TRUMP – IF YOU GO FOR ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

On Tuesday, August 3, 2023 Donald Trump was indicted, arrested and released on conditional bail on four felony counts for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection, in an attempt to unconstitutionally and violently overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump pleaded not guilty on all counts.

During the indictment, Washington D.C. Magistrate Judge Moxilla Upadhyaya, who presided over Trump’s arraignment, directed the prosecution and defense to file proposed trial dates. Trump’s counsel John Lauro, in response to the Judge’s directive, asked for an extended period of time before the first trial date, saying, “In a case of this magnitude, we expect to vigorously address every issue in this matter on behalf of Trump and the American people”.

That’s strange. The American People are the plaintiffs in this case, whose interests are being vigorously addressed by Special Counsel, Jack Smith.

Lauro is merely trying to mislead the public right from the start, parroting Trump’s oft-repeated lie: “They’re not coming after me, they are coming after you”, implying that the defendant is really the American people, when the American People, represented by Special Counsel Jack Smith, are prosecuting criminal defendant Donald Trump.

Lauro has already failed spectacularly in his first and basic role of a defense counsel, that of controlling his client. Trump had ranted at a campaign rally in New Hampshire that Special Counsel, Jack Smith, is deranged. When Chuck Todd of Meet the Press asked Lauro if he also thought that Smith was deranged, Lauro was speechless. He is too afraid to control defendant Trump, who keeps on spewing hateful, racist and pornographic lies against judges, prosecutors and witnesses.

District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, a most experienced and accomplished judge, known as a consummate, no-nonsense, professional, has been randomly assigned to preside over this case. She is most unlikely to be fooled by these tactics. She is also unlikely to be intimidated by the filth that Trump spews.

Magistrate Judge Upadhyaya imposed conditions of his release, the most important of which were: Trump must not violate federal, state or local law while on release; he shall not communicate facts of the case with any individual known to be a witness, except in the presence of counsel; he cannot influence a juror or try to threaten or bribe a witness or retaliate against anyone. Any contravention of these conditions of release could lead to more severe conditions, even detention for the duration of the trial.

As expected, it did not take the demented Trump long to violate the conditions of his release. Within 24 hours, Trump ranted and raved personal insults against Special Counsel Smith and Judge Chutkan. He posted on his Truth Social media, in block capitals, the chilling threat, IF YOU GO FOR ME, I’M COMING FOR YOU. A Mafia style threat, probably aimed at both the Judge, the Special Counsel and any witnesses he may perceive to be against him. Both Jack Smith and Judge Chutkan have already had numerous death threats. Their security details have been enhanced.

Immediately after this threat of retaliation and witness tampering, prosecutors requested Judge Chutkan to issue a protective order. The prosecution was concerned that Trump and his counsel may violate the conditions of his release, by sharing evidence with the public the prosecution would be obliged to give to the defense during the trial. Such revelations of confidential evidence to the public may cause the trial to be conducted in the court of public opinion, instead of a trial of justice in the courts. Judge Chutkan gave the defense counsel time till 5 p.m. on Monday, August 7 to respond to the protective order. She indicated she plans on hearing competing proposals before the end of the week, and expects to schedule a trial date by August 28.

Trump will be served with a fourth indictment next week, when Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney, Fani Willis is likely to go before a Grand Jury to present her case against Trump for interference and witness tampering in the 2020 Georgia State election.

Willis has a pretty good case, with a recorded telephone call from Trump to Georgia District Attorney Brad Raffensperger, threatening him with criminal action unless he “finds” 11,780 votes, that would win him the state of Georgia. Raffensperger refused, and made public the damning telephone call. Trump has a sound defense, though. At a campaign event in New Hampshire last Tuesday, he leveled a baseless accusation against D.A. Fani Willis of being a “reverse racist who, while investigating a gang member, ended up sleeping with him”! Willis would be well advised to immediately dismiss the case in the face of such a bulletproof defense.

Willis has received death threats after Trump’s scurrilous lies, and her security detail has also been enhanced. One of these days, Trump’s inflammatory, racist, sexist lies against judges, prosecutors, political rivals and witnesses will get someone killed. The sooner this maniac is gagged by the courts from making veiled death threats against his enemies, the better. This type of vituperation is not Free Speech, it is criminal intimidation, inciting his goons to violence, in direct contravention of the conditions of his release.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump’s case.

In fact, just last Wednesday, FBI special agents, armed with a search warrant, attempted to arrest a Utah man, Craig Robertson, who was facing federal charges for making death threats against President Biden. He pulled a gun on the agents during the arrest, and was shot dead. The incident occurred on the eve of a visit to Utah by President Biden.

Trump counsel, John Lauro, lost no time in making the Sunday morning television rounds, presenting the main argument behind Trump’s defense – Free Speech. He stated that whatever Trump said at political rallies and campaign meetings, true or false, were covered by the First Amendment. When Trump said that the election was rigged, that the Justice Department was weaponized by President Biden, who had initiated all cases against him, these statements, true or false, were all within his First Amendment rights.

Page 2, paragraph 3 of the indictment agrees with the defense. “The defendant has a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election, and even to claim, even falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election that he had won”.

The criminal charges in the indictment, however, are not based on speech. They are based on criminal conduct.

Trump spoke at a rally before thousands of his supporters at the Ellipse, minutes away from the Capitol, on the day Congress had convened to certify the constitutional election of President Biden. He ranted, “We must fight, We must fight like hell or we won’t have a country. I will be right there with you”. This speech, inflammatory as it was, was covered by Free Speech.

What is not covered by the First Amendment are his actions after he made this speech. He did not accompany the mob to the Capitol. Instead, he went back to the White House and enjoyed his favorite bucket of KFC and Ketchup, gleefully watching on TV the violence at the Capitol as it was unfolding. He did nothing for 187 minutes, while people were being killed and maimed, while members of Congress were being rushed to safe places, their lives and those of his own Vice-President and his family under threat, with his supporters shouting “Hang Mike Pence”. A gallows had already been constructed on Capitol grounds. He watched TV for over three hours, twiddling his thumbs, when only he could have stopped the violence.

On January 4, Trump held a meeting with Trump attorney John Eastman, Vice-President Pence, his Chief of Staff and Counsel. Trump stated, based on his (false) knowledge that the election was rigged, the Vice-President should reject the legitimate Electoral College votes certified by Congress and send them back to the state legislatures, rather than count them on January 6, as was his constitutional duty.

When Pence refused this request on the grounds that such an action was not constitutional, Trump paid him the worst insult in his vocabulary – that Pence was “too honest”.

Eastman then gave Pence another alternative, to pause the voting for 10 days, allow state legislatures to have one last look and make a determination as to whether the elections were handled fairly. Eastman lied that “this was constitutional law, this wasn’t criminal activity”. This wasn’t and this was. Pence wisely rejected this illegal advice.

These attempts by Trump and his counsel at “persuading” and “asking” Pence to commit an action in direct contravention of the Constitution, are covered under the First Amendment. If it stopped at that. But it didn’t. Their words resulted directly in an insurrection which had Pence and his family nearly hanged, the lives of members of Congress threatened, and hundreds of police officers and insurrectionists wounded and killed. That was not Free Speech, that was sedition.

When Hitler ranted against the Jews in Germany in the 1930s, with the false allegation, his Big Lie, that Germany lost World War I because they were betrayed by the Jews, that was Free Speech. But when this Big Lie resulted directly in the holocaust, where six million Jews and those of “impure blood” were murdered, that was not Free Speech, that was genocide.

Ten Republican candidates, including Trump, have now qualified for the first presidential debate to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23. The debate, to be held under the aegis of the Republican National Committee (RNC), will be aired by Fox News, moderated by Fox news hosts, Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum. In addition to Trump, the field includes Ron DeSantis (Trump’s closest pursuer in the Republican polls), and eight other hopefuls who have met the qualifications to participate in the debate but are polling in single digits.

As Trump dominates the field, the debate may be an opportunity for his rivals to make their cases in front of a national audience. However, Trump and some of the qualified candidates have already indicated that they will not take the loyalty pledge the RNC insists they sign before participation: that the candidates affirm they will “honor the will of the primary voters and support the Republican nominee” elected in the Republican primaries. The debate could well be abandoned for this reason.

Republicans will be in a terrible bind if, as seems likely, Trump keeps on losing his popularity as his criminal, even treasonous behavior becomes public during the many trials he is currently facing. He may even be convicted of sedition and/or espionage long before November 2024. But on current polls, he is the likely Republican presidential nominee, by a large margin.

Republicans will then have no choice but to field a convicted felon as their flagbearer in 2024. Their opponent is likely to be incumbent President Biden. If, for any reason, Biden falters in the Democratic primaries, they have accomplished candidates like Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg in the wings. Democrats will also have the advantage of running on the back of an extremely successful first term of progressive bipartisan legislation enacted by President Biden.