A momentous week. Or not.

August 14, 2023

          The long-promised but ever-receding indictment of Trump for election interference in Georgia’s 2020 election will (supposedly) be issued this week. Or not. The grand jury is still taking testimony from witnesses—which seems inconsistent with an immediate release. On the other hand, Trump is increasing his attacks on Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis by falsely claiming that she had an affair with a gang leader whom she prosecuted. That slanderous, reprehensibly sexist attack on a female prosecutor is a reliable sign that an indictment is imminent.

          If the indictment is issued, it appears that D.A. Fani Willis is looking to charge the conspirators in a sprawling scheme to overturn the Georgia election. Previous reports indicate that Willis is pursuing the fake electors’ scheme. Testimony this week will touch on efforts to seize and manipulate voting machines in Coffee County Georgia. See CNN, Exclusive: Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump's team is behind voting system breach.

          The focus on Coffee County voting machines is significant because the efforts involved Trump legal advisors—and Trump himself. Per the CNN report above,

[T]he text messages and other court documents show how Trump lawyers and a group of hired operatives sought to access Coffee County’s voting systems in the days before January 6, 2021, as the former president’s allies continued a desperate hunt for any evidence of widespread fraud they could use to delay certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

 Last year, a former Trump official testified under oath to the House January 6 select committee that plans to access voting systems in Georgia were discussed in meetings at the White House, including during an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020,  that included Trump. 

          In short, when—and if—a Georgia grand jury issues an indictment, it may involve many defendants in a pervasive conspiracy. It will be ugly and provoke a media frenzy that will rival or exceed the J6 indictument.

          Whatever happens, the coming week will be filled with tension as the nation inches towards an unprecedented fourth indictment of a twice-impeached former president. (To be fair, the first indictment was unprecedented, so the fourth indictment sets a record never to be rivaled in our nation’s history.) As usual, the Republican Party’s response to Trump's corruption and criminality is to go into attack mode against the fictional “Biden crime family.” As we chafe under the unjustified attacks on the Biden family, we must remind ourselves that the viciousness and depravity of the attacks vary in direct proportion to Trump's legal jeopardy.

          Incontestable proof that the controversies over the Biden family are fabricated emerged from the appointment of David Weiss as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Thirty Republican Senators sent a letter to Merrick Garland demanding the appointment of US Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in his ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden (on the theory that the absence of the special counsel designation hampered his investigation). On Friday, Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel after the plea deal Weiss negotiated with Hunter Biden fell apart.

          So, Republicans should be happy that they got exactly what they demanded—special counsel status for David Weiss, right? Nope! Republicans are now furious that David Weiss has been appointed special counsel because, according to Ted Cruz (who signed the letter), appointing David Weiss is part of a “cover-up.” See The Independent, Ted Cruz rails against Hunter Biden special counsel appointment that he requested.

          Per The Independent,

[Ted Cruz said,] “This appointment is camouflage and it’s cover-up. I think it’s disgraceful.”

Mr Cruz is now accusing Mr Weiss of either being an “active participant” in covering up “criminality” and obstructing justice by “protecting” the president, or “he was just complicit.”

“He was so weak that he couldn’t stop the partisans in main justice from turning it into a political effort to protect Joe Biden,” Mr Cruz said.

Mr Cruz now accuses Mr Weiss of spending “the last five years covering it up”.

          Republicans know that there is nothing of substance in the investigations of Hunter Biden, so have turned to other measures. One GOP House member introduced an impeachment resolution against President Biden on Friday. See The Hill, Florida Republican rep. files articles of impeachment against Biden.

          The articles of impeachment are HERE. They are a garbage can containing every wild conspiracy theory, random email, and unsupported inference that has been circulating on right-wing social media for years. In short, the articles of impeachment say that Joe Biden's family members attempted to leverage their famous last name to generate business relationships. If trading on a family’s famous name constitutes a “high crime or misdemeanors,” tens of millions of Americans would have criminal records. Of course, the articles of impeachment will be futile, even if they make their way out of the House, which is doubtful.

          The ludicrousness of the charges against Biden pales in comparison to “business as usual” for the Trump family. Recall that Jared Kushner oversaw the Trump administration’s policy in the Middle East. Two months after leaving office, Kushner opened a brand-spanking new investment advisory firm and received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi Foreign Investment Fund—an investment that was so transparently corrupt that the advisors for the Saudi fund objected to the investment. In a coincidence too coincidental to be a coincidence, Prince Mohammed bin Salman overruled the objections of the Fund’s advisors and ordered that the investment be made nonetheless. Last week, the GOP Chair of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, admitted that the investment by Saudi Arabia “crossed an ethics line.” See The Hill, Comer says Kushner ‘crossed the line of ethics’ with Saudi deal.

          There is, of course, a double standard that applies to Democrats—both in the media and in the justice system. The “nothing burger” story about Hunter Biden is being treated with faux seriousness and pretension by the media. See AP News, Biden's reelection bid faces vulnerabilities in wake of special counsel appointment. Meanwhile, Trump is facing his fourth indictment and the presumption is that he will merely pardon himself if elected—with barely a whimper from the media over that anticipated republic-shattering corruption.

          The double standard was addressed by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo in an extended Tweet. I won’t reproduce the entire thread here, but Marshall begins as follows:

Let’s admit that every reporter in DC knows but most won’t say for fear of falling out of favor with the “both sides” rules of official DC: there is a two-tiered Justice System. One for Democrats, in which the most exacting focus on conflicts of interest are followed, often going well beyond not only what the law or established norms require but sometimes even basic logic.

Meanwhile for Republicans most of these rules simply don’t apply. Ever. Does anyone think that a newly installed President Trump in 2025 would leave in place US Attorneys investigating matters tied to Trump or the Trump family for years into his administration? The very idea is absurd. In fact the Trump campaign is openly running on plans to thoroughly politicize federal law enforcement and target his enemies. Openly.

          Got that? Trump is openly discussing plans to use the DOJ to target his enemies, but the AP is wringing its hands over Hunter Biden’s efforts to convince people (wrongly) that his father would be swayed by input from his son on political matters.

 Concluding Thoughts.

          It is maddening, I know. But Trump's mantra of “the rules don’t apply to me” has convinced not only the Republican Party but the media. Our task is to remain focused on the only thing that matters: Defeating Trump (or his surrogate) so that we can ensure that the rules do apply to Trump.

          The psychological warfare that will be targeted against Democrats this week is a sign of desperation by a party with a leading candidate who has been (will be) indicted for a fourth time. Whatever difficulties Democrats face, it does not approach the seriousness of a single indictment, much less four. Let’s keep that fact in perspective as we prepare for another momentous week.

          We are still in the Sierras. A second photo is below.

          We continue to hold our fellow Americans in Hawaii in our hearts. A favor: Can subscribers please post in the Comments section the most effective way to get the most helpful relief to the victims of the fires in Hawaii?

Mineral King Valley, Sequoia National Park, looking down onto the East Fork of Kaweah River, August 2023