[🇺🇸] USA Election 2024

[Ghazi52]

Trump’s success in convincing Republicans that he was the victim of political persecution helped him sail through the Republican primary. And the prospect of another Democratic president is even papering over some of the deepest Republican scars remaining from 2020. On Friday, for instance, the ex-president is set to appear with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the swing state for a briefing on Hurricane Helene. Trump has spent years vilifying Kemp for failing to join his attempt to overturn Biden’s win there.

 

[Ghazi52]

New fears that Trump threatens democracy​

The possibility of a Trump return to power is especially ominous for many Americans because he has vowed to wage a second term of “retribution” and is threatening to jail his political opponents.

Yet Trump’s strongman instincts are exactly what makes him attractive to many Republican voters whom he has convinced the Biden administration has weaponized justice against him. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims, even if some of the prosecutors in several of his criminal and civil cases, notably in Georgia and New York, were political figures who previously criticized the former president. Still, all of Trump’s criminal charges emerged from grand juries or genuine legal processes. And he was judged by a jury of his peers, like any other citizen, when convicted in a Manhattan trial arising from a hush money payment to an adult film actress.

As well as the federal election case, the ex-president is facing a similar one in Georgia based on racketeering statutes. A Trump-appointed judge threw out another Smith prosecution — over Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Florida club — although the special counsel is appealing her decision.

 

[Ghazi52]

Smith details a devastating story – but Trump has so far forestalled a trial​

In his latest filing to district court in Washington, Smith accused the ex-president of trying to overturn legitimate election results in seven states that he lost. The former president, who has pleaded not guilty in this and all criminal cases against him, is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

 

[Ghazi52]

Legal expert says one quote from Jack Smith in filing sums up his case against Trump
02:19 - Source: CNN

In such a toxic political environment, the special counsel was bound to encounter claims he was motivated by partisanship since, despite his nominal independence, he operates under the auspices of Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland. But a failure to prosecute the ex-president, who escaped political accountability when Republican senators declined to convict him in his second impeachment trial, would have created a precedent that might convince a future president to try to ignore an election loss.

 

[Ghazi52]

While Smith must still convince a jury that Trump broke the law, the historic facts are not in dispute.

The former president refused to accept the result of the 2020 election that he lost. His cases alleging fraud — often lacking evidence — were thrown out by multiple judges and even by the Supreme Court. He called a crowd to Washington and incited his supporters, who smashed their way into the Capitol and beat up police officers. The former president has hailed those who tried to block the electoral certification as heroes and has pledged to pardon them if he returns to power. His actions did not just represent a threat to the sacred American principle of peaceful transfers of power between presidents. They shattered trust among millions of Americans in the legal and electoral system.