The January 6 Indictments. Trump On Trial. A Briefing

This is a discussion of the January 6 Indictment for Insurrection handed down in early August.  There is an earlier podcast on the Mara-Lago stolen documents case, and one on the Dominion Voting Machine defamation lawsuit against Fox News. 

There were some glitches in this podcast.

The Vice President is President of the Senate, not Speaker. 

Giuliani showed the Georgia committee an edited video, not an edited photo. 

There is a "crime-fraud" exception, not exemption. 

But Rudy Giuliani really did talk about carrying around a USB port.  That was his mistake, not mine.  

Let me clarify one point.  Five of the targeted states had a Democratic governor (Wisconsin, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada).  New Mexico and Nevada also had Democratic majorities in their legislature.  

I saw an interview that I did not include.  It was with George Connally, a former Republican affiliated with the Lincoln Project. He is a noted attorney and was asked how he would defend Trump.  He said that the evidence was exceptionally strong.  If he were Trump's attorney his goal would be to keep him out of prison.  He would urge him to seek a plea deal in which Trump would plead guilty and agree to leave the public arena.  In exchange the government would drop all charges.  That was the deal that Spiro Agnew worked out.   Admit guilt, no prison, disappear. 

And it would very much be in the public interest that this happen.  

I think everyone can see that Trump would never accept such a settlement.  My suspicion is that he thinks he can win the election and make the whole thing go away. 

Oops.  The Dog That Didn't Bark.  I forgot to mention that Smith did not include incitement as a part of the indictment.  Trump's rally people were told that if they did not fight for their country they would not have a country to defend.  And they should march down to the capital.  And his silence as hand-to-hand combat went on for five or six hours.  None of that was mentioned.  Speculation is that it would have had to prove motivem,  would have been hard to prove, and might have muddled the issues.