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Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 22

Trump's Big Lie is a big fascist lie. It cannot be assessed as a normal criminal lie, and it lives outside the contours of normal politics.

The Big Lie is all about subverting normal politics and the norms for criminal prosecution. tinyurl.com/2k5m5ehb

Trump’s attempted coup, which was fascist in every respect, almost succeeded. That shows the fragility of American democracy.

Fortunately, however, it did fail, and Trump et al. will likely have to defend themselves in court against at least two federal charges. 1/10

We already know from the 12-pager he issued after the first J6 Cmte hearing that Trump will argue in his defense that the law and facts are on his side.

But of course, they aren’t on his side--at all.

“Rubber room” stuff is how Pence described it. 2/10 tinyurl.com/262qjfk6

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Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 20

There will be two very likely and one possible charge against Trump by the DoJ.

They are: committing an offense or defrauding the government (18 U.S.C. § 371); obstruction of Congress (18 U.S. Code § 1505); and seditious conspiracy (18 U.S. Code § 2384). 1/14

In this thread I will argue that establishing that the intent was corrupt will be controversial or in play only with respect to a seditious conspiracy charge. 2/14

18 U.S. Code § 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States reads in relevant part: 3/14 tinyurl.com/zeqcuul

Read 15 tweets

Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 19

I am not a lawyer, but I would like to respectfully suggest that the wrong framework (establishing corrupt intent) is being applied by the lawyers and law professors who are weighing in on the question of what the DoJ would have to do to successfully prosecute Trump. 1/18

Corrupt intent goes to the question of motive, and is almost invariably applied to cases where one of the motives might have been bribery or improper influence, when, absent that motive, the act would have been lawful.

(Anyone can confirm this with a Google search.) 2/18

Prosecutions for bribery (often involving political donations) fall within the broader legal category of “corruption”--hence the designation “corrupt intent.” 3/18

Read 19 tweets

Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 19

It has been overlooked that the Trump-Eastman scheme to overturn the election had two prongs.

One, the claim of widespread voter fraud, has been thoroughly debunked, and if I’m not mistaken there wasn’t a single such claim that had been shown to have any merit on Jan 6. 1/16

The second prong was the allegation that pandemic-related changes in voting procedures by election boards, precinct captains, and others in contested states violated laws and regulations that had been enacted in those states. 2/16

This claim was invoked just as much if not more by Eastman in his talks with Trump and the WH lawyers. The WH lawyers seem to have summarily dismissed it (they never even mentioned it), and in fact the claim is as untenable as the claim of actual voter fraud, 3/16

Read 18 tweets

Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 14

@JRubinBlogger I think this misreads the politics. Trump will continue with his Big Lie, and insist that Rs follow suit. If DeSantis goes along, he loses in the general. If he doesn’t, he will likely lose to Trump in the primaries as a weak RINO. The R party is going to implode over this.

@JRubinBlogger The challenge might come soon. Trump may announce before the midterms, largely to thwart DeSantis. DeSantis has yet to say whether he thinks Biden’s election was legitimate. Most Rs think it wasn’t, and believe that Trump was not responsible for J6. tinyurl.com/25chwg39

@JRubinBlogger So far, DeSantis has been doing a pretty piss poor job at “triangulation” (though, to be fair, it is not clear how he could have done any better, given his own politics and the political realities)--and it is only going to get worse for him. tinyurl.com/2aawltow

Read 5 tweets

Thomas Wood 🌊

@twoodiac

Jun 14

Some J6 committee members have said that this is not about partisan politics.

That is only true in the sense that it is not about normal partisan politics.

The issue that is involved transcends and fundamentally challenges normal partisan politics. 1/19

Moreover, when we watch these hearings we are seeing a gigantic train wreck in the making for the GOP. 2/19

What Trump did to overturn the 2020 election in order to remain in power is so appalling, outrageous, and unprecedented that it might seem indecent to talk politics, but we must, because this is really about the biggest political crime in American history. 3/19

Read 20 tweets

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