Robert Barnes on the Jack Smith indictment of Trump
I’ve said before that I think Robert Barnes is very good on legal issues pertaining to politics in the US, although there are other topics on which I’m in disagreement with him. But he’s up to his usual high standards on the subject of Jack Smith’s Trump indictment and the ways in which Barnes thinks it should be fought by Trump’s lawyers.
The problem is, of course, that in the particular DC court in which it’s being tried, legal issues that might go in Trump’s favor will be only small obstacles to be gotten around one way or the other. It’s on appeal – and I mean appeal all the way to SCOTUS – that Trump might prevail.
The left knows that, and is proceeding anyway for propaganda and revenge purposes. Both of those goals are important to the left. The revenge element is obvious: make him suffer and make his supporters suffer as well. The propaganda is with the idea of elevating him in supporters’ eyes so that he wins the primary, and yet making him ever more toxic in the eyes of those in the middle so that they will not vote for him in the general. This is playing with fire – but then again, the whole thing is playing with fire in the sense that it escalates the divisions in America and causes ever more bitterness and anger.
The left may feel so secure right now because they assume they can put down any rebellions or protests and “J6” the protesters by using Draconian measures to either shoot them a la Ashli Babbitt or incarcerate them a la the J6 defendants. They also may feel secure about the 2024 election because they either can cheat and no Republican will have the courage to call them on it because of fear of the legal repercussions (now that such accusations by the right have become supposed crimes), or that the left will win the election even without cheating and with just the usual “rigging.”
But what if a lot – and I mean a lot – of people in the middle are turned off by the left’s show trial of Trump and recognize it for what it is, and vote for him or Republicans in general as a result? What are the chances of that happening? I don’t know, but I don’t think the chances are zero. It would be “interesting” to see how the left would handle that.
So, here’s Barnes:
By the way, Trump’s lawyers are trying to get the Jack Smith case moved out of DC. But of course the judge who will decide if the request to move the case has any merit is the very same judge who is already hopelessly biased against Trump
:
Trump’s arguments center on two claims: that Washington D.C.’s liberal politics would deprive him of an impartial jury, and that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol stirs an emotional response in Washington, D.C. residents that is unique to the region. His lawyer, John Lauro, said Sunday he intends to survey D.C. residents to back up these claims and present findings to the judge.
Trump’s biggest obstacle: Chutkan — along with nearly every federal judge on the bench in Washington, D.C. — has already rejected versions of these arguments in the hundreds of criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack. A review of Chutkan’s rulings on these motions suggests Trump is unlikely to fare any better.
At the heart of Chutkan’s analysis — like most of her colleagues’ as well — is a rejection of Trump’s premise. Just because a juror is affiliated with one political party — and even opposes the political views of someone facing charges — does not mean they are incapable of setting aside those views to judge a case based on evidence and facts.
No, it doesn’t mean it for sure – but it means it’s highly likely that the person is incapable of it if that person hates the defendant. And in a venue such as DC, the likelihood is that everyone on the jury will meet that description. But hey, let’s pretend otherwise, because that’s part of the plan.
I’ve long thought it odd you don’t link Frei and Barnes in the sidebar. Always interesting, and sometimes right.
But what if a lot – and I mean a lot – of people in the middle are turned off by the left’s show trial of Trump and recognize it for what it is, and vote for him or Republicans in general as a result?
There’s the half of the electorate that bothers to cast its own ballots, and that half is pretty strongly entrenched into pro- and anti-Trump camps. Maybe 5% of it would shift due to something they learn from the Trump indictments?
Most states are not competitive in the Electoral College. So if 2.5% of voters on the Left Coast switch to Trump, it won’t mean anything. Same for Kentucky, Indiana…
The competitive states are all 50/50-ish, but they have that huge share that doesn’t cast its own ballot. Out of that share, the Dems will harvest all the votes they need in the districts they control.
I don’t think there’s a plausible Republican voter wave of cavalry coming to save us.
It would be “interesting” to see how the left would handle that.
Obstruction, lawsuits and riots, just like always. If a few “Hawaiian judges” can’t rectify the election for them, then four years of obstruction, riots, and lawfare until the voters get it right.
@Frederick:
You are right in saying “I don’t think there’s a plausible Republican voter wave of cavalry coming to save us.” Remember the “Red Tsunami” we were supposed to get last year? For that matter, remember just last month Spain was supposed to move solidly right?
I suspect the old “shy Trump voter (or Tory)” phenomenon is just played out. I don’t like that, except for one thing: I always disliked the hubris on our side of the “more popcorn” brigade.
Frederick, et al.:
I also don’t think it at all likely that many voters in the middle will be outraged enough by the prosecutions to switch to Trump. I discussed it, however, as something with more than a zero possibility.
The charges against Trump have no legitimacy, thus a guilty verdict would itself be proof of bias.
I agree that things look bleak but I continue to believe that it is plausible, if not probable, that enough people will finally wake up to what is going on to defeat the Biden regime. I’m sure there will be plenty of ballot harvesting, vote rigging and just plain fraud and any margin of victory in the key swing states will have to be greater than the margin of fraud.
But a lot can still happen between now and November 2024 making any predictions about the election tenuous at best. We don’t know what the economy will look like in a year nor do we know what the state of Biden’s physical and mental health will be. I’m also not at all sure that the DOJ’s relentless assault on Trump will not make Trump a more sympathetic figure to people who wouldn’t ordinarily vote for a Republican.
I’m not giving up yet.
Something to keep in mind is that the left wants to embarrass the supreme court jurists. If Trump’s decision isn’t overturned until it gets to them, the media will run with the story that “Trump’s judges set him free”, to discredit the court.
Eeyore on August 8, 2023 at 4:58 pm said:
@Frederick:
You are right in saying “I don’t think there’s a plausible Republican voter wave of cavalry coming to save us.” Remember the “Red Tsunami” we were supposed to get last year?
Democrats did remarkably well in a midterm with an awful POTUS.
they had plenty of help, from basenghi republicans, in arizona georgia and pennsylvania,
although on the congressional beat, they showed what their priorities were,
Barnes is a treasure. Like Neo, I disagree with him on some major issues. But his brilliant, logical and lucid analysis and relatively dispassionate demeanor is most welcome. It’s a refreshing antidote to the scores of grandstanding, showboating legal ‘experts’ infesting every corner of the MSM
Maybe ee cervantes can elucidate his hate (channeling stan) for this particular breed of dog:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basenji
Is it the erronious “knowledge” that they don’t bark?
AKC doesn’t list a political affiliation for the breed, so must be Uniparty? Maybe Frederick knows?
Far too serious a question for idle speculation!
Democrat perfidy and fraud. We must name it, shame it, and stain them with it. Let it stick like tar and feathers.
That’s how we turn an unlikely possibility into a necessary and powerful likelihood.
People are actually getting fed up with the crime, homelessness, drugs, school indoctrinations, pride excesses, etc. in the Seattle area. I’m seeing more and more people on the local newscasts who are actually complaining about these problems and want something done. That’s a tiny step in the right direction.
Seattle defunded their police department, and crime is getting worse. (of course.) It’s common for the news to report three or more shootings a night.
Chief Adrian Diaz, a veteran cop who inherited the job when the previous chief quit after the department was defunded, is doing his best, but they just don’t have the manpower. I feel sorry for him, but not for the citizens of Seattle. They voted for this crap.
The new Seattle mayor is not a leftie but he’s a squish, so the beat goes on. If they are going to right the ship, it will talk some new council members. That will take time. 🙁
North of Seattle in Snohomish County we have a law-and-order sheriff and less crime. The local lefties are trying to get rid of the sheriff, but so far, they’ve failed.
In my small berg we have some good cops. The last crime committed here was a carjacking which ended with the car jacker stopped and killed by the police. It was apparently a good shooting, as there was no official blow back. We haven’t had any looting incidents that I know of. Where I live is like being on another planet from Seattle. I’m hoping it stays that way.
What happened to the officers who arrested Floyd is a stain on this country’s history. Mob justice carried out by local, state, and federal legal systems. It could happen again, and probably will considering the way our legal system is trending. 🙁
neo wrote – “But what if a lot – and I mean a lot – of people in the middle are turned off by the left’s show trial of Trump and recognize it for what it is, and vote for him or Republicans in general as a result? What are the chances of that happening? I don’t know, but I don’t think the chances are zero. It would be “interesting” to see how the left would handle that.”
neo acknowledged that this result is unlikely, and I agree. I think the far more likely result is that people will vote to make the Trump disappear from their screens and consciousness. Frankly, I think a lot of people already did that in 2020 (and 2022).
Trump will remain an obsession for Trumpers on the right and left-wingers with nothing better to do. (I predict that there will be no shortage of reporters on the “Trump in prison” beat. Slate and Salon will run weekly features detailing his diet and social interactions. NYTimes and WaPo will give him a regular platform to spew his bile and create fodder for attack ads against Republicans. Heck, I’ll bet that Trump will even give regular sit-down interviews to their reporters.)
One way or another, Trump’s status as a political force for the right is going to end in 2024 (and arguably already ended in 2020). The left has already exploited the MAGA movement to do an incredible amount of damage to our republic. The only issue left to be decided is now much more we are going to allow Trump to enable them.
talk about missing the forest for the meteor burning burning the trees down, have you not seen what they are still doing to Netanyahu, what they did to Berlusconi till his dying day,
I had high hopes for Desantis, but he seems to have saddled himself with some people of poor judgment and worse spending habits, some of whom worked on ted cruz’s campaign, I mean Ed Rollins what Steve Schmidt wasn’t available,
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/08/09/january-6th-committee-didnt-turn-over-its-records-to-the-house-n569973
A stunning clip published online shows a cell phone video of a D.C. officer on J6 saying, “We go undercover as Antifa in the crowd.” In another clip, a tactical officer asks a USCP about “identifiers” for undercover cops. A USCP Officer says UCs have wristbands and candy stripes on the barrel of their guns.
The House select committee that investigated the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 failed to adequately preserve documents, data and video depositions – including communications it had with the Biden White House that are still missing – according to the Republican lawmaker overseeing the GOP investigation into the committee’s work.
The now-disbanded “J6” committee, which was run by Democrats and included only two GOP members, has also failed to provide any evidence that it looked into Capitol Hill security failures on the day of the riot, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight for the Committee on House Administration, told Fox News Digital.
Loudermilk said his staff has had difficulty gathering all the information it needs to investigate Rep. Bennie Thompson’s handling of the J6 investigation.
“Part of our task as this oversight subcommittee is to actually address the security failures, look into how did it happen… how were these folks able to get into the Capitol,” Loudermilk said. He said the documents they obtained came over in boxes and was completely unorganized.
“Nothing was indexed. There was no table of contents index. Usually when you conduct this level of investigation, you use a database system and everything is digitized, indexed. We got nothing like that. We just got raw data,” he said. “So it took us a long time going through it and one thing I started realizing is we don’t have anything much at all from the Blue Team.”
……………….
Loudermilk told Fox News Digital that his committee has only received 2.5 terabytes of data and said the first footnote in Thompson’s letter to him on July 7 acknowledged they did not keep what they were supposed to.
In that footnote, Thompson wrote, “Consistent with guidance from the Office of the Clerk and other authorities, the Select Committee did not archive temporary committee records that were not elevated by the Committee’s actions, such as use in hearings or official publications, or those that did not further its investigative activities. Accordingly, and contrary to your letter’s implication, the Select Committee was not obligated to archive all video recordings of transcribed interviews or depositions. Based on guidance from House authorities, the Select Committee determined that the written transcripts provided by nonpartisan, professional official reporters, which the witnesses and Select Committee staff had the opportunity to review for errata, were the official, permanent records of transcribed interviews and depositions for the purposes of rule VII.”
“He’s saying they decided they didn’t have to,” Loudermilk told Fox News Digital. “It was clear in law they had to especially and, I mean, if there was any question, the fact that they used the videos in the hearings would dictate that it had to be preserved. The more we go in the more we’re realizing that there’s things that we don’t have. We don’t have anything about security failures at the Capitol, we don’t have the videos of the depositions.”
Apparently, no one thinks that Biden crime and corruption will have any impact on election.
That’s really amazing.
Om,
You make me laugh. Are you 12? Do you go through life so butt hurt that you can’t let a day go by without jabbing me? Ask your mommy for a lollipop. It will make your pain ease.
stan said – “Apparently, no one thinks that Biden crime and corruption will have any impact on election.”
It’s very easy to rationalize the faults of your own candidate by pointing to the other guy. Supporters of the other guy are doing exactly the same thing.
Regarding whether unjust prosecutions can move independents or anti-Trump voters toward Trump:
It seems to be the opposite, in my opinion. I continue to be shocked by how many people I hear say something like, “I’m so glad we have Biden if office. He’s returned decorum and calmness to the Office and nation.” A “return to normalcy” defense.
I guess the “Republicans pounce” news reporting really does reach a lot of people. By throwing tantrums when Republicans win the Left appears to convince a lot of people to not vote Republican in order to restore order.
Paul Harmon @6:44pm,
Yes. Absolutely. Crucial point!
Rufus T. Firefly and Paul Harmon – You’re both right. That’s why I’m not so sure that they will rule for Trump, especially after the trial judge refuses to allow an appeal until after the trial (and certain conviction). I think it’ll by 5-4 or maybe 6-3 against Trump with Roberts writing a “strategic retreat” decision that tries to minimize the precedential damage.
stan:
The MSM is dedicated to making sure a lot of people don’t even get the Biden corruption news, much less care about it.
And even if they do get the news, if they believe that Biden is running against Hitler, they’ll vote for Biden as the lesser of two evils.
Bauxite,
“…decision that tries to minimize the precedential damage.”
And minimize the Presidential damage.
dread pirate roberts, rarely fails to dissapoint, after all he didn’t uphold atty client priviledge after all,
@stan: Trolls post hoping to provoke a response. No point wasting your time with them, their behavior never changes and they have nothing substantive, apparently, to contribute.
I use a script to block known trolls so I don’t even see the comment in the first place, but you can just scroll on past too. If you start a back-and-forth it’s just a waste of your time, an annoyance for neo, and the attention the trolls crave.
@Bauxite:It’s very easy to rationalize the faults of your own candidate by pointing to the other guy. Supporters of the other guy are doing exactly the same thing.
In my case, this is not why I think the Trump news will have no effect on the election. (Trump is not my guy, I don’t have one.) The reasons are:
Only a few states are close enough to swing Electoral College votes from Democrat to Republican: in these states Dems can harvest ballots in the blue metro districts they control and overcome any plausible swing to the Republican side.
The mainstream media and social media will blackout the news. The mainstream media in the obvious way by not reporting on it, social media in a less-obvious way by tweaking algorithms to suppress the news, banning people and posts, demonetization, etc.
Most people already have made up their minds about Trump. He’s not obscure, and he’s the focus of 24/7 news coverage. Anything that could possibly come out about Trump is already baked in, unless maybe he got Epsteined, in which case he’d be ineligible to serve if elected (being dead).
Artfldgr,
The House Pelosi selected committee learned it from Hillary! Make your records disappear. Deliberately.
If you’re gonna lie, LIE BIGLY! But disappear the records.