The Trump Criminal Case MEGATHREAD.

[honorentheos]

If Trump became President again, how best to keep vital classified information from him so he does not spread it to foreign enemies?

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When Trump's former Chief of Staff John Kelly says, "Trump has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law" that makes Republicans want him all the more.

Write it in cursive.

- Doc

Codetalk 2.0. Brilliant.

[Moksha]

Trump boosts his reputation among Republicans by stressing revenge and malevolence. Republicans love a deranged despot.

[Res Ipsa]

The day before her trial was scheduled to begin in Georgia, Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal. Powell, known for her post-election "Kraken" lawsuits, was accused of illegally accessing voting machines and downloading data. Of the defendants in the Georgia RICO lawsuit, only she and Kenneth Cheesboro asserted their speedy trial rights. Cheesboro's trial is still scheduled to start tomorrow.https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/politics ... index.html

[Vēritās]

They better get something in return for this plea deal. Someone needs to go to prison.

[Res Ipsa]

They better get something in return for this plea deal. Someone needs to go to prison.

Looks like they flipped her. She gave recorded testimony, documents, and an agreement to testify in exchange for the plea. She'll help send bigger fish to prison.

[Moksha]

Looks like they flipped her. She gave recorded testimony, documents, and an agreement to testify in exchange for the plea. She'll help send bigger fish to prison.

They would never flip General Mike Flynn. He would seek asylum in the Kremlin before that.

[Res Ipsa]

An article in the Atlantic discusses what the prosecution gets out of the Powell plea bargain:

The question is what it gives prosecutors. Although today’s plea doesn’t offer the public any new information about the prosecutors’ case or the evidence they have, it seems to have a potential to affect the overall Fulton County case in three ways. In short, Kreis told me, “I think there are a lot of people who are in more trouble than they were before.”

First, the plea simplifies the Chesebro trial. Powell and Chesebro had asked for speedy trials, rather than waiting a few months for a more standard trial. Though both are attorneys, their roles were very different. Powell, flashy and drawn to animal prints and chunky jewelry, became a household name in the weeks after the election because she often spoke to the press about the election scheme, though her role seems to have been mostly lower-level and operational. Chesebro, by contrast, was little known and had no public profile but worked closely with John Eastman and other lawyers on the broad contours of the paperwork coup.

“The person in the gravest of danger [now] is Jeff Clark,” Kreis said. “Now we have a direct chain of individuals who can link Sidney Powell to Scott Hall and Scott Hall to Jeff Clark. Now there’s two witnesses who can presumably talk about the way in which Jeff Clark was not just concocting letters in his office to encourage the general assembly to overturn the election but was involved in and linked to unlawful actions in Georgia.”

Removing Powell will narrow the Chesebro trial, which could help prosecutors, but it may also satisfy Chesebro, whose attorneys wanted the cases separated. “There has never been any direct contact or communication between Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell,” they argued in a filing last month. “Similarly, there is no correlation or overlap between the overt acts or the substantive charges associated with Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell.” (Chesebro rejected a deal that would have spared him prison time but required him to plead guilty to a felony and testify, ABC News reports.)

Second, Powell’s plea moves forward the Coffee County portion of the racketeering case. According to prosecutors, the conspirators arranged to unlawfully access and copy data from voting machines in the Southeastern Georgia location. Powell is the second person to plead guilty to involvement there, following Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman who copped a plea in September. Their testimony may help prosecutors target Jeff Clark, a little-known Justice Department official who attempted to lead a coup inside the department, getting Trump to appoint him acting attorney general, and to convince state legislatures to overturn election results. (He has pleaded not guilty.)

Third is the question of how other people accused in the case might react to Powell’s plea. Prosecutors likely hope that it might convince some of the lower-level defendants to conclude that their chances of beating the rap are low but also that cooperating now might produce favorable terms. Agreements to testify would, in turn, presumably make it easier to mount a successful case against the biggest names in the case—Trump, of course, as well as the attorneys Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. A trial for these defendants likely won’t occur until next year.

“It’s a real prisoner’s dilemma,” Kreis said. “Who’s talking; who’s doing what; what’s the deal I’m going to get? It’s a complicated set of game theory.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... se/675698/

[Vēritās]

This all just seems too good to be true.

[Res Ipsa]

Cheesboro has now also entered into a plea deal.https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... p-georgia/

Poor Trump doesn't get to watch a dress rehearsal of the case against him.

[Some Schmo]

Cheesboro has now also entered into a plea deal.https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... p-georgia/

Poor Trump doesn't get to watch a dress rehearsal of the case against him.

"Poor Trump" is the operative phrase, since he can't watch the dress rehearsal due to fighting to not be poor in the New York fraud case.