Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, has become the latest Antifa member arrested for alleged political violence. Calvert is accused in the explosion of an IED device outside of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office in downtown Montgomery at around 3:42 a.m. on February 24. For years, Democratic politicians and the media have downplayed the violence of Antifa, even questioning its very existence. These photos may help them come to grips with the reality of Antifa.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Calvert has been charged with the malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
If convicted, Calvert faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison, according to the DOJ.
Before the explosion, Calvert put up stickers, including those promoting Antifa, including stickers reading “Support your local antifa.”
Calvert, who reportedly identifies as transgender and nonbinary, expressed his “belief that violence should be directed against the government, and he has described his inability to control his own violent, aggressive impulses,” according to the DOJ. It supplied pictures of the nails and other evidence used in the construction of the bomb.
Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.
As I have written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association. Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated “And we have quite a number — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”
Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany. His own son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”
It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”
Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists… From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.” It is an illusion designed to promote what Antifa is resisting “white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism, and genocide.” Thus, all of these opposing figures are deemed fascistic and thus unworthy of being heard.
Bray quotes one Antifa member as summing up their approach to free speech as a “nonargument . . . you have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up.”
Hopefully, if found guilty, Calvert will actually face punishment. We previously discussed the case involving another Antifa member who was convicted after taking an ax to the door of Sen. John Hoeven’s office in Fargo. He was given no jail time, and the FBI even returned his ax. He later mocked the government by posting on social media “Look what the FBI were kind enough to give back to me!”
This case will no doubt be different . . . there is no bomb to give back to Calvert.
Democrats have been denying Communism since the 1940s.
Hey panty waist antifa soy boy…..why don’t you put on your face diaper and bring your antifa pals up to northern Maine, and start putting on your tough guy show and threatening people? See how that works out for you, little man.
So I go to the links and read and follow up and this is the result. The WMD BOMB was a coffee can with fireworks in it, they claim some small rusty nails and other little metal junk, something flammable, a gas soaked rag perhaps, they do not say, just claim it could cause a fire – and it was placed ON A STREET SIDEWALK OUTSIDE “THE BUILDING”.
After, I’m not kidding, the SLPC, southern poverty law center (across the street or the block and occupied at 4am apparently!), phoned it in, the police went by the “bombing” and couldn’t find anything so they left.
Next it is claimed “when it was light” people went to work and “it was discovered”. WE GET NO PICTURES BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS SO PATHETIC AN ATTEMPT WE WOULD ALL LAUGH.
The coffee can was probably not even damaged – someone heard FIREWORKS, in other words, not “an explosion!”
It’s amazing what you discover if you take time to read the MSM spinning whirligig BS
ANTIFA are scum. If Bolsheviks or their like actually took over, they would sweep them off the streets the day after revolution like so much garbage. Does anyone think freaks like this had a chance when Stalin ruled Russia? Of course not.
These rabble are agents of disorder who are actually protecting globalists, billionaires, ie, that is to sary ironically — the capitalists, by creating conditions of crime and anarchy in big cities with a stated purpose of attacking the legacy core population of America. Why? to unbalance us, to demoralize us, to divide us, to keep us from doing anything but uniting together politically and legally against those very capitalists they pretend to revile.
This is an irony but one sees from time to time in history. It is the capitalists employing covertly the cunning dictum of Lenin: “the best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.” That’s what Soros has done by donating to all kinds of groups like BLM that recruit from this bipedal dreck.
Saloth Sar
Of course they know who ANTIFA is. The ranks are mainly their own children and their former and current students.
What kind of Faustian bargain did Democrats strike, in order for the Republican Party to be labeled violent insurrectionists because one group of people left a peaceful Trump rally, entered the Capitol with the help of Capitol Police, and then an even smaller group broke off from them and engaged in a riot that was put down within 2 hours, while the Democrats have no accountability for all the nation wide protests, riots, arson, bombing of federal buildings, burning of a police precinct, threats to destroy cities if court decisions don’t go their way, destroying businesses, driving vital resources like pharmacies and grocery stores out of minority neighborhoods through repeated looting and riots, and even the seizure of entire city blocks via CHOP/CHAZ?
Democrat activists keep talking about January 6th, because there is no other Republican riot to talk about. We could filibuster for 8 days talking about nothing but Democrat riots, occupying federal or state government buildings, arson, looting, and even the seizure of entire blocks.
Democrat top donor was Soros.
Soros is also the big donor behind rise of BLM around time of Ferguson.
He’s endowed literally hundreds of organizations with billions of dollars of grants, which are explicitly pumping up the antiwhite race hate.
Why? To unbalance the core legacy population, else we unite against Soros and Fink and the other capitalist globalist exploiters, arrest them and try them for racketeering, and treason, and strip their assets and give them ultimate punishment after a fair trial.
That is precisely what we should do. Except convince a bunch of Republicans that we actually have to see things from a vaguely Marxist viewpoint to get that organized?
Nearly impossible. Again why? Because bad ideas have been promoted by universities for decades, ON PURPOSE, by their biggest donors ,who are of course all billionaires.
This is why right wingers dont like Marx. IT was endlessly taught to us. I however am I right winger reborn.
I could feel my adversaries before, but now I know what they genuinely are.
Capitalists. That’s not you and me and the dentist down the street, the guy who rents ten houses, the small factory operator, that is the billionaires, about 600-800 at the top. THEY ARE BEHIND ANTIFA, BLM, AND THE CIA AND FBI FOR THAT MATTER TOO
Saloth Sar
“Support your local antifa.”
Once Antifa destroys America’s values and institutions, what does it want to replace them with?
For a clue to the answer, there’s this Antifa statement: We are “antiauthoritarian communists” (aka “anarchist communism”). That collectivist movement has been around for over a century. It is based on the Marxist notion: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” (E.g., you pay off someone else’s student loan debt.)
In practice, this means the collectivization and expropriation of private property. So say goodbye to your business, farm, factory. Those owners who resist are killed, jailed, exiled. And say goodbye to your standard of living. (For a historical example of what Antifa wants, see the 1930’s Spanish Revolution.)
See: Holodomor.
“Holodomor”
Yep. If Antifa’s collectivization of America succeeds, that is us.
You solved a mystery – did al dot
Com publish this story? Or are you akabama only source – press matters – so when our crooked hired our only press to be there’s- our town press had to figure it over- this man whiked is actually doing what people need to do – to bring light to the duplicity – who is district ones new apilppioned rep – avoiding election? This is what ppl talking about- thecstiff arming the people.
Jonathan: Everyone knows who Todd Blanche is. Right? He is the attorney representing DJT in the two criminal prosecutions brought by Jack Smith. Blanche also represents DJT in the case that starts on Monday before Judge Merchan. “BlancheLaw” is a small law firm in NY. By NY standards it is a “micro” firm. It has only 3 partners, including Blanche, with a support staff of only about 4. So why would DJT hire such a small law firm to represent him in the biggest criminal case he faces so far? Probably because none of the large high profile white collar defense firms, with hundreds of lawyers, will touch DJT. He is toxic.
So you can imagine that Blanche is stretched pretty thin these days. And his track record before Judge Merchan is dismal. In the past week Blanche filed a flurry of motions to delay the trial and get Merchan disqualified. All his motions were denied by Merchan as well as the NY Appellate Division–so Blanche has run out of options and is trying to gear up for the trial.
And the press is reporting a funny incident that shows Blanche is probably not the most qualified attorney to represent DJT. Last month Blanche served a subpoena for docs on Jeremy Rosenberg, a former supervising investigator with DA Bragg’s office. It was probably a fishing expedition trying to show some link between Rosenberg and Michael Cohen. Anyway, Blanche had a process server go to Rosenberg’s $8 million dollar mansion in Brooklyn to serve the subpoena. And this is where it gets funny. It appears Blanche chose the wrong “Jeremy Rosenberg” to serve. The guy who answered the door was a different “Jeremy Rosenberg”. Easy mistake to make. Right? There must be hundreds of Jeremy Rosenbergs in NY. Now this is where it went from funny to bizarre.
After Jeremy Rosenberg in Brooklyn received the subpoena he sent an email to Blanche saying: “I don’t have any files for you…and I’m keeping the fifteen dollars!” The $15 dollars was to reimburse Rosenberg for postage to return the requested docs. By now Blanche probably should have realized he had the wrong “Rosenberg”. No, Blanche replied with his own email: “Confirming you not have counsel representing you in response to the subpoena. Also I apologize that the number did not work. My cell is…. You can use it to the extend (sic) we need to communicate going forward. Todd”.
Apparently, Blanche still didn’t realize he had the wrong “Rosenberg” because he sent a letter to Judge Merchan complaining that “Rosenberg” wasn’t complying with the subpoena. Now we know Blanche has a smally staff and he is stretched thin. But all Blanche had to do is have one of paralegals or secretaries call DA Bragg’s office and ask for the address for their former investigator. Apparently never dawned on Blanche.
Why am I relating this humorous story? DJT doesn’t have the luxury of being able to hire a first rate top of the line law firm in NY where mistakes like the above would never happen–especially on the eve of trial. So DJT had to turn to Todd Blanche. I’m not saying Blanche is not a good lawyer. But in a case this consequential you shouldn’t have to settle for the “Keystone Cops” to handle your case! What is the lesson? When you have to go to a subprime car loan dealer for a surety bond and you have to hire a mom and pop law firm to defend you in your first criminal trial very bad things can happen!
Dennis – it’s amazing how much time you devote to attacking Trump’s lawyers. It’s almost like you are trying to poison the minds of jurors and court staff against those lawyers. I can’t imagine what qualifies you to judge the work of those lawyers if you do not practice in the courts where they appear. You latch onto a simple mistake as to names of a potential witness as a sign of incompetence. How about Alvin Bragg waiting until the eve of trial to turn over thousands of documents to the Trump team that he admits his office had sought from the U S Attorney for over a year. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-hush-money-trial-manhattan-d-a-30-day-delay/ As a legal expert on the NY bar, you must have an opinion as to the competence of that move.
You also make the odd statement that the Stormy Daniels blackmail case is “the biggest criminal case he faces so far.” Isn’t this the FIRST criminal case he has faced so far? And isn’t it true that this case is nonsensical, and almost certain to be overturned on appeal, even if successful in NYC? Even Stormy’s former attorney, Michael Avenatti, agrees that the case is pure BS.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stormy-daniels-disgraced-former-lawyer-michael-avenatti-trashes-trump-case
The Daniels case is a total disaster. While it is near certain that Merchan will do everything in his power to force the jury to convict,
this is still a dead bang loser of a case.
Even the core allegation – that Trump and Daniels had a one night stand can not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
I THINK I believe that occurred. But Daniels has denied it in writing and I beleive in court filings atleast 8 times.
Thus far no one has found evidence that Daniels and Trump were int he same hotel at the same time.
No one else has reported seeing them together.
We are left with Trump’s denials and Daniels conflicting statements.
Except that there is no allegation of force – i.e Daniels claims this was consensual – this is weaker than the E.Jean Carrol case – there are no “friends” that Daniels allegedly confided in.
So the first major hurdle Bragg has to get over is proving the impossible – that the one night stand happened. Then he has to prove later that Trump not Daniels initiated this exchange of money.
Next Bragg has to prove that the regular fixed m,onthly payments to cohen for a total amount substantially in excess to the amount Daniels collect was actually for the payment to Daniels.
This despite the FACT that the Daniels NDA is between Cohen and Daniels – Trump is NOT a party to it.
Otherwise the payments ARE just legal fees. Frankly even if they were for the NDA they are STILL just legal fees.
I would also not that if EVERYTHING was some how proven.
That Daniels had a one night stand with Trump,
That Trump through Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet.
That the purpose of that was SOLELY election related – because the FEC has repeatedly ruled that dual purpose expenses are not campaign donations or expenses – this is also generally true of IRS tax law. You can not deduct the cloths that you wear to work as a tax deduction – but you CAN if you are required to wear a uniform that serves no other purpose and that you pay for it.
If Trump paid Daniels to win the campaign, to hide the affair from Melania and to protect the Trump business brand – then the payments do not under any read of election law violate election law.
And even id Bragg got passed this – candidates are free to contribute as much to their own campaigns as they wish – so again no campaign violation in any possible way.
But lets again assume Bragg gets passed that.
We know have calling an NDA a legal expense – which it is.
You get all the way to the end of this – you still have no crime.
“This is the Biggest Trump case” ?
Jay walking would be more significant.
Dennis McIntyre — I had thought those were called ‘white shoe law firms’.
Blanche is a well regarded criminal lawyer doing an excellent jjob with a judge that not only was required to recuse himself but is Now guilty of bidenesque criminal corruption. NY law bars a judge from being on a case where someone within 6 degrees of separation of the judge would benefit from the outcome of the trial. Merchan is violating the law.
Further as Turley has pointed out REPEATEDLY regarding President Biden. It is public corruption – Bribery, for a public official to make decisions that directly financially benefit their immediate relatives.
We all know that you remain ignorant of the Ukraine FACTs, but the State Department was constantly emailing VP Biden’s office Begging him to get his son out of dealings in China and Ukraine because these posed a conflict of interest and if Hunter Persisted Joe would have to remove those places from his portfolio.
Both Biden and Merchan’s conduct is immoral, unethical and illegal.
So those of you on the left want to go forward with a criminal trial where they judge is litterally committing a crime by trying the case ?
It is quite normal for criminal defense firms to be small.
Clarence Darrow
F. Lee Bailey.
Johnny Cochrane,
Allen Dershowitz,
Gerry Spence
These are a few of the many renowned criminal defense attorney’s in American history – all of which were very small practices.
Most of the firms that Trump employs are small firms.
Big firms tend to be in corporate law – that would be mergers and acquisitions, conflicts between fortunate 500 companies.
I am sure Trump has plenty of those too. These are the firms that handle his taxes, that deal with his large business deals.
The law firms that tend to deal with high profile cases are NOT large firms.
And of course idiots like you support violating Trump’s first amendment rights to
Every motion Blanche filed should have been granted – that is actually highly unusual.
It is quite normal for criminal defense attorney’s to file lots of motions.
It is highly unusual that Merchan and the appellate courts RUSHED to shut these down.
It is highly unusla that MErchan has closed down the docket and depriving the public of information about this trial.
Merchan’s conduct is improper. Judges do NOT get to prequalify what defense lawyers do, what motions they may file.
MErchan is not merely trying to gag Trump in public – unconstitutionally.
He is also unconstitutionally gagging Trump and his attorney’s in court.
You can not get to trial for shop lifting as quickly and This case has proceeded.
When you are rushing a case over the objections of the defense what you are doing is failing Due process, you are failing the rule of law.
I know this is hard for you left wing nuts – but it is NORMAL for a large number of reasons from criminal defendants and criminal trial attorney’s to delay trials. Absolutely Trump wants to avoid a trial before the election – that is hies right. He can seek to avoid a trial for any reason at all.
Civil rights belong to criminal defendants – NOT government.
Conversely Government is NOT permitted to try to rush a case for political reasons.
Government is not even permitted to prosecute a case for political reasons.
And yet, here we are with the weakest case against Trump rushing to Trial because of corrupt judges and corrupt prosecutors.
There is not even an actual crime here.
Of course Blanche is stretched thin – that is because the Judge is violating the law, due process and Trump’s rights.
Over 100,000 pages of discovery were FINALLY provided just a few weeks ago.
This is all exculpatory material. It is ALL stuff that the defense team must POUR over because it likely contains MANY MANY grounds to dismiss the case.
This is the communications from the SDNY and from the Manhattan DA office related to why they rejected this case previously.
There is not likely more compelling legal arguments for dismissing this case than those that prosecutors made years ago for dropping this case.
And yet Merchan is rushing to Trial without giving Trump’s attorney’s time to review the discovery much less prepare for trial.
this trial should be an embarrassment to those on the left.
Even disreputable attorney Micheal AVanatti who hates Trump has said this is a load of bollocks.
The only question regarding this trial is whether there is one honest person who will get onto this jury.
No one expects a fair trial from Merchan – a Fair Trial would require tossing this case before trial.
A fair trial would require Merchan to recuse himself.
There are 2 purposes to this trial – none of them have ANYTHING to do with the actual case.
The first is to allow left wing nut talking heads to say “convicted felon” everytime they mention Trump for the next 6 months – despite the fact that nearly everyone already knows this case will eventually be tossed completely the only question is when.
Judge Merchan has made it clear that he will go full speed ahead demand the torpedoes regardless of the unconstitutional and lawless nature of the prosecution. His only goal is to convict as quickly as possible.
The 2nd is the hope of left wing nuts that a felony conviction will weaken Trump’s chances of winning the election.
That may prove true – but all indications so far are that will backfire.
Regardless, we shall see. It appears increasingly unlikely that the NY appeals courts are going to compel Merchan to follow the law.
They are following the same pattern they did with EnMoron – allowing thoroughly lawless nonsense in court, allowing egregious abuse of Trump’s rights. To a large extent the NY appelate courts are complicit with democrats and Judge Merchan in election fraud.
They know this case is a loser. They know that either they or a higher court will reverse on appeal. They do not care how botched and biased Merchan’s Trial is – the goal is NOT to actually send Trump to Jail for an actual crime. They KNOW there is no crime.
The objective is to get a jury of 12 from one of the more biased jurisdictions in the country to convict trump in a rigged proceeding.
There is no need to follow the law, to do this properly or ethically. The case will be dismissed at somepoint on appeal and they all know it.
The core claim to the case – that the payment of “hush money” is an illegal campaign contribution is MULTIPLY false.
First – as this “crime” is alleged to have occured – because that is the only way it could possibly be a crime, Trump has to have solicited and then paid daniels. Increasingly it appears evident that Daniels actually solicited the money. That makes the payment legal extortion – not a campaign contribution. Regardless – if as the prosecution claims – but the evidence does not support – Trump paid daniels that can not be an illegal campaign contribution – because the supreme court has long ago ruled that candidates can spend as much of their own money in anyway they wish on their own campaigns. Or more simply that Federal election laws do not apply to a candidates own spending.
The only way there is a violation of election law – and a relatively minor one at that, is if Cohen gave his OWN money to Danials – and Damn if Cohen did not plead guilty to exactly that. Another reason that this case must be dismissed. Not only has another person plead guilty to a crime that can only be committed by one person, but the person who plead guilty is the prosecutions star witness – who is also a mutliple perjurer so bad that no one is sure exactly how many times he has perjurered himself in court.
If the money was Cohen’s many – it Arguably could be considered a campaign finance law violation – to which Cohen has already pleadguilty – one that would typically have a small fine – not even a misdemenaor.
But Brag must make the case that a crime that is not a crime that if it was was committed by someone else, that is not within his legal jurisdiction is a felony committed by Trump but rejected for prosecution by the SDNY on mupltiple occasions before and after Trump left office – because the claim is pure idiocy, and because for 30 years the federal election commission has REPEATEDLY held that “hush money” – actual hush money – not mere NDA’s are perfectly legal and do not fall under federal election law.
Without finding Trump guilty of a felony that can not have happened in a court that has no jurisdiction and that MUST by law accept as a matter of fact and law that no such felony occured – because state courts can not enforce their own spin on federal election law – without a finding that is completely impermissible by this court and this jury – Brags entire case dies.
This is like the nonsense in Colorado – htis idiocy that a court can find someone guilty of a a crime that has never been charged in order to use that faux conviction that never happened of a crime that never occured to continue with a state case where they do have jurisdiction.
So Bragg must persuade a jury of something he is legally not even allowed to raise in court – though MErchan will allow it, That Trump committed a federal election felony that did not happen,
Because without the faux federal felony that the feds refused to persue, The statute of limitations (as well as really the entire case) fallse apart on the state charges.
And that of course ducks the problem that the state charges are bogus to begain with.
As with the EnMoron case – the claim here is fraudulent business filings.
But as is pointed out to you repeatedly – by Law requires more than the dubious legal conclusion that there was deception.
All lies are not crimes. All lies to the state are not crimes. There is no state equivalent of 18 US 1001.
The law on Fraud REQUIRES deliberate deception that causes proveable ACTUAL HARM.
I doubt you have ever filed anything more than a 1040ez for your taxes. But as nearly every small business owner int he country knows – while tax law typically requires the itemization of expenses (sort of, mostly they are to be agregated and lumped into about a dozen major catagories), it is NOT tax fraud to report an expense int eh incorrect catagory. It is not Fraud to report your internet service under computer expense rather than communications expense. It is only fraud if you report a taxable expense as a non-taxable expense.
The NY Dept of Revenue is not sol stupid as to be part of this case – so there is no actual allegation of fraud.
The judgement of Bragg or Merchan or even a jury that an expense is miscatagorized is called “harmless error” – when it is not properly being called corrupt political prosecution. Actual fraud requires deliberate deception and actual harm.
There is a reason for this – we can not manufacture whatever we want into a crime. That would be a violation of due process, as well as several other constitutional rights and amendments.
It would also be a violation of the social contract.
Man did not aggree to give government absolute control over their lives as part of the social contract that justifies governments existance.
The entire purpose of government is the protection of individual rights.
Any law that infringes on individual rights without preventing a compelling harm is a violation of the foundation of law and govenrment.
There is ZERO change that Rosenberg does not have anything responsive to the subpeona.
But even if he did “so what” ?
You claim to be a lawyer. Then you know that a common purpose of discovery and subpeona’s is to obtain evident that you do not already have.
Though SOMETIMES subpeona’s are used to BLOCK the admission of testimony or evidence.
Mr. Rosenberger is now barred from testifying at trial about anything that would have been responsive to the subpeona.
While it is unlikely that Judge Merchan would enforce that – Rosenberg could still face criminal charges if he testified in anyway that demonstrates that he improperly responded to the subpeona.
NORMALLY – with a real judge – Rosenberger would just be barred from testifying. Further the Jury would be given a jury instruction that as Rosenberger has failed to produce anything responsive to the subpeona – that MUST be understood int he light most favorable to the subpeonaing party.
We have been over much of this before. Discovery failure – failure to comply with a subpeona is NOT a crime.
The subpeona’ing party can go to court to try to enforce the subpeona.
But more commonly they can use the discovery failure later to bar testimony or even to require the court to instruct the jury they MUST draw adverse inferences from the discovery failure.
I have personally subpeona’d parties in the hope and expectationt hat they would fail to respond to the subpeona.
I subpeona’d them for information that I already had, and that I KNEW they already had, purely for the purpose of assuring that I had control fo the way that information got presented in court.
I am amazed constantly at the fundimentals of law 101 things that you have no understanding of – despite the fact that you claim to be a retired lawyer.
Where did you get your law degree ? Cereal box tops ?
Dennis -= it is already established that Bragg and Merchan are the “keystone cops” in this tale.
I do not know the truth of this case – and neither do you. And it is unlikely in many many instances we will EVER be able to know.
Danieals has denied atleast 8 different times to having any relationship with Trump. I do not know if those denials are lies or if the claim that they had a relationship is a lie. Regardless there is no way to establish beyond a reasonable doubt whether Daniels had or did not have a relationship with Trump.
Absent a relationship – this devolves into Daniels extorting money from Trump.
This case PRESUMES that Trump through Cohen approached Daniels. MOSTLY that has been the public story. But there have long been hints that may not have been true – that Daniels made the first contact. Again we do not know, Micheal Avanatti – who si no more trustworthy than Cohen, but has no reason to lie at the moment claims that he dropped Daniels as a client when he learned that she has lied to him and that he found evidence that She approached Trump FIRST. If such evidence exists – this case is over. But even if evidence does not exist – there are still doubts.
We do KNOW as a fact that more egregious claims than this were prosecuted and LOST by none other than …. Jack Smith 30 years ago.
That Smith tired Johnathon edwards despite the FACT that the FEC at the time found that an Edwards donor paying a million in hush money to Edwards pregnant paramour was NOT an election law violation. The FEC has remained consistent on this for all of the past 30 years.
So Bragg is demanding that a court that has no jurisdiction finds that actions that the FEC has repeatedly said are not crimes somehow are crimes, not for the purpose of convicting Trump of that crime – because they can not do that, but for the purpose of concluding that Trump’s subsequent actions were an illegal effort to coverup a crime that never occured.
DM if you are familiar with logic and probability you know that when you have multiple dependent factors that lead to a conclusion that the probability of that conclusion being true is decreased by the the probability of each individual factor in the chain – the Brag case has about a dozen dependent factors – many of which are highly unlikely that ALL must be true to reach a positive conclusion – this does not address the fact that there are also legal and factual contradictions that have to be ignored.
Conversely when you have Independent factors these each increase the probability of something being true.
Multiple eyewitnesses to an event are unlikely to be wrong. While A witness testifying to what they heard someone say to someone about what they heard about what they heard is with near certainty wrong.
Here is an excellent video by Glenn Greenwald about what is going on in Brazil right now.
This is more egregious than what we are seeing in the US – but the pattern is the same.
We have the same pattern of a government censorship regime actively undermining the candidacy of the current president in order to defeat him in a close election – election fraud.
We have post election a left wing government abusing the power of of government to target political enemies.
We have the same thin skin of those in power driving them to abuse that power.
Oddly Brazil is one of few countries in the world with stronger free speech protection than the US – except those have magically vanished as those in power moved to destroy a successful populist candidate.
We have a similar pattern in that this is NOT entirely coming from the far left – the Brazillian supreme court justices that is the leader of this totalitarianism was put in place by a right moderate government and was presume by the left at the time to be too conservative.
But this is not really about left right politics per say – this is about personal power.
Moreas was at odds with Bolsonaro and used his judicial power as a weapon in that conflict – Moreas – who I beleive participated in early convictions of Lulu for public corruption later exhonerated him in order to provide a challenger to a popular Bolsanaro government.
The Lulu government has been like the Biden government a disaster and absent the censorship – and criminal targeting regime lead by Cheif Justice Moreas, will near certainly lose the next election – Except that he can not return to Brazil without Moreas jailing him – Bolsonaro would likely defeat Lulu in the next election.
The fundimental differences between what is going on in Brazil and what is occuring here – are that Brazil has gone down the rabbit hole much faster than the US.
Regardless returning to YOUR anti-Trump vitriole – pay close attention to the conduct of MEras and compare that to what we see in the US today. Fortunately we do not have a supreme court that has unilaterally granted itself the same investigative, prosecutorial. and judicial power as Brazil – Yet. But we HAVE seen the same thing in lower courts. Judge Sulivan is only distinguished in his persecution of Gen. Flynn by his relative lack of power. We also have exactly the same thin skinned nonsense in Chutckan, EnMoron, Kaplan, and Merchan as we see in Moreas – though fortunately more limited power todate.
Note the criticism’s Greenwald makes of Moreas, and how they apply to the democratic Judges administering Trump cases.
We EXPECT politicized prosecutors – While Bragg and Willis and James and Smith have probably only widened the partisan prosecutor window by about one std dev – we have seen similar political misconduct by prosecutors on the right – even if an order of magnitude less.
But when we see that in Judges – we are in DEEP Trouble. The left did not get the message when Scotus shot down the 14th amendment nonsense 9-0.
I am deeply concerned by recent Supreme court oral arguments – not that the comservative justices are going to magically become left wing nuts, but that they are overall too institutionalist and too deferential to absolute nonsense from lower courts.
The 14th amendment decision has NOT restores judicial sanity and integrity. It is going to take something MORE forceful – and I do not think this court is up to the task to reigning in the participation fo the judiciary in political weaponization.
This country can and has survived politicized prosecutors like Bragg and James and Willis and Smith.
I can not recall ever before seeing a part of the judiciary behave as we have been seeing.
The situation in Brazilian courts is worse than the US, but only by degree.
https://youtu.be/y7kk1AFQYyg
The Road To Radicalism: A Brief Timeline
Bernie Bros, BLM and Antifa are generally all the same people. Antifa is just the most radical of these three.
Most of these people grew up during the Bush-Obama years. Though the youngest came of age in the Trump era.
So it isn’t hard to understand how these kids got so radical. They have never known a ‘normal’ America!
During the Bush years these kid saw 911 which somehow led to the invasion of Iraq. Bush, in fact, tried to blame Saddam Hussein for 911; spawning a million conspiracy theories.
Obama took office as the Great Recession sent the economy into a free-fall. The Great Recession affected millions of families in a way that no doubt nurtured socialist sentiments amongst the youth of that era. It looked like capitalism had completey failed.
It would’ve also looked to these kids like Republicans were absurdly racist in their hatred towards Obama. Whatever flaws he may have had, Obama always seemed perfectly hip and positive. So the hatred heaped on him appeared totally irrational to anyone under 30.
Obama’s election triggered the Tea Party movement. Which seemed to normalize political lunacy in the minds of most youths (and many adults). Sarah Palin embodied that lunacy with her “It’s okay to be stupid” attitude.
Then along comes Donald Trump, a reality TV star with no credentials for the White House. Trump not only celebrates stupidity but goes even further by telling us facts no longer matter.
And there you have it: ‘A brief timeline describing all the pivot points on the road to radicalism’. In this environment Antifa is no less nutty than MAGA Republicans. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin.
According to Anonymous, only politicians are qualified to be a President. She says Maga Americans are just the opposite side of the same coin. Somehow I can’t recall when Maga people beat an Asian reporter in the street or set a Court House on fire or looted a downtown shopping district. Such a comparison is just plain as stupid as she can get.
TiT,
I seem to recall it was leftists who said facts dont matter, their truth does.
Will bet a hundred bucks to a hole in a donut, that the MSM has been given orders to call this action, and actor, a “Right Wing” extremist. (That bet is $79.86 given Bidenflation)
Antifa, like Voodoo, Enviro-wackoism, LGBTQ and various and sundry freaks and perverts, and the “democracy” of liberal communists, doesn’t work if you don’t believe.
There are competing moral codes at play here. Which is more superior and virtuous——-freedom and fairness for all——or——-the protection and defense of the innocent. We are all going to have to make a choice.
The American thesis IS freedom and self-reliance.
The Communist thesis is, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” as forcibly imposed by the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”