Summary
Special counsel Jack Smith’s report asserts sufficient evidence existed to convict Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election but cites Trump’s 2024 presidential victory as the reason charges were dropped, due to constitutional protections for sitting presidents.
Smith detailed Trump’s actions, including pressuring officials, spreading false election claims, and encouraging protests.
While charges against co-conspirators were considered, no final conclusions were reached.
Smith denied political bias, emphasizing adherence to facts and law.
The report also references challenges like expanded presidential immunity.
This memo that the DOJ prepared one time decades ago that asserts an opinion that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, has somehow brought us to this.
I know it’s all too late to do anything remotely constructive, but if a democratically-minded AG at any time under Obama or Biden had thought, “Gee, that doesn’t seem right. It’s crazy to think anyone is above the law and this gives an overwhelming incentive to be evil. Let’s trash and redo that memo,” it’s possible Trump would not have had the incentive to run again, or that the DOJ wouldn’t have taken so much time to prosecute.
I just think sometimes about how many infinitesimal probabilities had to align - how dedicated and consistently wrong so many actors had to be at so many crucial decision points - to create this uniquely, thoroughly awful result.
Biden should have stolen something minor, like, for example, an ice cream sandwich, and the Republicans would have flopped over and ratified the bill.
I always thought that memo meant something entirely different. It’s not that sitting Presidents have some sort of immunity, but rather a recognition that there can never be an impartial investigation of the person who is in charge of the investigators.
Let’s say that memo wasn’t there, and the President was accused of some sort of crime – but upon investigating, the DoJ decided not to press charges. Could we really ever be sure he was innocent? Woudnt the conspiracy theory always exist that the President quashed it? The proper thing to do would be to either wait until he is out of office, or appoint someone with some statutory independence, who is able to make decisions without interference. I always thought that memo was simply an attempt to preserve the integrity of the DoJ by keeping it out of an obvious conflict of interest.
Of course, the Supreme Court weighed in with their totally bonkers interpretation of it, giving the President free reign to do whatever the hell he wants. Their opinion matters more than mine, unfortunately.