The Donald J. Trump Guide to Getting Away With Anything

[homersapien 11,362]

Good summary in case - like me - you find it hard to keep score.

 

The former president has a knack for avoiding consequences for his misbehavior.

By David A. Graham

With each new scandal involving Donald Trump, the question arises again: Is this the one that will finally exact some pain on the former president?

The question is in the air once more following the FBI’s seizure of top-secret documents from Mar-a-Lago last week. On the one hand, as both Trump’s allies and adversaries have noted, such a warrant on a former president is unprecedented, one of Trump’s lawyers reportedly told the government all files were returned prior to the search, and Trump has offered nonsensical defenses, all of which point to the seriousness of the situation. On the other, many cases involving mishandled classified information end without charges—just ask Hillary Clinton—and some experts speculate that the goal of the search may simply have been to recover the documents rather than to build a criminal case against Trump.

But because this case is only the latest in a string of scandals, the question can’t be separated from a broader context: Trump’s repeated ability to escape the most serious, and sometimes any, consequences for his serial misbehavior. This skill has birthed memes, including a reappropriation of the “Teflon Don” moniker, well-deserved conservative mockery of premature political death warrants, and the immortal “Ah! Well. Nevertheless” tweet.

This pattern has created an air of invincibility around Trump that can drive liberals to nihilistic fatalism and conservatives to hubris. In truth, the dichotomy is misleading: Though Trump has evaded the most serious legal consequences so far, he has paid a political price; there’s a reason he’s the former president and very unpopular with the majority of Americans. Still, as we await more information on the Mar-a-Lago search, the record reveals the maneuvers that have gotten Trump out of jeopardy in the past.

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Before the Presidency

The Scandal: Too many to summarize, as I chronicled in a running tally before he was elected president, including housing discrimination, a scammy “university,” and sexual-assault and -harassment allegations going back decades.

When: 1973–2017

How He Got Away With It: You name it, he tried it: connections, luck, running out the clock, endless litigation. But more than anything, a pattern emerged of Trump managing to sidestep serious legal consequences by paying fines to dispose of regulatory headaches, civil lawsuits, and other matters, frequently without having to admit guilt or submit to any other penalties. Many of the cases involved corners cut or laws bent to benefit his business, and the fines tended to represent a sliver of whatever revenue he’d made by way of the infraction.

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Russian Collusion

The Scandal: Although Trump, as well as many people who ought to know better, insists that the story was a hoax, his campaign colluded with Russian agents during the 2016 campaign, hoping for some edge against Hillary Clinton.

When: 2016

How He Got Away With It: First, Trump left the dirty work to lieutenants, skipping (for example) the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents. Second, Trump critics overreached, becoming obsessed with sideshows, such as the Steele dossier or the campaign hanger-on Carter Page, that distracted from the core offense. Third, Special Counsel Robert Mueller was hobbled by a Justice Department policy against charging sitting presidents with crimes, and he seemed so determined to play his investigation by the book that he soft-pedaled the seriousness of his findings.

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Extorting Ukraine

The Scandal: Using congressionally appropriated funds, Trump tried to blackmail Ukraine into assisting his reelection campaign by announcing an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

When: 2019–20

How He Got Away With It: The facts were relatively simple, and the House impeached Trump. But in a pattern that has been central to his enduring impunity, the majority-Republican Senate worked as a bloc to let him off, with only one GOP senator voting to find him guilty on one of two counts—putting the vote well short of the 67 needed to convict.

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Emoluments Clause

The Scandal: Critics argued that Trump violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution because his businesses allowed him to accept money from foreign governments. The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for example, became a magnet for overseas officials.

When: 2017–21

How He Got Away With It: Two cases were tied up in litigation until after Trump left office, at which point the Supreme Court ruled that they were moot. A federal appeals court rejected a third case, brought by Democratic members of Congress, who judges said didn’t have standing to sue under the law. This has been one of Trump’s essential insights: Just because a law exists doesn’t mean it can be enforced.

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Ethics Violations

The Scandal: Trump aides appear to have repeatedly violated the Hatch Act and other laws that prevent civil-service employees from engaging in politics or promoting Trump family businesses.

When: 2017–21

How He Got Away With It: In another demonstration that a law’s existence doesn’t guarantee that it matters, breaches of many ethics laws are identified by an independent office, but the person responsible for disciplining top appointees is the president. When Trump’s aides got in trouble for breaking them for his benefit, he naturally made no effort to levy any punishments.

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Questionable Tax Returns

The Scandal: Many questions have been raised about Trump’s tax returns, including whether he has followed either the spirit or the letter of the law, going back to his refusal to release his returns as customary in 2016. What information has emerged to the public suggests that he has at the very least violated the former. The House Ways and Means Committee has requested his tax returns from the IRS under an existing statute.

When: 2016–present

How He Got Away With It: Delay and stonewalling. The Trump Treasury Department put off a decision as long as possible, then announced that it would not produce the records. Since then, the matter has been tied up in litigation. The House committee still hasn’t obtained the records, though it has repeatedly won court cases as it seeks the documents—most recently last week. By now, of course, the matter is ancient and politically neutered.

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Attempted Coup

The Scandal: Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, pressuring state officials to rig vote totals, trying to engineer alternate slates of electors, and finally inciting a violent mob that disrupted Congress’s certification of the count.

When: November 2020–January 2021

How He Got Away With It: The House promptly impeached him a second time, but the GOP-led Senate insisted on delaying the trial. By the time it came around, some senators’ anger had cooled, they’d had a chance to test the political winds, and they decided that sticking with Trump was prudent. A majority of senators voted to convict, but the total was still short of the necessary 67.

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That isn’t the end of the story. The House committee investigating the maneuvers continues to turn up damaging information, which seems to have eroded his standing among Republican politicians and voters. The Justice Department is investigating and could potentially bring charges. A district attorney in Georgia is also investigating Trump’s pressure campaign in that state. No one knows whether any of these will lead to charges or other material punishments—but Trump has plenty of battle-tested tactics to try to prevent that or fight them if they happen.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/donald-j-trump-guide-getting-away-anything/671165/

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by homersapien

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

Becoming concerned again about your obsession Brother Homer.

https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/the-obsession-with-trump-is-pathological-dd81dd180c2c

People who are so pathologically addicted to hating Trump that they can’t see through any other lens risk appearing fanatical. People in the middle, the swing voters, might start to think, Maybe Trump isn’t the real threat. Maybe it’s this rabid hatred that keeps us from being united.

[homersapien 11,362]

27 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Becoming concerned again about your obsession Brother Homer.

https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/the-obsession-with-trump-is-pathological-dd81dd180c2c

People who are so pathologically addicted to hating Trump that they can’t see through any other lens risk appearing fanatical. People in the middle, the swing voters, might start to think, Maybe Trump isn’t the real threat. Maybe it’s this rabid hatred that keeps us from being united.

I'll relax when I know he is no longer a threat to the country.

So you do you, sit back and enjoy your denial.

[SaltyTiger 7,789]

7 hours ago, homersapien said:

I'll relax when I know he is no longer a threat to the country.

So you do you, sit back and enjoy your denial.

“Denial”, per Brother ICHY “believer”. You guys are amazing. Counted like 24 topics on page 1 smack talk. Around 15 about Trump. Obsessed and ridiculous.

[homersapien 11,362]

12 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

“Denial”, per Brother ICHY “believer”. You guys are amazing. Counted like 24 topics on page 1 smack talk. Around 15 about Trump. Obsessed and ridiculous.

Have you possiblye confused the "Political" forum with the "Football" or "All Things Considered" forum"?   Otherwise, your feelings are noted.

[homersapien 11,362]

Looks like the list in the OP is about to grow:

Court orders release of DOJ memo on Trump obstruction in Mueller probe

By Rachel Weiner

 

A federal appeals court has ordered the release of a secret Justice Department memo discussing whether President Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The unanimous panel decision issued Friday echoes that of a lower court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, who last year accused the Justice Department of dishonesty in its justifications for keeping the memo hidden.

The panel of three judges, led by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, said that whether or not there was “bad faith,” the government “created a misimpression” and could not stop release under the Freedom of Information Act.

The memo was written by two senior Justice Department officials for then-attorney general William P. Barr, who subsequently told Congress that there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s inquiry. A redacted version was released last year but left under seal the legal and factual analysis.

Department officials argued that the document was protected because it involved internal deliberations over a prosecutorial decision. But the judges agreed with Jackson that both Mueller and Barr had clearly already concluded that a sitting president could not be charged with a crime. The discussion was over how Barr would publicly characterize the obstruction evidence Mueller had assembled, the Justice Department conceded on appeal.

Judge blasts Barr, Justice Dept. for ‘disingenuous’ handling of secret Trump obstruction memo

“The court’s ... review of the memorandum revealed that the Department in fact never considered bringing a charge,” the panel wrote. “Instead, the memorandum concerned a separate decision that had gone entirely unmentioned by the government in its submissions to the court—what, if anything, to say to Congress and the public about the Mueller Report.”

The court said that if the Department of Justice had accurately described to Jackson the motivations behind the memo, the document might be considered protected. Federal courts generally give deference to the government in such cases.

“We have held that an agency’s deliberations about how to communicate its policies are privileged, just like its deliberations about the content of those policies,” the court wrote. But they said the government forfeited that argument by insisting the memo was about the charging decision and resisting a review that showed otherwise.

“Any notion that the memorandum concerned whether to say something to the public went entirely unargued — and even unmentioned” until the appeal, the court said. “We cannot sustain the withholding of the memorandum on a rationale that the Department never presented to the district court.”

Jackson castigated the government for that omission, saying that CREW’s assessment of the memo “was considerably more accurate than the one supplied by the Department” even though the nonprofit “had never laid eyes on the document.”

Barr ultimately told lawmakers that since Mueller had declined to reach a conclusion on obstruction of justice, he and his deputy made their own determination that the evidence was lacking. When Mueller’s full report was released weeks later, his office said there was “substantial evidence” of obstruction. He also wrote a letter to Barr saying the attorney general had mischaracterized his team’s work.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the nonprofit that sued for the document’s release, celebrated the ruling on Twitter and a spokesman for the ethics watchdog called it a “major victory for transparency.”

“Attorney General Barr cited this memo as a reason not to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice,” CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz said in a statement. “The American people deserve to know what it says. Now they will.”

The court held release of the memo for a week so the Justice Department can weigh an appeal. The department could ask the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit or U.S. Supreme Court to keep the document under seal. A Justice spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Barr.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/19/barr-memo-court-mueller-release-russia/

Edited August 20, 2022 by homersapien

[icanthearyou 4,462]

On 8/18/2022 at 8:51 PM, SaltyTiger said:

“Denial”, per Brother ICHY “believer”. You guys are amazing. Counted like 24 topics on page 1 smack talk. Around 15 about Trump. Obsessed and ridiculous.

When you can deny reality,,, you have become a true believer.  Not an observation, not judgement.  More of a question, a personal question only you can answer.