An Innocent Man?
By James Moore
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone mis doing it” – Saint Augustine.
If Donald Trump is a “very innocent man,” then I am the sheikh of an OPEC nation.
His baseless degradations of his guilty verdict were expected but I was not prepared for the Republican officeholders and high-profile party surrogates to attack the American judicial system with such vigor. Their actions are irresponsible and dangerous, and if they don’t know that, they ought to. They are so concerned about Trump’s political ego and their proximity to his putative power that they are willing to toss the rule of law into a ditch flowing with their lick spittle, and further Trump’s destruction of U.S. democratic institutions. Their revenge language almost transcends fascism.
Let’s talk first about the governor of Texas, whose hypocrisies with the legal system are already many and manifest. Remember that Greg Abbott sued a homeowner, their arborist, and insurance company, when a tree blew over and made him paraplegic during a run. Abbott managed to land tens of millions of dollars in the case, which included free lifetime health care, annual cash annuities, and regularly renewed special vehicles and drivers for handicapped persons. When, however, he got into politics, he pushed hard for tort reform, which capped jury awards against business failures and negligence to $250,000. As a Texas Supreme Court justice, he also ruled in favor of corporations over citizens, consistently.
Abbott is, nonetheless, a lawyer and a member of the Texas State Bar, and the group ought to begin disbarment proceedings against him for undermining the judicial process with his lies, which are as blatant as the lying liar in emulates.
“This was a sham show trial,” he wrote on X. “The Kangaroo Court will never stand on appeal. Americans deserve better than a sitting U.S. President weaponizing our justice system against a political opponent, all to win an election. We must FIRE Joe Biden in November.”
That word “sham” was doing a lot of work after a just trial had concluded. Neither Abbott nor any other whiners can show evidence to connect the president to the New York state jury trial. A president has no jurisdiction over state courts, or federal, and there is no linkage between the jurors or the judge to Mr. Biden. There are only unfounded accusations that place the rule of law in peril because there are MAGA members who believe the lies. If any lawyer had made such claims about a ruling Abbott wrote while he was sitting on this state’s high court, he would have moved immediately to seek their disbarment. His decisions and opinions almost uniformly favored corporations in cases involving product liability, medical malpractice, and any issue consumer related.
None of the allegations made by Trump sycophants are supportable, or even logical. The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, who has said god has spoken to him about being a modern Moses, indicated he thinks the “Supreme Court should step in, obviously, this is totally unprecedented. I think that the Justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they are deeply concerned about that, as we are. So I think they’ll set this straight.”
The idea that personal relationships might somehow influence legal outcomes is what’s unprecedented, and for a House Speaker to imply that matters to a jury’s findings, well, it is vile. “Hey, Donnie. I know the black robe folks well. Lemme see what I can do.” What he knows is that the high court has no jurisdiction over state courts, unless some constitutional right was contravened, and such a case has been made throughout the state appeals process. Trump was granted all the rights of any citizen before a jury of his peers. Even his lawyer has said on TV, though, that they will likely take it to the Supreme Court. They cannot; appeals will run through state appellate processes.
The heaping-est helping of hilarity, though, goes to Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who said, “If the justice system can do this to a former president, it can do it to anyone in America. That should frighten every American. New York and Biden have turned our country into a third-world-styled justice system that goes after political opponents like you see in Russia or North Korea.” Patrick, though, corrupted and controlled the outcome of an impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Lt. Gov. runs the Texas State Senate the way Putin manages the Kremlin. He accepted a $3 million dollar donation from Paxton’s largest backers prior to the proceedings and then controlled what witnesses were to be called, helping to acquit Paxton. Of course, he’s not wrong that the justice system can do to any American what it did to Trump because what it did was subject him to a jury of his peers and a proof of evidence regarding charges leveled. Danny P a.so abrogated the judicial process with Paxton’s impeachment in the Texas Senate by threatening to sequester senators in the capital if they did not quickly return a verdict, and it was clear what decision he expected.
Maybe I gave out the award for hilarity a bit too capriciously. Paxton was impeached and convicted in the Texas House but acquitted in the Senate in a truly sham process that kept his mistress from testifying but allowed her former employer, a state senator, to vote on the AG’s guilt. Paxton is still being investigated by the FBI in a whistleblower case that involved what appear to be kickbacks to him and privileges for Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who gave Paxton’s extra lady a job. Paul was indicted for lying to banks to get $172 million in loans. Anyone who tracked the Senate impeachment, though, knew the fix was in and Paxton was not going to be convicted so his expertise on what comprises a “sham” must be an accepted part of our political calculus regarding reactions to Trump’s conviction.
“From the beginning of this sham trial, I stood by President Trump, and my support for him is stronger than ever,” he posted on X. “As Attorney General of Texas, I will unleash every tool at my disposal to fight this blatant corruption and political persecution spewing from New York and the Biden administration.”
None of the GOP herd of lawyers care that they are insulting twelve jurors, doing their civic duty, and, in this case, probably at great risk. Social media MAGAts are calling for doxxing of jurors and the prosecutor and judge are reportedly already recipients of death threats. Each of GOP’s condemnations of the trial as rigged and the judge and prosecutor as corrupt are clear violations of Professional Rules of Conduct established by most state bars. Abbott is too busy putting a spit shine on Trump’s shoes and his ass to tend to this state’s real challenges. We have a million uninsured children and rank 45th in health care with a ranking of 41st in per pupil education spending, which is not stopping him from a legislative effort to send taxpayer money to private Christian schools.
The theme of GOP outrage seems to be, “If they can use the courts to do this to President T, they can do it to you.” Isn’t that what Trump and Bush did with the Supreme Court? Impanel it with extremist conservatives who use their power to contravene existing law? If that court can do to women what it has done with the Dobbs ruling, imagine what they can do to you. If that court can empower corporations over voters like it did with Citizens United, imagine what it can do to you. Aren’t those more succinct questions to be asked than making up groundless fears that Biden is pulling strings and weaponizing the Department of Justice? The legal system was already politically weaponized with Trump’s appointments to the high court, and, in the process of making political rulings, the Supreme Court has lost most of its legitimacy and has become a vestigial organ of American democracy. It is also important to point out that when there are calls to end the death penalty because of flawed evidence or false testimony leading to convictions, the radical right screams that we must trust the judicial processes.
Trump is already polishing up the fascist tools he plans to take into the White House. In a direct mail piece many people have posted on Reddit, his primary campaign appeared to be using threats and intimidation. The language on the piece below reminds the recipient their “voting record is public, your neighbors are watching, and will know if you miss this critical runoff election.” I am unamused by the line that says, “We will notify President Trump if you don’t vote. You can’t afford to have that on your record.” Even better, the GOP Gestapo ends with the message, “We will contact you after the election to make sure you voted.” Too many voters will fall for this kind of crap and be frightened into voting for Trump and his sheeple.
They are, most likely, already measuring for new drapes in the Western Kremlin.
This article was originally published on Texas to the world.
James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.
He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).
His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.
Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”
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Return to home pageAnd he has conga lines of conservatives, acolytes and white Christian nationalists claiming the case is unfair or a ‘hit job’ (Al ‘Boris’ Johnson), includes too many in Australia, Hungary and Russia.
PS After verdict all major outlets presented, discussed and analysed, except one which did funny bear videos, Fox News….
Yes they are grubs and Biden has done irreparable damage to hopes of some thing better coming from a change of government.
The whole of the USA seems daft just now.
A living manifestation of a shit sandwich called Trump has too many people chewing and swallowing. The USA has descended, clearly, into a mess of misinformation, moron-misfittery, mupetry, maggotism, Merde Dog malicious media muck and massively miserable mopery. A land that produced fast food, Hollywood horrors, Jazz, the Robber Barons, murdered culture, enchained excrementalists, suckerseeking cheats and smiling liars, political bumboys to order, is fast approaching cliffdropping oblivion.
PP, perfectly observed per your usual perspicacity; succinctly though, I’d summarise in two words, or three. America’s fucked.
Andrew Smith,
Look at the quote at the beginning of this article. It is sufficient to say that there are a lot of people who support Trump even though he wrong. The colour of their skin, their religion, or their politics is irrelevant. So what is the point of drawing anyone’s attention to them? Are any of these things you have mentioned factors that determine people’s ability to distinguish between right and wrong?
It is pretty obvious that Trump is incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Is that because he has orange skin? Maybe he really is just the innocent victim of fake tan that has chemically scrambled his perception of reality.
Never the less, you are quite right expressing concern that so many people refuse to admit to what is right and what is wrong. It is extremely depressing.
James,
The repugs gave the thing the power and now the monster that has been released is rampaging unchecked across the political, world and public spectrum and they are so far and away frightened that the creature will turn his eye on them if they try to rein him in. Then there’s always the danger of the MAGA cultists lurking menacingly behind the orange mad man to worry about.
Oh yes, how does Sheik Yerbouti sound for your OPEC name?
The republicans, as a tribe , are very united in acting like fools, unable to accept that their man is an immoral liar, bereft of any decency or honesty. More over, they cannot accept that they were misguided in 2016, and now are determined to rewrite history in 2024. In short, a bunch of hypocritical, vindictive party operatives, burning with a desire for revenge retribution and mayhem. Every one of their leaders in Congress and the Senate are backing Trump, the convicted felon, 100%.
Tear up the constitution, trash the the justice system. stack the supreme court with less than fair minded justices, and blame it all on the people, (the not so white ones of course). And when all else fails, strap on your weapons and march on the capitol. Ah America, land of the brave, idiots and charlatans.
Arrrggghhhh ! Jimbo, as usual, you made me larf, you made me cry – plus I learned so much in between.
Who else would, could ,write such a piece and give us so much background and joining of dots ?
The awful thing is, so much is recognizable and coming soon to an Australia near us, if we don’t watch out.
I am constantly drawn to Aesop’s fable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf when it comes to Donald Trump.
First it was ‘crooked Hillary’ and ‘lock her up’ and some of the people believed him !
Then it was a rigged electoral system and a stolen election and some of the people believed him.
Then it was a witch hunt, crooked Joe Biden, a corrupt Judge, a rigged judicial system and an incompetent jury and still some of the people believed him.
As Aesop noted, ultimately :
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
file:///C:/Users/teren/Downloads/aesops-fables-010-the-boy-who-cried-wolf.pdf
I’ve never believed in any god. But god help all of us if the American public are stupid and gullible enough to vote this wannabe Putin/Kim Jong Un PoS back in to a job he did sooooo badly the first time around. The world is looking on in horror hoping beyond anything else that sanity will prevail for the good of our only home.
His claim that “they can do this to anyone” is rubbish. Because there are very few in the MAGA crowd who have the money to commit fraud on the same scale! So many angry, inadequate, right wing males in US politics.
The supremely arrogant, totally corrupt, rusted-on misogynist, Donald Trump, is about as crooked as a dog’s hind leg! If those gormless, Murdoch-manipulated racist right-wing extremists (who shamelessly support this offensive sociopath) cannot see that, then the end-results of intensive research proving that, collectively, supporters of right-wing extremism do, in fact, have a lower IQ and are, often, more likely to be racist, misogynistic and bereft of compassion for anyone less fortunate than themselves, have been proven to be correct!
One only has to look at the chaos, hate and fear engendered by dysfunctional right-wing regimes, ie the LNP in Australia, the Republican movement in the USA and the condescending elitists who inhabit every seat in the Tories in the UK, to see just how contemptuous they are of ordinary working- and middle-class citizens and, most certainly, the obscene level of misogyny that runs right throughout the cabinet(s) of every alpha-male-dominated right-wing regime in the western world! Their born-to-rule arrogance, their inherent misogyny, their callous disregard for anyone who is not a part of their rusted-on supporters in the sycophantic Top 1%, the widespread racism that is so inherent within right-wing extremism and white supremacist ideology – a callous level of xenophobia and intolerance that the right-wing politicise before every election – using potential and existing immigrants as defenceless “targets” in order to garnish votes from the worst racists in the country and their sycophantic cowering to the wealthiest corporate predators in the nation in order to “curry favour” with the richest, most influential people in the country! There can be no doubt that Trump is a corrupt, self-serving multi-millionaire whose ONLY obsession is to increase the obscene wealth, influence and power of the megalomaniacal political psychopath who stares back at him in the mirror every morning! God help us all if Trump manages to crawl over the electoral line because so many gormless, easily manipulated, working- and middle-class Americans drank the Kool Aid and believed everything they inhaled in the lying, totally biased, right-wing Murdoch-owned rags in the USA, namely The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post!
The best way to judge a “future” politician is to have a good long look at the way he behaves (or misbehaves) in his private life! A man who could have such contempt for women, who continues to lie and cheat on the people closest to him would have absolutely NO HESITATION in lying, cheating and deceiving the gullible American citizens who have been thoroughly manipulated by the right-wing media in order to get this unconscionable, self-serving political psychopath (Trump) across the electoral line. God knows WHAT damage Trump will do – to America and to world peace – if this irrational political psychopath manages to rise (like a Behemoth out of Hell) to become the next President of the most powerful nation on earth! The truth is that a world where that misogynistic, adulterous pathological liar and vindictive, unconscionable right-wing extremist (Trump) has his shaky, irrational finger on the Doomsday Button, is too terrifying to think about!
I would venture to suggest that there are courts that commit egregious acts against mostly black defendants all the time, but DT isn’t meaning them. The fact that his money (if he has any of his own left) didn’t matter, his celebrity, his former President status, didn’t make a difference to a judge and jury is what bothers him, and his MAGA cronies. If he is re-elected the world will notice, the USA will become a third world dictatorship, and the public will cry out for help because they won’t believe what is happening to them. Australia should consider severing ties with them if he is POTUS, we’d be better off with China – at least we KNOW what the Communist Party is.
My wish is that he receives home detention for 12 months – that’d be amazing :p
We tend to forget – or perhaps the past is easily obscured – but there is a pattern of behaviour of illegal and fraudulent activities by Trump and his cronies.
In 2016, after accusations of fraud, Trump was forced to close Trump University and pay a $US25 million fine. In 2019, after accusations by the New York attorney general of a “pattern of illegality” at the Trump Foundation, he was forced to close the foundation and pay a $US2 million fine.
In 2022 a jury convicted the Trump Organization of tax fraud and the company was fined $US1.6 million. In 2023 a jury convicted Mr. Trump of sexual abuse and defamation, and ordered him to pay a $US5 million fine. In January a jury convicted Mr. Trump of defamation and ordered him to pay writer E Jean Carroll a total of $US83. 3 million in damages (under appeal). Earlier this year he was convicted of misstating property and asset values to dupe lenders and insurers falsifying his net worth and was fined $US454 million (under appeal).
Terence,hard to believe he’s as pure as the driven snow.An alarming number of Americans appear to have lost the ability to discern the difference between Holywood and reality.
The GOP is a wreckage waiting to fall apart at the seams. Since the Tea Party they have been in decline. They no longer have a clue what to do about the increasing mess their low-brow feckless politicians have wrought. Dwelling in the no longer relevant old industrial models of the Daddy’s Corporations, they haven’t between them got a modernizing policy to rub together. A mob that don’t know anything of the world and its people, nor how to make money without crime, so resort to politics as a network upon which to prey.
Following on from the crooked Bush family and it’s nincompoop issue Dubblya, all they’ve managed to gain is a kleptocratic brainless loud-mouthed no-account celebrity, his swamp and sociopathic instincts of denial in the face of a fascist father. They have entrapped themselves as targets for unprincipled donor corporations and extreme FRWNJ cabals who lick their lips at the prospect of an incompetent dysfunctional fascist government that they can lead by the nose.
And their celebrity obsessed, sensation seeking media driving the whole caboodle for the sake of clicks.
Such craven cowardly politicians of no ideas, cling to the slime in desperation relying only on a conga-line of toadyism entrenched by the college system, whilst they drag the people, the popular vote and the country to hell in a hand-basket.
As a mob of potty-siters rising up to be counted in the 2nd half this year their shit-stains will be revealed as they contemplate the devil’s alternative and ‘Project 2025’.
It is amazing that trump can be so sincere in his personal righteousness.
ps
I’m with you, John C, a non-existent man is the best chance to save America from the man whom many accept is god sent.
Dear Anthony Albanese and Katy Gallagher,
Over a year ago, I provided both of you with the evidence of 2 illegal debt schemes administered by Services Australia.
The illegal debt schemes are as follows:
Fake Review scheme. Instead of a formal review decision by an authorised review officer (ARO), Services Australia sent me an objection decision made by an anonymous “delegate or authorised officer”. Multiple senior officers and ministers advised me to apply to AAT to review this fake decision.
Rent Assistance debt scheme. Administered by Family Assistance Office (FAO). FAO automatically includes a Rent Assistance base rate in a FTB debt, if a parent/carer was deemed ineligible for Family Tax Benefit. This is illegal. The Rent Assistance is a component of the main Centrelink payment (like Jobseeker, Parenting Payment, etc). In my case, Family Assistance office simultaneously used 2 illegal debt schemes (#1 and #2) on 2 separate occassions, one year apart. Later, the debts made under the scheme #2 (over $4000) were waived but FAO had no right to issue them in the first place.
Anthony Albanese and Katy Gallagher, are you going to stop this abuse?