Does Trump ever do any jail time? (16 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Everything I've seen and heard says that the split second Donald Trump is no longer president there will be flood of charges waiting for him

And if he resigns and Pence pardons him there are a ton of state charges as an understudy waiting in the wings if the fed charges can't perform

What do you think the likelihood of there being a jail sentence?

In every movie and TV show I've ever seen, in every political thriller I've ever read about a criminal and corrupt president there is ALWAYS some version of;

"We can't do that to the country",

"A trial would tear the country apart",

"For the nation to heal we need to move on" etc.

Would life imitate art?

Even with the charges, even with the proof the charges are true will the powers that be decide, "we can't do that to the country"?

 

[coldseat]

The GOP and right wing media are promoting and encouraging more political violence with their hyperbolic reaction and rage over the FBI search of Trump. I think it's likely we see and assassination attempt on Biden or Garland within the next few months. Or maybe some other mass political violence. But given the state of the Secret Service, I'd be very concerned if I where those two. All it take is one rouge agent who's compromised.

The rhetoric being spewed is very much the same as the rhetoric after the election that lead to the insurrection on Jan. 6th. Actually, it's even more vile and angry and promoting violence more openly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/09/trump-search-warrant-violence/

 

[MT15]

Evidently Trump is refusing to answer questions at his deposition in NY, according to the NYT. He’s taking the Fifth. Even though both Don Jr and Ivanka didn’t take the Fifth when they testified recently. Of course he claims it’s because this is a “witch hunt”, lol. That doesn’t mean anything, Don, if you have nothing to hide just tell the truth.

This is from the NYT live coverage:
“Donald J. Trump declined to answer questions from the New York state attorney general’s office on Wednesday, a stunning gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that is likely to determine the course of a civil investigation into his company’s business practices.

In a statement released shortly after the questioning began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.”

After the deposition began, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment.”

 

[UriUT]

I hope the FBI and/or Garland doesn’t come out and make any statements justifying their warrant. That’s sort of what Comey did by talking about the Clinton investigation and it was wrong.

Trump has the warrant and he has a list of everything they took. He can release all of it, but of course he won’t do that because he’s basically a dishonest person.

Regular Republicans, though, who are dishonestly calling for the FBI or DOJ to justify their lawful actions are even worse than Trump. They know what it takes to get a warrant, they know Trump took classified documents about 18 months ago, and only reluctantly turned over some of the documents a few months ago. And was still dragging his feet on turning over the rest.

Worst of all are the hard right media and personalities. They are fomenting violence over a lawful execution of a legal search warrant. Oh, and Trump’s so-called lawyers who are on said media saying that the FBI probably planted evidence with nothing to back that up.

Exactly. The reason why he hasnt been prosecuted yet is because he was the president. Its not that his hotel was searched because he was president. These tantrums are deviating the messaging. There have been prosecutions and sentencing for inadvertent mishandling of top secret. These information that reaches the white house are national security level stuff. Maybe the feds only just recently realized how damaging these files are. For goodness sake....we have foreign agents roam that place and it was only secured by a padlock. Who is to say how easily those agents and his donors have access to these files.

 

[UriUT]

Evidently Trump is refusing to answer questions at his deposition in NY, according to the NYT. He’s taking the Fifth. Even though both Don Jr and Ivanka didn’t take the Fifth when they testified recently. Of course he claims it’s because this is a “witch hunt”, lol. That doesn’t mean anything, Don, if you have nothing to hide just tell the truth.

This is from the NYT live coverage:
“Donald J. Trump declined to answer questions from the New York state attorney general’s office on Wednesday, a stunning gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that is likely to determine the course of a civil investigation into his company’s business practices.

In a statement released shortly after the questioning began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.”

After the deposition began, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment.”

I'm sure we have a quote somewhere when he accuses Hilary of this...oh wait she sat through hours of testimony. Nothing says guilt more than the continuous accusations that evidence were planted.

 

[UriUT]

Evidently Trump is refusing to answer questions at his deposition in NY, according to the NYT. He’s taking the Fifth. Even though both Don Jr and Ivanka didn’t take the Fifth when they testified recently. Of course he claims it’s because this is a “witch hunt”, lol. That doesn’t mean anything, Don, if you have nothing to hide just tell the truth.

This is from the NYT live coverage:
“Donald J. Trump declined to answer questions from the New York state attorney general’s office on Wednesday, a stunning gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that is likely to determine the course of a civil investigation into his company’s business practices.

In a statement released shortly after the questioning began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.”

After the deposition began, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment.”

Oh here it is.

 

[MT15]

I'm sure we have a quote somewhere when he accuses Hilary of this...oh wait she sat through hours of testimony. Nothing says guilt more than the continuous accusations that evidence were planted.

He has certainly roasted others over the years for asserting that right (5th). I hope they keep him there all day just asking questions of him. I wonder if he can maintain the discipline to keep taking the Fifth rather than just launching into one of his lies.

 

[samiam5211]

He has certainly roasted others over the years for asserting that right (5th). I hope they keep him there all day just asking questions of him. I wonder if he can maintain the discipline to keep taking the Fifth rather than just launching into one of his lies.

They should ask him if his hands have always been that small.

 

[coldseat]

They should ask him if his hands have always been that small.

Or why the crowd size at his inauguration was so small compared to Obama's inauguration.

 

[superchuck500]

So why not just get a court order to turn over the documents? Why get a warrant to search?

Because there would have to be a case first to get a court order to produce documents - you can't just go get a court order without a case . . . unless you're law enforcement and can get a warrant associated with an investigation.

To be clear, I wasn't saying that there aren't scenarios where there would be charges. I was just saying that without information that there was something more going on (including the possibility of destroying evidence), it could simply be that they were going to retrieve this material that Trump had improperly taken and possessed. (Yes, that's a crime).

 

[superchuck500]

Evidently Trump is refusing to answer questions at his deposition in NY, according to the NYT. He’s taking the Fifth. Even though both Don Jr and Ivanka didn’t take the Fifth when they testified recently. Of course he claims it’s because this is a “witch hunt”, lol. That doesn’t mean anything, Don, if you have nothing to hide just tell the truth.

This is from the NYT live coverage:
“Donald J. Trump declined to answer questions from the New York state attorney general’s office on Wednesday, a stunning gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that is likely to determine the course of a civil investigation into his company’s business practices.

In a statement released shortly after the questioning began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.”

After the deposition began, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment.”

So he's finally under oath and taking the 5th . . . which he said is what "guilty people do".

Of course, in a civil matter, the opposing side is generally able to get an "adverse inference" when a party witness refuses to answer questions on a 5th Amendment basis. An adverse inference is basically "we can infer that because you didn't answer, what you would have said would have been adverse (bad) to your case."

 

[coldseat]

Because there would have to be a case first to get a court order to produce documents - you can't just go get a court order without a case . . . unless you're law enforcement and can get a warrant associated with an investigation.

To be clear, I wasn't saying that there aren't scenarios where there would be charges. I was just saying that without information that there was something more going on (including the possibility of destroying evidence), it could simply be that they were going to retrieve this material that Trump had improperly taken and possessed. (Yes, that's a crime).

That seems logical that maybe the FBI was just retrieving the documents, but it also seems very unlikely to me. Garland knew before hand the type of political shirt storm the search of Trump's home would cause. He knew the type of heat this would bring from the right and the caustic accusations of political interference at the Justice Department. I highly doubt he would have authorized this search without something much more serious than simple document retrieval, classified or not, given his caution to this point in pursuing Trump. This almost certainly portends some type of indictment, especially if they find what they were looking for.

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

So completely irresponsible, yet on brand.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I hate the guy, but honestly, that's the correct answer here. It's disrespectful of the victims of the flood to discuss other political crap.

He's still a leader in the party though, and he should be telling people to wait and see.

That's a noble take but I doubt that's the reasoning here

I have no doubt that if Hunter Biden or Nancy Pelosi had been raided by the FBI McConnell wouldn’t say, "I'm just here to talk about the flood"

 

[samiam5211]

So completely irresponsible, yet on brand.

It tells me they are pretty sure the FBI found something they won't be able to defend.

 

[superchuck500]

That seems logical that maybe the FBI was just retrieving the documents, but it also seems very unlikely to me. Garland knew before hand the type of political shirt storm the search of Trump's home would cause. He knew the type of heat this would bring from the right and the caustic accusations of political interference at the Justice Department. I highly doubt he would have authorized this search without something much more serious than simple document retrieval, classified or not, given his caution to this point in perusing Trump. This almost certainly portends some type of indictment, especially if they find what they were looking for.

Certainly possible - I can see why that's a sensible take based on what we know.

 

[UriUT]

It's less likely that it's simply retrieval in my mind. They ve known for months that he has those documents. Reportedly 2 agents inspected the site and the next day requested more security. A padlock was then placed. Not much was done besides that and they could've prosecuted for the mere fact that he had those documents. But they didn't for months. They even negotiated. Why the urgency now? Possibly more crucial documents were discovered and cannot be left behind a mere padlock (which favors retrieval and a more severe consequence...not simple retrieval), nefarious access, or like u suggested destruction of those documents. All of which are consequential. And that leads to what many are suggesting as to why he is laying the seed that evidence has been planted.

 

[UriUT]

There we go: not sure if this is reliable yet.

Exclusive: An Informer Told the FBI What Docs Trump Was Hiding, and Where

The FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago was carried out while Donald Trump was absent in the hope it would be low-profile. The plan was a "spectacular" failure.

www.newsweek.com

"They were seeking to avoid any media circus," says the second source, a senior intelligence official who was briefed on the investigation and the operation. "So even though everything made sense bureaucratically and the FBI feared that the documents might be destroyed, they also created the very firestorm they sought to avoid, in ignoring the fallout."