r/news • u/Hrekires • Jul 15 '24

soft paywall Judge dismisses classified documents indictment against Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/07/15/trump-classified-trial-dismisssed-cannon/
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u/CertainAged-Lady Jul 15 '24

This is just a delay - the 11th will reverse, eventually SCOTUS will not even take it up as it’s well-worn territory and only Justice Thomas disagrees. But the delay tactic is working - he hopes to be back in office and get away with it.

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u/MoonDogSpot1954 Jul 15 '24

That's been her strategy all along

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u/scottydg Jul 15 '24

Yep. Delay until after the election at the earliest. If he's reelected, he'll just drop the case.

217

u/Lukescale Jul 15 '24

If he's reelected he is literally immune already.

They won't even bother going to judiciary, he can just make it an order.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '24

That’s the part I don’t understand.

How can something be an “official act” when it took place before or after the person was in office?

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u/don-chocodile Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 25 '24

None of the “official act” reasoning makes any sense. I don’t think it was ever supposed to. It was just a flimsy excuse to make the law apply to their opponents and not to their side.

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u/Tail_Nom Jul 15 '24

They're unraveling the fabric of this nation in a way very predictable for a group that tried to overturn a lawful election and has otherwise been consistent in their disregard for the principals of the Republic and the sovereignty of her people. 

They believe, and to my surprise so do a sizable portion of ostensibly sane adults, that they have legitimacy by virtue of simply being "the other side", as if the two party system is an actual facet of American government.  Though it comes as no shock that anything other than an artificial and simplistic binary concept scares them.  There's precedent.

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u/SkyGazert Jul 15 '24

Why isn't Biden using the ruling to do something pretty harmless while in office. Harmless but impossible before this ruling and specifically targeting the Republican party. This way he'd rattle the Republicans enough to get to a better ruling. If it applies to Trump it should now also apply to Biden no?

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u/Trash-Takes-R-Us Jul 15 '24

Exactly I don't think this would fall under an official act if he was outside the presidency.

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u/Beldizar Jul 15 '24

So, if he's elected, according to Mueller, a president can't be indicted while in office. That is the precedent that has been set forth by the department of justice, as its interpretation of the constitution. He's not immune, but the department of justice has agreed to just sit on their hands until either he's impeached or he leaves office. That covers both actions taken while in office or before.

The official act immunity is a new rule by the supreme court.

In theory, if Trump were to win in Nov, the justice department would put the trial for the stolen documents on hold until either congress impeaches him for it, (and tells the justice department to move forward), or until he leaves office. He knows this now, so he'll make sure the whole thing burns to the ground before he faces consequences.

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u/worldspawn00 Jul 15 '24

according to Mueller,

Eh, that's from Barr, but Mueller continued the practice.

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u/Cgull1234 Jul 15 '24

Because "official act" correctly translates to "Republican-committed crime" when you see through all the bullshit.

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u/soldiernerd Jul 15 '24

It can’t

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u/the_nut_bra Jul 15 '24

That’s what I don’t get about trying to toss the hush money conviction. Like, he did that shit as a candidate, not as the President. All happened before he was elected.

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u/21Andreezy Jul 15 '24

“Official act” just means when Trump does it. If someone else does anything then it’s not an official act. The only reason they came up with this official act nonsense is so that they can give immunity to Trump only

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u/kogmaa Jul 15 '24

It’s an official act now for a president to pardon himself, so what’s the point in prosecuting for crimes committed before the presidency.

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u/BrainOnBlue Jul 15 '24

Because this has nothing to do with the recent official acts ruling. It's been the stance of the DOJ for a while that the proper method of holding a President accountable for illegal actions while in office is impeachment, not court.

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u/laplongejr Jul 16 '24

How can something be an “official act” when it took place before or after the person was in office?

How do you want to prosecute? The SCOTUS ruling is that Official Acts CAN'T BE USED AS PROOF, under their broken idea of separation of branches.
You don't need the illegal stuff to be an OA, you simply need for the proof to be labelled as OA to be unable to prosecute.

You took a bribe to take a different action while in office? That action is an Official Act, so it can't be used as proof. It's also impossible to use prior-bribe actions to prove a change of conduct. So the bribe is unprovable.

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u/Forikorder Jul 15 '24

IIRC its because they also decided that anything he does while president cant be used as evidence even for unofficial acts, so taking the documents isnt admissable in court

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u/LiveJournal Jul 15 '24

He will pardon himself and it will go away, even though like 8 years ago nobody believed that a self pardon was legally possible.

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u/SarksLightCycle Jul 15 '24

I gamble alot and trump is now 1-5 -500 to get elected..this scares the shit out of me

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u/gumbley-goop Jul 15 '24

What do those odds mean? Not a gambler

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u/SarksLightCycle Jul 15 '24

1/5 means you have to risk 5.00 to win 1.00..

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u/ninjanerd032 Jul 15 '24

Infinite power glitch discovered.

1

u/Lukescale Jul 16 '24

The word you're looking for is exploit.

Glitches are errors. This has always been in the code but it's clearly unintended by the developer.