Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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Watergate lawyer Nick Ackerman spoke with CNN Thursday after a late-night decision from the Supreme Court and said that former President Donald Trump is finally starting to face consequences for his actions. He even went on to suggest that if the evidence proves Trump intentionally tried to stop Congress then the former president could be on the hook for up to 20 years in prison.

"If you took it from Donald Trump's standpoint, he truly believes the three people he appointed to the Supreme Court have to be loyal to him. That they owe him," said Ackerman. "He looks at it as a quid pro quo type of arrangement he's used to in business. The fact of the matter is these Supreme Court justices stick to the rule of law and in this particular case what they did is they relied on the 1974 decision of U.S. v. Nixon where Nixon tried to do the same thing and conceal his office tapes from the prosecutors based on executive privilege. What the court did was essentially adopt the same decision that was given in Nixon. I mean, this was history repeating itself."

He went on to say that during President Richard Nixon's era, there was a concern that he'd appointed several Supreme Court justices too. That too was an 8-0 decision.

"Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump's claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court's decision," the Court said.

This excerpt of the decision essentially leaves Trump "nowhere," said Ackerman.

"There's no executive privilege they can assert here," he explained. "Because executive privilege as the Court said in the Nixon case, you can't use it for conversations in furtherance of criminal activity. With Nixon, it was in furtherance of the conspiracy to obstruct the Watergate case. Here it's relating to basically an insurrection that was perpetrated on the Congress. And there's no way under any circumstance that any court is ever going to say that those conversations are legitimate, executive privilege-covered conversations. The exec privilege relates to legitimate government business that the president is engaged in, most notably military actions, national security, and the like. This is certainly why they're saying it doesn't make any difference whether Trump is a sitting president or not. These conversations are not covered by executive privilege."

He continued, explaining that the key piece of the case is that Trump acted with a corrupt motive and all of the courts are going to say that privilege doesn't exist in those cases. These documents will now show the intent of his words on Jan. 6. In the second impeachment trial, the prosecutors didn't have access to documents or people who could prove Trump was intentionally attempting to cause violence.

"This really is going to answer the question, can they make a criminal case on Donald Trump for obstructing Congress, which is an extremely serious federal felony carrying imprisonment of 20 years."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supreme-court-loss/

TOT needs a theme song and here is one I recommend.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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"If you took it from Donald Trump's standpoint, he truly believes the three people he appointed to the Supreme Court have to be loyal to him. That they owe him," said Ackerman. "He looks at it as a quid pro quo type of arrangement he's used to in business. The fact of the matter is these Supreme Court justices stick to the rule of law and in this particular case what they did is they relied on the 1974 decision of U.S. v. Nixon where Nixon tried to do the same thing and conceal his office tapes from the prosecutors based on executive privilege. What the court did was essentially adopt the same decision that was given in Nixon. I mean, this was history repeating itself."
"There's no executive privilege they can assert here," he explained. "Because executive privilege as the Court said in the Nixon case, you can't use it for conversations in furtherance of criminal activity.
AND as has been mentioned, claims of 'executive privilege' are null and void by the assholes in trump's clown car, like meadows and the like.

trump the traitor pretty quiet about this...can't lie or sue his way outta this one. No 'higher' court his lawyers can appeal to.

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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Strange quietness from the orange ogre - not that it's missed - regarding SCOTUS decision! I expect he is a bit more odorous these days along with a tightened sphincter. I'm certainly hopeful his world is about to come crashing down and deservedly so.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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I just don't think we will send a former president to jail. I want to be wrong about this, I really do. But Nixon got away with his crimes that cost a hell of a lot more lives than Trump did since his crimes went WAY beyond Watergate. He should have been tried for treason when he talked the Vietnamese into leaving the peace talks. That's clearly treason and he got away with it.

Regardless of what happens, the next Republican president is going to pardon Trump. They absolutely will not send a former president to jail.
“I think there’s a right-wing conspiracy to promote the idea of a left-wing conspiracy”

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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sikacz wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 9:04 am I’ll hold my enthusiasm.
Same here, there are plenty of talking heads on TV with simplistic solutions.

SCOTUS limited Trump's use of executive privilege which limits Bannon's, Meadows' and other former WH staff from using it before the Jan 6 Select Committee. I expect a lot more former Trump staff will be taking the 5th before the Committee or might even cooperate.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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sikacz wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 9:04 am I’ll hold my enthusiasm.
Agreed. I just read the Guardian article about how everything NY Attorney General Letitia James is using has been documented right out in the open for years--hell, a book was published about it (TrumpNation, 2005). He has always skated and always will. Privileged white guys skirting the law for white collar crimes for years with the evidence published in the open? Say it isn't so. Had justice been served years ago, he would never have been President. But the privileged have different rules.

Yes, right now everything is very damning. But I'm not so deluded or demented that I've forgotten how damning the first impeachment seemed to me. I'm also remembering the collective yawn about January 6. Both episodes followed by insane doubling down by him and his minions.

Forgive me if I'm slow to get enthusiastic about the odds of a popular, rich, malignant white guy facing consequences in the USA.

Here's the Guardian article, in case it hasn't been posted here before.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... gal-perils

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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If the courts and laws don't get him, the Banks will, as the loans come due and he can't pay. The Banks are looking at him as a bad credit risk and the fact his gaming of the system with the accounting fraud has led them holding a lot of loans based on bad information will ruin him and his empire. Also the money he has raised for future political endeavors can't be used to pay off the loans for other businesses.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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Interesting Guardian article.
The libel suit [over the book TrumpNation] was dismissed in 2009. The author was surprised that despite the mass of detail he had exposed in TrumpNation of potential malfeasance, no prosecutor showed interest.

“There was ample fodder in my book for prosecutors to pursue, but nobody picked it up. Law enforcement simply didn’t take Donald Trump seriously until it was too late.”
Leticia James and Alvin Bragg are politicians, they want selective wins to use at reelection time. Just like the IRS, prosecutors go after the easy low hanging fruit, pursuing someone like Trump takes time and resources.

One lawyer I heard said the often stated "over evaluation" by Trump of his properties was his usual verbosity. Financial institutions and taxing authorities are supposed to do their own investigating before they lend money or determine property taxes. If they were swayed by Trump, it's their own fault.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Watergate lawyer explains how Supreme Court handed Congress the keys to put Trump in prison

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TrueTexan wrote: Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:00 pm If the courts and laws don't get him, the Banks will, as the loans come due and he can't pay. The Banks are looking at him as a bad credit risk and the fact his gaming of the system with the accounting fraud has led them holding a lot of loans based on bad information will ruin him and his empire. Also the money he has raised for future political endeavors can't be used to pay off the loans for other businesses.
He should hope that is what happens.

What would Don Ciccio do?
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
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