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And lo, the aftermath of the Trump conviction has begun [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-01  

Back on May 16th, I predicted that Trump would be Convicted and the GOP would go Ballistic, and both have come true in spades.

The first thing seems to be Trump’s ongoing mental decline as he delivered a disjointed incoherent rambling speech after being convicted on all 34 counts in the New York Election Interference Case.

x x YouTube Video "He's railing against almost everything," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said, pointing out that Trump did not have a teleprompter. Host Erin Burnett added, "It's very disjointed." Like his announcement of his first presidential run in 2015, Trump spoke to a crowd gathered to hear remarks after his conviction in the lobby of his building. This time, however, he did so to attack the jury, the judge, and the American judicial system. "These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people," Trump said. The frazzled Trump rambled on breathlessly about several things, such as a claim that President Joe Biden didn't want to allow Americans to have cars anymore. After spending years claiming the electoral system was "unfair" and "rigged," Trump is now saying that the judicial system as a whole is "rigged" against him personally. Among his allegations is that the jury wasn't a legitimate one because the panel was not made up of a group of his voters. Trump went on to call the trial a "disgrace" and proclaim his "innocence," a claim he has made in all of his cases. Trump also claimed that he did nothing wrong because all he did was pay legal fees. He then claimed that he was being "literally crucified."

Yeah, he doesn’t have a persecution complex at all - right?

Reposted from Dark Skies on the Horizon

On the other hand, Joe Biden made a fairly strong statement after the conviction saying that the was an example of the “No one being above the Rule of Law.”

So that’s a pretty start A/B comparison. Only one of these men is acting like a President.

Michael Cohen also has some post-conviction advice and commentary.

Trump’s defense team tried to make this the “Michael Cohen Case” - but the fact is that just about every one of the 19 other witnesses confirmed, corroborated and buttressed everything that Cohen testified to. All the documentation confirmed Cohen’s story. The totality of evidence showed that Trump started this plot and implemented this plot. The prosecution frankly didn't need Cohen to testify — but they did anyway. And they won because everything Cohen had previously lied about — was said to protect Trump.

Cohen also states that he doesn’t want Trump to go to jail because he hold national security secrets which he might have reason to reveal or trade if he were put in that position.

Now the argument is being made that reality is finally sinking in with Trump’s base.

National security attorney Bradley Moss on Friday argued that Trump supporters' stunned reaction to the former president's guilty verdict is a direct reflection of their media consumption. Specifically, Moss argued that right-wing media outlets have been systematically misleading their viewers in their coverage of former President Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial. "I almost feel bad for Trump’s base that lives and breathes based on what they hear from Newsmax, Fox News and talk radio," wrote Moss on Twitter. "They’ve been fed a steady stream of legal garbage for the last 14 months. Over and over they were told by 'legal scholars' that the case was falling apart. That someone was intervening to save Trump. That there was no case. There was no crime. The Trump legal team was destroying the prosecutor’s case."' This bubble of illusion came to a crashing halt on Thursday afternoon when a jury of Trump's peers found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. "Reality sank in yesterday afternoon and they don’t know how to process it," he argued. "It’s like Election Day 2020 all over again."

I frankly have my doubts about that. I don’t think this is going to be their wake up call — I think they’re going to triple down.

We’ve already seen this with Matt Gaetz blasting the College Republicans for accepting the reality of the verdict.

College Republicans delivered on X Thursday a tempered response to the New York City jury that found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid ahead of the 2016 presidential election. "Today's convictions are the result of a politically motivated prosecution, but a verdict was handed down by jurors whose decisions were made in accordance with our criminal justice system," the group wrote. "As such, the outcome of this trial should be respected." This suggestion outraged Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who was quick to tell the young conservatives that Trump's conviction threw into question the entire criminal justice system. "I’m sorry, but this is a horrendously bad take," replied Gaetz. "The verdict should be condemned as a stain on our nation and our justice system. It was the outgrowth of a rigged, corrupt process."

Right, “rigged, corrupt.” It was a trial, with witnesses, a defense attorney and a jury. Trump was convicted on the facts, evidence and testimony beyond a reasonable doubt — even the most corrupt prosecutor on earth can’t manufacture a unanimous jury verdict. The case was convincing. Trump had the chance to put up his own witnesses and to testify himself.

He didn’t.

How exactly, was the trial “rigged?” How was it “corrupt?” How did the Judge’s daughter set Trump up?

Like Gaetz another group thats’ in Trump’s corner is Russian State TV.

Russian state television personalities this week were reportedly crestfallen by news of former President Donald Trump's criminal conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The Daily Beast's Julia Davis reports that television personalities in Russia were despondent to see their preferred candidate dealt a guilty verdict, even as they hoped he could still go on to win the 2024 presidential election. State Duma member Aleksei Zhuravlyov, for one, said that the jury's decision to convict Trump was a poor reflection on Americans' intelligence. "There are idiots in every country, but this is the only instance where idiots have their own country," he declared. "This is something new in history.” TV host Dmitry Kulikov, meanwhile, angrily declared that, "They wronged our Donald Trump!" before interviewing political scientist Malek Dudakov, who had been openly rooting for at least a hung jury to get the former president off the hook. "The miracle did not happen," he lamented. "Our Donald Fredovych was found guilty on all 34 counts... now he is a felon."

Ain’t that a hoot? “Our Donald Trump!” Yeah., no shit.

Meanwhile, Trump’s rank and file supporters are fightin’ mad - and looking for somebody to shoot.

"Until and unless he accepts the process, the extremist reaction to his legal troubles will be militant," Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters. The former president gave no sign of accepting the legal process Friday as he held a press conference at Trump Tower, repeating claims that the case had been "rigged." […] One commenter called for "someone in NY with nothing to lose" to "take care of" New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, while another on Gateway Pundit directed a threat at any and all opponents of Trump. "Time to start capping some leftys," said the user. "This cannot be fixed by voting." The reaction is a direct result, said Ware, of Trump's "insistence that he is being mistreated." […] On Patiots.win, one commenter called for 1 million armed Trump supporters to "go to Washington and hang everyone," while another said the former president "should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words...I'll take up arms if he asks."

Oh, look - it’s the “Day of the Rope” again. Or is it The Storm 2.0?

They also say that they should Dox The Jurors.

According to NBC News, "Advance Democracy, a non-profit that conducts public interest research, said there has been a high volume of social media posts containing violent rhetoric targeting New York Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, including a post with Bragg’s purported home address. The group also found posts of the purported addresses of jurors on a fringe internet message board known for pro-Trump content and harassing and violent posts, although it is unclear if any actual jurors had been correctly identified." One user reportedly posted, "Dox the Jurors. Dox them now." Another wrote, “We need to identify each juror. Then make them miserable. Maybe even suicidal.” "The posts, which have been reviewed by NBC News, appear on many of the same websites used by Trump supporters to organize for violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol," said the report. "These forums were hotbeds of threats inspired by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, which he lost, and that the voting system was 'rigged' against him. They now feature new threats echoing Trump’s rhetoric and false claims about the hush money trial, including that the judicial system is now 'rigged' against him." There is no indication that the jury did not give Trump a fair trial. Indeed, Trump's team complained about the jury pool from the get-go, but was given ample opportunity to strike jurors they considered to be biased. Anticipating the risk of this exact scenario, Judge Juan Merchan, the jurist presiding over the case, made the privacy of jurors an utmost priority. He also set a strict gag order that prohibited Trump from attacking witnesses, certain court officers, and their families, which he later found Trump in contempt for violating.

And then Lara Trump says all the trouble for the Jurors — is Biden and Alvin Bragg’s fault. Not Trump’s — Biden’s.

"On social media and web forums, users called for jurors, judges and prosecutors to be killed after the former president was found guilty on 34 felony counts," NBC News reports, adding the guilty verdicts have also "spurred a wave of violent rhetoric aimed at the prosecutors," and the judge. On Newsmax Friday afternoon, discussing jurors' security, RNC co-chair, and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump blamed President Joe Biden and District Attorney Alvin Bragg for any issues. "These jurors," the Newsmax host said, "are gonna be like, they're gonna find out who these people are. Is Alvin Bragg going to commit to making sure that they maintain their jobs, that they have security, God forbid? Is this what we need to worry about now?" "It's a real thing you have to think about," Lara Trump replied, "thanks to Alvin Bragg, and I'm sure we can say thanks to Joe Biden." "Now what happens to them? Now what happens to our country?" she asked.

We only need to worry about this because Trump’s fans are violent fuckwit terrorists who attacked Congress. Because he likes them that way.

On one political Facebook group I sometimes frequent, they sent out the following warning to everyone.

Watch your back people. I mean it. Don’t have ur fuckin headphones in your head as you walk down the street. If you see an angry red hat wearing dude, do what you need to do and get outta dodge. Don’t linger out in public unnecessarily @everyone

Yeah, no shit dawg.

But of course, Virtual Genius Tim Scott says “there won’t be any violence” — uh huh.

"I love the passion I'm seeing from the American people, because they're harnessing it," said Scott. "You don't see any riots in the streets like you did a few years ago during the summer of the riots, largest riots in the history of our country with more property damage, you don't see that today. What you see is a focus, a determination to make sure that We the People are heard and seen on November the 5th." "That's good news for the country," he added. "And frankly, it restores more confidence that conservatives, when in leadership, you won't see that kind of violence in the streets because we don't like the outcome — we hate this outcome, but we love our country." "I mean, we, there is — we gotta go, but I mean, there's a natural counter in terms of what took place in your workplace on January 6 because of this, but that certainly hasn't occurred since the verdict," said Mattingly — referencing the insurrectionist attack by Trump supporters on the Capitol to try to stop the certification of Biden's presidency.

No, the MAGAs aren’t marching in the streets — yet — but I would double the security at your local synagogue, mosque and black baptist church.

The threat of violence is so great that Alex Jones is already predicting a “False Flag” by the Left. They already have their defensive script written.

x This is pretty scary, given that Alex Jones infamously tried to pin January 6 on the left. What the video below means is that Jones thinks far-right terrorism is coming—soon—so he must get ahead of it now by pre-blaming it on the left. Stay frosty America: these people are crazy. https://t.co/8TVz7tyKcX — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) June 1, 2024

Speaking of Washington, things there are starting to heat up as JD Vance snarled at Wolf Blitzer for asking question about Trump’s conviction.

During the contentious interview, the longtime CNN host refused to let the Ohio lawmaker talk over him and pressed him to answer his questions, which only led Vance to grow animated and raise his voice. Blitzer, who lost family members at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, took particular exception to Trump calling the U.S. a "fascist state" in his "incoherent" speech at Trump Tower on Friday, which led him to press Vance over whether he agreed about the state of the country. […] That was preceded by Vance stating, "I believe that Donald Trump did nothing wrong," which led to him asserting the 34 felony counts Trump was convicted of shouldn't happen "in the country I want to live in. Not in the United States of America that I know and love." Blitzer shot back, "So you don't want to live in the United States?" "I don't want to live in a New York sham prosecution — I would not live in New York state right now, absolutely I wouldn't Wolf," Vance replied. "But you don't believe we live in a fascist state, do you?" Blitzer later asked, quoting Trump. "Wolf, I think that..." Vance began as Blitzer followed up with, "Answer the question." "I think what happened in New York, if you apply to across all 50 states, would be the definition of fascism," the Ohio Republican replied as Blitzer attempted to speak again. Vance spoke over him, complaining, "Throwing your political opponents in jail? Thank God it only happened in New York and not the rest of the country."

Trump hasn’t been thrown in jail - yet. And he probably won’t because he would immediately appeal any jail sentence just like Steve Bannon who was also convicted but hasn’t done any jail time yet.

Trump was convicted and prosecuted because he committed election interference by having multiple negative stories about himself killed. Doing that as a private citizen is perfectly legal, paying for it while campaigning for the presidency - is a crime. Michael Cohen was already convicted and served jail time for that same crime. Michael was implementing a plot that was instigated and approved by Donald Trump.

Donald started all this by calling up David Pecker and setting up the arrangement for him to push positive Trump stories, make up negative stories about his opponents and block negative reports from women like McDougal and Daniels. Trump called Pecker, Cohen didn’t do it - Trump did.

Merrick Garland could have already tried Trump for being Individual #1 in the Cohen case but he didn't. The “politically biased” DOJ let that case drop like a hot pocket on fire. They also didn’t prosecute him for the 8 cases of obstruction of Justice from the Mueller report. They didn’t even investigate his involvement in the retention of Classified Documents, the Insurrection and Fake Electors until Garland finally assigned a Special Prosecutor and he drug his feat doing that.

So unless these people are willing to say that Michael Cohen was wrongly prosecuted, they can’t really claim that Trump was wrongly prosecuted and his case was “rigged.”

Trump himself has said that the CIA interfered in the 2020 election by suppressing the report about Hunter Biden’s laptop. If that’s the case - even though the CIA was right that it was part of a Russian Disinformation campaign — then he also interred with the 2016 election by suppressing McDougal and Daniels.

And then you get bullshit like this from Matt Walsh.

x Donald Trump should make and publish a list of ten high ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office. First on the list should be Joe Biden. Second should be Joe Biden's crackhead son. — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 30, 2024

x Red state DAs need to arrest corrupt Democrats and prosecute them in front of Republican juries that already hate them before the trial even begins. I'm not saying we should "stoop to the Left's level." I'm saying we should stop pretending that we live in a country that no… — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 31, 2024

So “Political Lawfare” is bad, ‘mkay, except for when Republicans do it — then it’s wonderful.

Mike Johnson magically thinks the Supreme Court will riding come to Trump’s rescue - but that isn’t likely and won’t happen before November.

The Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson, Friday morning told Fox News the nation's highest court should "step in," suggesting they should overturn the lawful criminal conviction handed down by a jury of Donald Trump's peers, twelve citizens from the state of New York, in order to preserve and protect the rule of law. He also said he was confident they would "set this straight." "I do think, I do believe the Supreme Court should step in," Speaker Johnson said on "Fox & Friends" (video below.) […] "Obviously, this is totally unprecedented. And it's dangerous to our system. I mean, we've all discussed this before. And you all talk about it all the time. This is diminishing the American people's faith in our system of justice itself. And to maintain a republic, you have to have that, people have to believe that justice is fair that there's equal justice under law. They don't see that right now. And I think that the justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they're deeply concerned about that as we are so I think they'll set this straight but it's going to take a while."

So they shouldn’t step in because there was a violation of the law, legal procedure or legal standards — they should toss out the court verdict just because it’s Donald Trump?

This from the party of “Law and Order?” Yeah, ok.

Of course, the truth is not going to stop Congressional Republicans from staging a bogus witchhunt against Alvin Bragg — Jim Jordon is already on the WarPath.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) wants answers from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg about the felony conviction of former President Donald Trump. The Ohio Republican plans to demand Bragg and senior counsel Matthew Colangelo appear before the House select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government on June 13 for a hearing, according to an X announcement made Friday. The proposed subject, according to the announcement, would be "the unprecedented political prosecution of President Trump." Tensions have been mounting between Bragg and Jordan for months after the Manhattan prosecutor sued the Ohio lawmaker in April for what he described as an "unprecedentedly brazen and unconstitutional attack" on his office. […] "Chairman Jordan's subpoena is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine an ongoing New York felony criminal prosecution and investigation," the District Attorney's office said in a statement announcing the April lawsuit. "As our complaint details, this is an unprecedented, illegitimate interference by Congress that lacks any legal merit and defies basic principles of federalism."

Yeah, so Jordan is going to do a proctology exam on Bragg — but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that some of his prosecutors used to work for the DOJ - people change jobs all the time. It doesn’t matter if Bragg was motivated by politics, he had the evidence and testimony to make his case.

It is interesting that Jordan has already had a hearing with former NY Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz who came out and angrily attacked Bragg for previously dropping the case against Trump.

As the Manhattan district attorney's office ramps up its yearslong investigation of Donald Trump, a new book by a former prosecutor details just how close the former president came to getting indicted — and laments friction with the new D.A. that put that plan on ice. Mark Pomerantz, who oversaw the investigation until early last year, writes in “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account” that then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. authorized him in December 2021 to seek Trump's indictment. After scouring Trump's life and business, Pomerantz writes that prosecutors agreed on a case involving allegations that Trump falsified records by inflating the value of assets on financial statements he provided lenders. Vance was leaving office within weeks, but he expressed confidence that his successor, Alvin Bragg, would agree with his assessment, Pomerantz writes. But Bragg and his team had other ideas — expressing trepidation about the strength of evidence and the credibility of a key witness. They decided not to proceed, at least not with the speed Pomerantz and co-lead prosecutor Carey Dunne wanted. Pomerantz writes. The stagnation compelled both men to leave the office. “Once again, Donald Trump had managed to dance between the raindrops of accountability," Pomerantz writes in the book, which is set to be published Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.

So Bragg’s predecessor was already investigating Trump and when Bragg picked up that case - he decided that the evidence wasn’t sufficient, so he dropped it. That act alone shows that Bragg’s prosecution of Trump now wasn’t “political.”

He did it because had the evidence to convict. He did it because Trump is guilty.

And while they’re having kittens and a cow in the House, the Senate is shitting bricks.

x Republicans are blocking ALL Senate business to avenge Trump’s guilty verdict



Tuberville blocked hundreds of military jobs



Cruz blocked State Dept officials



JD Vance blocked DOJ appointments



Hawley blocked Army promotions



Folks, wake the hell up—Trump’s coup is STILL ongoing — Lindy Li (@lindyli) June 1, 2024

So that’s really mature. They’re throwing a tantrum. And they expect Democrats to do what about Trump’s conviction? The only person who could potentially pardon isn’t even Biden — it’s Governor Hochul. Good luck with that.

Again, I don’t believe Trump will see the inside of Rikers Island. This conviction doesn’t block him from continuing to run for the White House. He can still vote - in Florida. He can’t own a gun and he can’t travel to certain countries. He can still serve in the White House even with this conviction.

The GOP is going to run a convicted felon for President. That’s on them.

Can these people really vote for a man who’s been convicted of interfering with an election illegally and has been found liable for business fraud, tax fraud and rape?

Stay tuned.

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