Early yesterday, Dan Pfeiffer suggested responses to 3 MAGAt claims that Trump’s indictment is not a crime
because he believed the Big Lie
because Biden is weaponizing the government
because free speech is being criminalized
Most crucially is that you remember Señor Trumpanzee is “being prosecuted not for what he said, but for what he did.” As usual, Trump accuses everyone else of being guilty of what he has done or would do.
What surprise; all caps:
I bet he’d like all judges to be just like Aileen Cannon and all jurisdictions to be just like Martin (61.8% Trump), Indian River (60.2% Trump), Okeechobee (71.8% Trump) and Highlands (66.7% Trump) counties. But that isn’t how it works. And I didn’t hear Smith whining that he wanted a change of venues or that Cannon, a clearly unqualified judge, should be taken off the case.
Tanya Chutkan, chosen at random just like Cannon was, is a nightmare for any criminal. She’s a tough law and order judge and no one who knows their guilt wants her sitting on the bench. NBC News reported that “She is one of the only federal judges in D.C. who has delivered sentences against defendants in cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that are longer than the sentences that the DOJ asked for.”
On Saturday, Chutkan gave Trump’s team until 5 p.m. ET on Monday to respond to prosecutors’ request for a protective order. The order would prevent the former president and his legal team from sharing discovery materials with the public. Trump’s attorneys asked for more time to prepare their response, which Chutkan swiftly denied.
…The former president added Sunday that he wants to have his election case moved out of Washington, D.C., echoing his earlier claims that the region is “anti-Trump.”
Trump previously said it would be “IMPOSSIBLE” for him to get a fair trial in Washington, in part because he has called for “a Federal TAKEOVER” of the district “in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness,” according to posts on his social media site.
John Lauro, a defense attorney for Trump, has suggested the legal team will seek to move the case to a different venue.
Yesterday, Politico reported that “Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants have attempted to transfer their cases outside of Washington, D.C., claiming the city’s liberal lean makes it impossible to secure a fair trial for those who are almost uniformly Trump supporters. First and foremost, the judges note, the city is large and diverse enough that the presumption 12 impartial jurors could not be found is far-fetched. Secondly, they’ve noted, jurors are selected after a rigorous ‘voir dire’ process that includes intensive questioning by the lawyers and the judge, a system intended to weed out jurors who might have an impermissible bias or be unwilling to set aside political views to judge a case based on evidence and facts. Usually, judges have said only after that process, if it still seems impossible to seat a fair jury, would a motion to transfer the case to a different venue be in order. In other words, even if Chutkan were willing to consider changing venue, it’s unlikely she would do so prior to a voir dire process. Trump’s recusal motion is unlikely to fare much better. Chutkan has shown no indication that she intends to recuse, nor is there any known conflict that would typically require it. She has previously ruled against Trump in his bid to shield his White House papers from the Jan. 6 select committee, but she has not opined about his innocence or guilt of any crimes associated with the charges he now faces. It’s unclear what other bases Trump may cite to call for her recusal.”
Like Trump, high profile criminals often demand that venues and judges be changed. In 1992, John Gotti, head of the Gambino crime family, said he could never get an impartial jury in New York. His request was denied and he was sentenced to life in prison. O.J. Simpson made the same claim about Los Angeles in 1994; request denied and he was found not guilty. After he murdered Trayvon Martin in 2013, George Zimmerman made the same demand; also denied— and he was also found not guilty. And in 2015, NFL player Aaron Hernandez’s defense team insisted the judge was biased against their client and should recuse; request denied. He was sentenced to life in prison but committed suicide in his cell in 2017.
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