Donald Trump did that was worse than Hillary Clinton? Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Timothy Parlatore, a criminal defense lawyer who quit the Trump legal team last month, said he did not believe that Clinton, Trump or President Joe Biden — who has cooperated with a special counsel’s investigation into his own handling of classified documents after his tenure as vice president — should have been charged for their handling of classified information.

Trump’s Justice Department had four years to prosecute Clinton and did not. Parlatore said Trump no longer saw her as a threat — and instead called for an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.

“Here is a big difference,” Parlatore said. “The Trump administration wasn’t looking at Hillary as being a presidential candidate. The Biden administration is looking at Trump in a different way.”

For now, the most devoted Clinton supporters are following her lead and wearing “BUT HER EMAILS” hats as a badge of honor. They appeared in recent days at dog parks, soccer tournaments and Pride events as a sort of celebration of Trump’s comeuppance.

In Boston, Rebecca Kaiser, a political consultant, has worn her “BUT HER EMAILS” hat regularly since she received it as a gift the day before Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the New York City borough of Manhattan in April.

Since then, at Little League and soccer games, the supermarket, the beach and during dates with her wife, Kaiser has sported the hat, which she said served as a conversation starter about an election that many other Democrats would rather forget.

“There are definitely people who notice the hat and very quickly avert their eyes,” Kaiser said. “There are other people who look at the hat and just roll their eyes. And honestly, I think there are a good amount of people who have no idea what it’s referencing.”

Trump Wanted Courthouse Protests but Instead Got MAGA Misfits

Daily Beast

Trump Wanted Courthouse Protests but Instead Got MAGA Misfits

Kelly Weill, Zachary Petrizzo and Josh Fiallo – June 13, 2023

MIAMI, Florida—Protesters assembled outside the federal courthouse here on Tuesday to express their support for former President Donald Trump—to fly the Trump colors and show prosecutors that they’re up against a MAGA army.

But if protesters sought to show unity and organization, what they accomplished was a disorganized display of MAGA spectacles, flaunting a pig’s head on a pike and getting the street shut down over an abandoned television.

Trump was arraigned on Tuesday afternoon for 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. On social media, Trump called on fans to come to Miami for his court appearance. “SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY!!!” he wrote. But turnout was modest on Tuesday morning, despite efforts by pro-Trump figures like rapper Forgiato Blow to gin up attendance for a 10 a.m. rally.

“What I like about this, we been supporting Trump since day one and never switch up on Donald Trump, man what’s up. DeSant-heads need to get out here and get with Trump,” Blow (real name Kurt Jantz) said in a video outside the courthouse on Tuesday, referencing Trump’s GOP rival and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.

Trump Placed Under Arrest as He Arrives at Court

Blow’s attendance was not purely political. The prolific novelty rapper, who frequently releases songs timed to conservative news items, is promoting a new song called “Trump Indictment” and on Monday tweeted a picture of himself wearing a signboard with a QR code for a download of the tune.

“See Everyone Tomorrow Help Us Get #TrumpIndictment To #1 On iTunes,” Blow tweeted, promoting both the track and the protest against Trump’s second felony arraignment this year.

Other eccentric characters also turned up early to the courthouse.

Osmany Estrada, 40, proudly donned an American and Cuban flag as he paraded around the courthouse with a pig’s head on a pike, posing for photos with anyone who asked, but mostly dodging TV crews that swarmed him.

Like many others who weathered blistering heat and humidity to sing Trump’s praises, Estrada said he was confident the former president would quickly be found not guilty. He said he became even more certain of a Trump victory when Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, was selected to preside over the case.

“She’s one of us,” Estrada said, referencing Cannon’s Cuban heritage. “We already know what’s going to happen—this corruption won’t stand. Everyone here knows that. That’s why you see so many smiles. We’re all just enjoying this beautiful moment before we win again.”

Estrada, who says he came to Miami on a raft from Cuba in 1992, was one of the first protesters to arrive Tuesday morning, sticking around as the crowd of Trump supporters grew into the hundreds by 1 p.m.—a far cry from the thousands expected by Trump and Miami cops. Until noon, protesters were outnumbered by journalists and dozens of cops who carried assault rifles as they circled the area.

Estrada said he didn’t have a good reason for carrying around a pig’s head on a pike, but confirmed the dead animal was real.

“Sometimes you just have to be bold,” he said.

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>The crowd was smaller than anticipated.</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Marco Bello</div> — The crowd was smaller than anticipated.REUTERS/Marco Bello

Vivek Ramaswamy, a longshot Republican presidential candidate, gave a Tuesday morning speech in which he pledged (if elected president) to pardon Trump.

Meanwhile, Tim Gionet, a far-right personality who goes by “Baked Alaska,” live streamed himself outside the courthouse on Tuesday. Gionet was recently released from prison, where he was serving 60 days for his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. (He was also found guilty last year of defacing a Hanukkah display. “No more Happy Hanukkah, only Merry Christmas. This is a disgrace,” Gionet said in a live stream of the vandalism.)

At least one member of the far-right group the Proud Boys was in attendance. A Telegram channel for the group Villain City Proud Boys uploaded a video from the grounds, although the group did not appear to have a uniformed presence on Tuesday morning. (The Villain City Proud Boys are a splinter faction of Miami’s longer-standing Vice City Proud Boys, which disavows the former group and calls it illegitimate.)

Lauren Witzke, a far-right conspiracy theorist who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in Delaware, also live-streamed from a demonstration organized by anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer. During her live stream, she wondered out loud if “federal agents” were undercover at the courthouse protests. “Let’s count the FBI in this protest,” read a sign carried by a pro-Trump protester she interviewed. Witzke later contemplated if the man holding the sign—which had toy-water guns attached—was a “fed” himself.

Witzke, an ally of white-nationalist Nick Fuentes, soon grew tired of covering the lackluster Loomer protest and turned her attention to trolling the media.

“Is CNN here?” she asked on the stream, adding, “Oh shoot, I forgot I was streaming, oops.”

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>Supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off outside the courthouse. </p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Marco Bello</div> — Supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off outside the courthouse.REUTERS/Marco Bello

Various factions of Trump fans scheduled courthouse protests over the course of the day. Loomer’s event was slated to start at noon. A convoy of four buses, organized by the Florida Republican Assembly, arrived at 2 p.m.

Toward the beginning of the rally, Loomer claimed that Trump’s team had called her on Tuesday morning to express their support for her event.

“President Trump, his staff called me this morning,” Loomer yelled. “President Trump is grateful for the rally. His staff personally called me and said they were with President Trump this morning, and he wants to thank everybody for coming out today. They are very happy that this rally is taking place. They want it peaceful.”

“President Trump is very grateful that we are out here today,” she added.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Loomer’s claim.

Loomer had good reason to talk up Trump’s support for her efforts, as The Daily Beast reported Monday evening that Trump’s own advisers thought protests outside of the Miami courthouse were a bad idea.

Trump Advisers Quietly Worry Courthouse Protest Could Be a ‘Disaster’

“I would hope it’s not a protest,” one Trump adviser told The Daily Beast.

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>A law enforcement officer inspects a suspicious device found near the courthouse.</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Brendan McDermid</div> — A law enforcement officer inspects a suspicious device found near the courthouse.REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Even before the rally, Trump’s aides attempted to distance themselves from Loomer and the Roger Stone-promoted event.

“Anybody we’ve heard from at the campaign, it’s been somebody who just wants to come and be supportive of the president,” the Trump adviser added before attempting to make clear that the official Trump campaign wanted no part in any demonstrations.

But despite the worry from inside Trump’s inner circle, in the end, with low turnout numbers, Trump supporters found a familiar boogeyman.

“I think MAGA has to be beyond cautious and weary [sic] of Feds creating another trap like Jan 6,” Trump ally Jackson Lahmeyer told The Daily Beast.

While MAGA supporters were busy contemplating who among them might be federal agents, law enforcement tended to a much more serious concern.

The modest crowd was briefly asked to leave part of the courthouse grounds after law enforcement expressed concerns about an unattended package. The suspicious item was a TV with writing on it, apparently planted by Trump fans, Miami New Times reporter Naomi Feinstein tweeted. Police removed the TV and allowed demonstrators back onto the property.

I don’t want to live in a country where Trump could be held accountable

Opinion – (Satire)

I don’t want to live in a country where Trump could be held accountable

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY – June 11, 2023

Now that my favorite president, Donald Trump, is facing a 37-count indictment from the feds, I join with my brothers and sisters in MAGA, and with all sensible Republicans, in saying this: I’m not sure I want to live in a country where a former president can wave around classified documents he’s not supposed to have and say, “This is secret information. Look at this,” and then be held accountable for his actions.

I mean, what kind of country have we become? One in which federal prosecutors can take “evidence” before a “grand jury,” and that grand jury can “vote to indict” a former president for 37 alleged “crimes”? Look at all the other people out there in America, including Democrats like Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden, who HAVEN’T been indicted for crimes on the flimsy excuse that there is no “evidence” they did crimes. THAT’S TOTALLY UNFAIR!

It’s like Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote in a tweet Friday: “These charges are unprecedented and it’s a sad day for our country, especially in light of what clearly appears to be a two-tiered justice system where some are selectively prosecuted, and others are not.”

What kind of country holds a president accountable for alleged crimes a grand jury charges him with?

Or as Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted: “Where are the investigations against the Clintons and the Bidens? What about fairness? Two tiers of justice at work.”

GOP sticking with Trump: Trump indicted again, and STILL Republicans flock to support him. Sad!

TWO TIERS! One tier in which President Trump keeps getting indicted via both state and federal justice systems and another in which the people I don’t like keep getting not indicted via all the things Fox News tells me they did wrong.

It’s like America has become a banana republic, as long as you do as I’ve done and refuse to look up the definition of “banana republic.”

A copy of the indictment of former President Donald Trump and Trump aide Walt Nauta, brought by the U.S. Justice Department. They're charged with dozens of counts of allegedly violating eight federal statutes related to the handling of classified documents after the former president left the White House, according to the 44-page indictment unsealed June 9, 2023. — A copy of the indictment of former President Donald Trump and Trump aide Walt Nauta, brought by the U.S. Justice Department. They’re charged with dozens of counts of allegedly violating eight federal statutes related to the handling of classified documents after the former president left the White House, according to the 44-page indictment unsealed June 9, 2023.More

Regardless of the Trump indictment, it’s clear this is all Biden’s fault

And of course, you know who’s behind this travesty of justice, right? It’s so-called President Biden, who is both frail and senile and also a laser-sharp master at conducting witch hunts.

Former President Donald Trump greets supporters in Grimes, Iowa, on June 1, 2023.

Sure, they’ll tell you that the indictment came via a special counsel investigation, and that the federal special counsel statute keeps such investigations walled off from political influence.

But that’s complete nonsense, unless we’re talking about special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr while Trump was president and tasked with investigating the NEFARIOUS LEFT-WING CRIMES committed in the Trump-Russia probe. Durham was above reproach, and the fact that The New York Times reported he “charged no high-level F.B.I. or intelligence official with a crime and acknowledged in a footnote that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign did nothing prosecutable, either” is something I will ignore.

This is a WITCH HUNT, and I believe that because Trump said so!

Current special counsel Jack Smith, on the other hand – he’s bad news. I know this because Trump has said repeatedly that Smith’s investigation is a witch hunt, and I’ve never known Trump to lie about anything.

Keep in mind, in 2016, Trump said: “I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023. — This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023.More

So after he said that, you expect me to believe he didn’t protect classified information? Just because, according to the indictment, there’s a recording of him holding a classified document in his office at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and saying to two staff members and an interviewer: “See, as president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

Winners of Trump indictment: The former president and Joe Biden. DeSantis? Not so much.

You call that “damning evidence.” I call it, “What about Hunter Biden’s laptop?”

Putting Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden in prison? Now THAT makes sense!

Now I can already hear all the libs out there whining and saying that if it were Biden or Hillary or Hunter getting indicted, I wouldn’t be saying a word about two tiers of justice or the weaponization of the Department of Justice or anything like that.

The notably non-indicted President Joe Biden.

Well, those whiners would be right, but the difference is I believe Biden and Hillary and Hunter are all guilty and should be locked up for life, whereas with Trump, I believe he is great and innocent and the best president America has ever known.

It’s like this: If Hillary got indicted for murder, I would say, “Yes, she is absolutely a murderer. Lock her up.”

But if in some outrageous scenario President Trump were indicted for murder just because he told a bunch of people that he did a murder, I would say: “HOW DARE YOU CHARGE THIS MAN WITH MURDER WHEN OTHERS IN THE U.S. HAVE NOT BEEN CHARGED WITH MURDER! THERE ARE CLEARLY TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE, ONE IN WHICH MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT, WHO SAID HE MURDERED SOMEONE, IS CHARGED WITH MURDER AND ONE IN WHICH PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T MURDERED ARE NOT CHARGED WITH MURDER!”

And that, my liberal friends, makes perfect sense to me and my MAGA companions. So watch out. The Trump Train’s a comin’.

Democrats need to wake up

Chicago Suntimes

Democrats need to wake up

Federal indictments against Trump are not a turning point.

By Neil Steinberg – June 11, 2023

Donald Trump addressed the North Carolina Republican state convention on Saturday, June 10, 2023. — Donald Trump addressed the North Carolina Republican state convention on Saturday, two days after becoming the first former U.S. president indicted on federal charges.

This Friday, June 16, marks many things. It’s Bloomsday, the day in 1904 when the entirety of James Joyce’s great novel, “Ulysses” takes place. It’s also my parents’ anniversary — 67 years and still going strong. (Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!) And my younger son’s birthday.

It’s also the date in 2015 when Donald John Trump descended that escalator in the vomit-colored lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, declared himself a candidate for president and promised to save this country from the twin perils of Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

Eight years. Three thousand days, most of which saw Donald Trump twirling like a demented ballerina in drippy orange makeup in the spotlight of American life. From that introductory moment — the first words out of his mouth a lie, natch, inflating the few dozen people present into “thousands” — to last week, when he was indicted by federal authorities on 37 counts related to seven charges under the Espionage Act.

What a strange, terrible time in American history. Sometimes I consider it punishment for, having missed the tumult of the 1960s, wishing I could have lived in a momentous era of American history when great issues were being resolved. I take it back.

No time for regret now. Not with Trump followers urging violence at the prospect of his being prosecuted for his crimes. Not when they question the value of law enforcement before they’ll ever question their Chosen One.

Trump certainly will never pause from lying. Why would he? The lies work. The federal case, outlining his betrayal of national interest and endangering our security by exposing America’s military secrets to her enemies, was instantly shrugged off. Republicans have honed a variety of survival skills — perpetual imaginary victimhood, look-a-squirrel whataboutism, but-the-trains-run-on-time tunnel vision — allowing them to instantly ignore anything Trump does, did, or ever could do.

If Republicans are in a trance, so are Democrats. Because we keep waiting for Republicans to wise up.

“It has become impossible to ignore Trump’s many transgressions over the years,” the Sun-Times said in an editorial Sunday. At the risk of contradicting the editorial board, that’s a complete inversion of the situation. It is not impossible to ignore Trump’s crimes. Rather, it is mandatory, among his followers. Ignoring Trump’s misdeeds is not a flaw, but a feature.

To toss out another date: Jan. 6, 2021. Trump goaded a mob to assault the Capitol trying to overturn a free and fair American election. If that didn’t shake his followers awake to the peril, what is going to now? This latest indictment?

If they can laugh off Jan. 6, what can’t be chuckled at? His being ordered to pay $5 million for slandering the woman who claimed Trump raped her boosted his poll numbers.

His millions of followers are never going to be disillusioned with Trump, just as 40% of Russians approve of Joseph Stalin, the millions starved or pact with Hitler notwithstanding. A hundred years from now, Trump will be a revered figure, like Jesus, and for the same reason: the need to worship something. Charges, investigations, convictions, are just the Romans lashing their savior as he drags his cross to Calvary.

Jan Plemmons, of Columbus, Ga., waits at a private airfield for former President Donald Trump’s arrival in Georgia on Saturday, June 10, 2023. — Jan Plemmons, of Columbus, Ga., waits at a private airfield for former President Donald Trump’s arrival in Georgia on Saturday.

Wake up. Liberal do-gooders are constantly calling upon values that just aren’t there. Remember former Ald. Leon Despres (5th), nicknamed the “conscience” of the Chicago City Council? Paddy Bauler, his notoriously corrupt Council colleague, once said to him: “Leon, the trouble is you think the whole thing’s on the square.”

The trouble with Democrats is they think the whole thing’s on the square. Still. Despite everything that has happened over eight years. We’ve learned nothing, and must start learning, fast. Time to stop invoking decency that isn’t there. If we are to continue to be a nation of laws, votes and varied voices, we must see the Trump menace for what it is: the gravest threat our nation has faced. The peril isn’t weakening; it’s growing stronger.

Someday, should America survive the Trump onslaught and become great enough to view history clearly, perhaps June 16 can become kind of a semi-official Day of Infamy, like Dec. 7 and Sept. 11. A cautionary tale for future generations. Not that we are anywhere near that safe perch where we can look back on the nightmare. Rather, we are in the thick of it, with more, maybe worse shocks to the American spirit speeding toward us.