J6 Indictment Discussion Forum
August 5, 2023
After a momentous week, we should talk amongst ourselves about the indictment. I hope everyone has had the opportunity to read the J6 indictment. If not, it is available here: United States v. Donald J. Trump (justice.gov).
To maximize the opportunity for reader input while maintaining a friendly and thoughtful space for discussion, the Comments section will be open to all readers through Saturday at 3:00 PM Eastern or until the first trolls appear, whichever is earlier. I will then lock down the Comments section for paying subscribers only. I wish it were otherwise, but I am trying to find a way to give everyone a chance to comment while protecting our community.
While you should feel free to discuss anything, I believe readers will benefit from hearing reactions from other readers regarding the indictment and the arraignment, the defenses floated in Trumpworld, and comments by Trump, Pence, and the other GOP candidates for president, etc. I won’t presume to tell you how to feel, but it would be good if some readers can address why the indictment will promote and protect democracy despite the difficulties of prosecuting a former president.
As always, please be respectful and “like” worthy comments to promote them to the top for other readers. New comments are posted at the bottom, so if you post a comment and cannot find it immediately, look to the bottom of the Comments or the thread to which you are replying. You can always sort the comments to view the newest first by clicking the link in the upper left corner that says, “Top first” and selecting “Newest first.”
So, have at it! Let everyone know what you are thinking!
Have a good weekend, everyone! Talk to you on Monday!
There was little surprising in the details of the indictment. And yet, somehow this time it feels different. Certainly the crimes are more serious. But it's not just that. There is a sense that this time the violation is personal to us individually. Far less abstract than tax evasion or mishandling of documents, it feels like he has taken something valuable from each of us.
The feeling I have today is very much like what I felt once many years ago. On that day, I came home to find the front door standing open. Someone had broken in, ransacked the house and taken a few valuables and a brief case containing some personal papers. The papers, while important to me, were not really irreplaceable. But what was irreplaceable was the sense that my home was safe and secure. The threshold between my personal life and my public life had been violated.
Throughout all of our lifetimes, America's democracy has felt safe and secure. Despite its many failings, there has always been the reassuring sense that whatever outrages may be perpetrated by any of our elected officials, an opportunity to vote the scoundrels out is always on the horizon. Yes, their replacements may turn out to be scoundrels as well. But they too will soon need to face the voters' judgment.
Reading this indictment we learn that our democratic home has been ransacked by the one indidual we entrusted to be ultimately responsible for its safety and security. No longer do we enjoy the comfort of knowing that there will always be another election where our votes will be counted and our voices heard.
For those who are politically active, even if that activism extends no further than registering and voting, the crimes Donald Trump committed are a personal affront, a form of theft. He has attempted to rob from us our rightful place in the democratic order of this republic.
While he failed in his attempted robbery, Mr. Trump has inflicted a grievous wound to our faith in that order. It is a wound that may never heal.
I just read the indictment. It’s operatic! What a pathetic and scary group of power-hungry yahoos. The last phrase of the last line (ironically pg 45) brought me to tears: “…DONALD J. TRUMP,
did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and
unknown to the Grand Jury, to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States—that is, the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.” Clean and clear, “ the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.”✌️🇺🇸💙