ChiGoose

You keep ignoring that Trump obstructed the investigation. That’s the crucial difference between the two. Had he just done what Biden did, he wouldn’t have been charged.

I appreciate you proving my point that you are incapable of reading comprehension and instead just pretend you know what people said regardless of the actual text, so long as it meets your preconceived notions. You don’t live in the real world. You live in a pretend world that brings you comfort and tells you that you were always right all along despite the evidence to the contrary. I would laugh, but it’s actually quite sad.

I don’t want to be a jerk, but is English not your native language? Or do you have some learning issue? You keep claiming I said things that I’ve never said and I don’t want to embarrass you if there’s something else going on here.

I’m sorry you have such reading comprehension problems but maybe take some time to get professional help before continuously embarrassing yourself.

Yes, we all understand that you struggle to grasp basic concepts. You don't need to keep pointing it out to everyone.

If anyone is looking for a perfect example of Dunning-Kruger, this is it.

This is just factually incorrect. Instead of taking the very simple and correct explanation (leeway is granted to electeds if they don't obstruct), it paints Trump as a victim of a vast conspiracy that just does not exist. The idea that there is a "protected class" of powerful people who are above the law that exists but doesn't include the guy with a golden toilet is laughable. If Trump had intentionally taken the documents, told his people that he did so to sell them to Iran for cash, but the government asked for them before he did so and he returned them all, he'd be fine. It's not some grand conspiracy, it's an idiot being an idiot and causing himself problems. FYI: If you hire a lawyer, listen to them...

Yeah, unfortunately Aileen Cannon seems to have an incredibly poor grasp on the PRA. Under her theory, the president of the United States can take a sensitive document prepared by the intelligence community as a "personal document" and therefore treat it as if it were a box of White House jelly beans. That's obviously ludicrous and why Smith replied the way he did.

While I don’t agree with most of your characterizations (and that’s fine, we can agree to disagree) I do agree with this. The controls around handling of sensitive documents by electeds are seriously broken. They seem so lax that you’d expect to be walk out of a White House tour with a top secret document unwittingly stuck to your shoe. Aside from the national security implications, you’re correct that this impacts the narrative for the average person. Does everybody leave the office with national security documents? If so, why punish one guy when everyone does it? That, combined with how poorly the media covers politics, the law, and especially the intersection of politics and the law, leads to people believe that the facts of the Biden and Pence cases are the same as the Trump case. The Feds generally seem content to let things slide in these cases so long as the documents are returned. Trump lied to them about returning the documents, lied to his lawyer, causing him to lie to the Feds, and orchestrated several obstructive acts. Had he just done what Biden and Pence did, he’d be fine. We’d still have an issue with document control, but he wouldn’t have an issue with this indictment. But because of the narrative issues you pointed out, a lot of people are incorrectly conflating his case with Biden’s.

https://unusualwhales.com/politics/article/congress-trading-report-2023 Nancy doesn’t hold a candle to Brian Higgins. Members of Congress should be barred from trading stocks. Though that’s obviously irrelevant to this thread.

Two plead guilty to insider trading related to Trump Media merger "NEW YORK, April 3 (Reuters) - Two men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to insider trading in securities in the company that ultimately took former U.S. President Donald Trump's media business public. Michael Shvartsman, 53, head of Miami-based venture capital firm Rocket One Capital, and his brother Gerald Shvartsman, 46, each pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan. Rocket One's chief investment officer, Bruce Garelick, is scheduled to face trial on related charges on April 29. Prosecutors charged the trio last year with illegally trading on inside information about Trump Media & Technology Group's (TMTG) (DJT.O), opens new tab plan to go public through a merger with a blank-check company. TMTG operates Truth Social, Trump's main social media platform. Prosecutors said the trio signed confidentiality agreements in June 2021 when they were approached to become early investors in Digital World Acquisition, the blank-check company. The agreements required them to keep information they learned confidential and not trade the company's securities in the open market, prosecutors said. After hearing the company was in merger talks with TMTG, prosecutors said the trio tipped others and bought Digital World securities, selling them after the deal was announced on Oct. 20, 2021, to make a total of $22 million in illegal profit. Michael and Gerald Shvartsman said in court that they knew what they were doing was wrong when they traded on nonpublic information. "I've made a terrible mistake," Gerald Shvartsman said at the hearing. "Insider trading is cheating, plain and simple," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the pleas. The Shvartsmans are scheduled to be sentenced on July 17. Securities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but any sentence would be imposed by the judge based on a range of factors. The average prison sentence in federal fraud cases in the U.S. last year was around two years. TMTG was publicly listed in late March, and its shares have been on a wild ride fueled by speculators betting on enthusiasm for Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in November's election. The stock shed early gains this week as Truth Social's parent company disclosed it had lost more than $58 million in 2023. TMTG shares were trading at around $51.60 on Wednesday morning, making Trump's stake worth about $4 billion, though he is not allowed to sell or borrow against it for six months. Trump Media is also embroiled in legal battles in Delaware and Florida with co-founders Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky, who have accused the company of trying to improperly dilute their stake. Trump Media has argued they failed to earn their shares and seeks to strip them of their ownership." Man, who could have seen this coming...?

Doesn't he have like $30 million dead cap hit on the contract? Unless this is the first step of a bigger move like trading up in the draft or getting Jefferson or Aiyuk, I don't like it.

Apparently, abortion opponents will propose absolutely anything unless it addresses the root cause of the issue.

Do you believe that HAVV checks are actually registrations of people without IDs or can you admit that the tweet you quoted was clearly wrong?

The account is conflating verification checks with registrations, which are obviously not the same thing. The actually number of total new registrants for Texas this year is about 230k, Net new registrants (new registrants - people falling off the rolls) is about 190k according to the Texas Secretary of State.

Jack Smith is very good at his job

Good to see! Nevada abortion rights amendment surpasses signature threshold for ballot "The organization behind a proposed effort to enshrine abortion rights in Nevada's constitution says they've garnered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom is pushing to change the state constitution to include the right to an abortion until fetal viability. In a release sent Tuesday, the campaign said they've gathered 110,000 signatures, which surpasses the 102,362 threshold to qualify for the ballot. Of those, 25,591 signatures need to be from each of the state's four congressional districts. The organization said they're actively collecting signatures from all congressional districts. Political groups often try to gather well over the minimum requirement of signatures because many signatures are invalid for various reasons. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom says that the 110,000 signatures is 50% of their goal for this measure. “We are overwhelmed by Nevadans’ enthusiasm for protecting our reproductive rights and by the eagerness that voters across the political spectrum have shown for our petition. With more than 110,000 signatures gathered in less than six weeks, it’s a true testament to the fact that Nevadans recognize the importance in codifying reproductive freedom into our state constitution. As we continue to see new attacks on abortion access around the country, Nevadans recognize that there is real urgency to get this measure on the ballot and passed,” said president Lindsey Harmon. Abortion rights up to 24 weeks are already codified into Nevada law through a 1990 referendum vote, where two-thirds of voters were in favor. That can be changed with another referendum vote. Abortion rights have become a mobilizing issue for Democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision establishing a nationwide right to abortion. Public polling shows about two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, that sentiment has been underscored in elections both in Democratic and deeply Republican states. The standards are higher for amending the constitution, which requires either approval from two legislative sessions and an election, or two consecutive elections with a simple majority of votes. In Nevada, reproductive rights were central to Democratic campaigns in the 2022 midterms. It is set to be a central issue for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen as she looks to defend her seat in 2024. Another broader proposed ballot question seeking to enshrine various reproductive freedoms in Nevada's constitution is awaiting a decision from the state supreme court. The deadline to collect signatures is June 26 and then it will head to the Secretary of State's office for verification."

The Republican party has become a full-fledged anti-sex movement "The US supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas cited the Comstock Act, named after the 19th-century anti-vice campaigner Anthony Comstock, in last week’s case about access to the abortion pill mifepristone. If you don’t know who Anthony Comstock was or what his law did, that might not have alarmed you. But it should have." "Comstock was reputed to be driven by religious shame over ***** to become his era’s most extreme anti-sex crusader. He rose to prominence in the early 1870s, when he convinced Congress to make it a crime to advertise, sell or mail contraceptives or give out contraceptive information, even orally, or to mail anything “immoral” – a term whose vagueness allowed widespread prosecution, including of a feminist newspaper reporting on sexual abuse whose prominent publishers, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, he got sent to prison. Like modern-day rightwingers he was a book-burner, and he boasted that he had driven 15 people to suicide." "While the backlash to Roe’s June 2022 overturning has been spectacular, with Democratic election victories and blue-state legislation strengthening reproductive rights, that doesn’t spare women in red states from the horrific consequences of the decision. At this point we all know they include prosecution for miscarriages suspected of being abortions, let alone for actual abortions, and lack of timely care from medical providers, who, fearful of prosecution themselves, sometimes wait for miscarrying patients to go critical from infection or loss of blood before offering care. " "..[I]n May 2023, the Heritage Foundation declared on social media, “Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose, & ending recreational sex & senseless use of birth control pills.” "The Project 2025 agenda for a rightwing coup, should Trump win this November, declares that the USAid office of gender equality and women’s empowerment “should remove all ... language on USAid websites, in agency publications and policies, and in all agency contracts and grants that include” terms including “gender and gender equality” and should also remove references to “abortion”, “reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive rights”"

If you believe that the investigation into Russia was a hoax, why is that? Do you believe that Russia didn’t try to influence the election? Do you believe that the Trump campaign wasn’t willing and eager to accept help from Russia? Are you just mad because the media sucks?

Not something you’d expect to see for a former president but in line with what you’d expect to see for someone suffering from NPD

I don’t think that Biden will win Florida. But if these referendums drive turnout on the left, that will force Trump to spend real money in the state. Given the Trump campaign’s financial disadvantage, having to put money into Florida likely pulls money out of states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Arizona.

Florida potentially in play now: Florida Supreme Court allows recreational marijuana, abortion amendments on 2024 ballot I wonder if the Dems start putting real money into the state given how these referendums have been going lately. Should be a natural bump in turnout on the left.

As the value of $DJT continues to plummet, this is some helpful context: tl;dr: social media companies are often unprofitable for a long time as they build their network, user base, and market share. However, Trump Social has noted that they do not plan on releasing their user numbers so there’s no way to verify if they are following the Facebook model to build user base or failing.

I don’t think this is true. As the article stated, the Manhattan DA charges these kinds of cases all of the time, to the extent that they say it’s their “bread and butter.” They’ve even charged them against politicians for campaign violations not unlike what Trump has been charged with. From what we can tell, the Feds seemed reluctant to move against Trump on the documents because they tried to get him to turn them over for almost a year before taking serious action. It wasn’t until they became aware that he was outright lying to them that they did the search warrant and indictment. As we’ve seen, those types of cases generally don’t get charged unless there’s obstruction like there was with Trump. And the fake electors scheme, as well as other efforts to overturn the election, were clearly fraud. There’s an argument for one of the states (I can’t remember which one) where the electors understood themselves to be contingent, but for the rest they falsely claimed to be the real electors. Trump directed or was otherwise involved in efforts to defraud the public. The reason these charges seem novel is not because nobody has lied or committed fraud before. It’s because we haven’t seen a president/ former president do it, especially to such an extent. Had Trump paid Daniels out of the campaign funds and mislabeled it, he’d just get a fine (if that). Had he not lied about turning over the documents and/or just handed them over when asked, he wouldn’t be facing charges there. Had he just gone home when he lost the court cases about the election, he’d be in the same position Al Gore was: not facing charges. It’s because of his actions that he exposed himself to so much legal liability.

It is weird that Clinton got slapped by the FEC while they let Trump do the same thing with no consequences. But the FEC is a hopelessly broken organization. Maybe he could have gotten away with paying out of the campaign funds and didn’t need to expose himself to NYS liability.