Former President Donald Trump ramped up his threats to prosecute President Joe Biden if he wins another term in the White House.An appeals court rejected Trump’s claims of immunity in the federal election subversion case in the District of Columbia, although he intends to press the same argument in …

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    “If a President does not have Immunity, the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

    Leave it to Donnie to misrepresent what the ruling means. Presidents still enjoy lots of immunity, especially where it pertains to their “color of office” duties. They just don’t have total immunity from anything and everything, especially where it doesn’t pertain to their duties. We do not have monarchs or dictators.

    So no, you can’t just shoot someone on Fifth Ave and declare Presidential Immunity to avoid justice, and you can’t just steal government secrets to use as business leverage, and you can’t make phone calls to heads of states to “find votes,” and you can’t incite an insurrection and claim plausible deniability.

    Eat shit. I hope you get no sleep because of these rulings.

    • gibmiser@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yeah but what if the person on fifth Avenue was literally holding the original constitution and threatening to tear it in half? Would presidential immunity apply then?

        • Gork@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          According to their logic, it is ok if you are famous. Clearly we should base our jurisprudence on fame then. /s

        • Tremble
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          10 months ago

          In that case they let you do it because you’re famous

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        if the person on fifth Avenue was literally holding the original constitution and threatening to tear it in half?

        That would be him committing be suicide then

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Ah yes, the age old “if you are facing felonies, threaten to blackmail the US President trick.”

    I’m sure that will work.

      • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        You said when I went to make popcorn that you didn’t want any, so I only made enough for myself. I’ll go make more though 🍿🍿.

        You want cheese powder on it?

          • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Wait…you can do that? I thought that was a chips-only-condiment-combo. Blowing my fucking mind right now chief.

            • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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              10 months ago

              Keep the requests coming, I want to learn more popcorn secrets. I’m a butter and salt person. I grind my salt in my coffee grinder to a fine powder though and use that, I get better coverage.

            • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              10 months ago

              The best popcorn is the popcorn you add weird toppings to.

              Garlic and onion is my favorite, but you can use basically any seasoning shaker. I use a spray bottle of distilled water, spray on, add flavor shaker, done.

              Super low calorie option that still tastes great. You can use oil if you want but it really doesn’t add much when you have actual flavors.

              You can do the same thing with sweet flavors if you want, cinnamon sugar or drink powder mixed with sugar make for great sweet popcorns.

        • ForestOrca@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Nutritional yeast, tamari, and red chili powder for me, please. I thought I didn’t want any but it smells so good, and this is getting entertaining.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Can we just, lock him up already?

    Please? Or at the very least break his jaw so he has to shut the fuck up while it heals?

    We all know he’s guilty. We all know he’s a treasonous insurrectionist. We all know he belongs in prison.

    We all know that any normal person would have been hanged by now.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Lmao

    He’s blackmailing him with blackmail?

    That’s some real 4d chess, man.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Just this whole attitude towards the thing shows how crooked he is. As far as I can tell, Biden has tried to remain hands-off from the Justice Dept and just let them do their own thing to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. And I believe that’s more or less been how most Presidents have tried to behave since maybe Nixon EXCEPT for Trump, who seems to view it as his own personal legal hit-squad, to be used for just litigating people he doesn’t like, instead of… y’know, administering justice. He completely misunderstands the purpose of government and really should not be allowed anywhere near the position. He should be rotting in prison now, he’s a complete shitstain on history.

  • billwashere@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Biden should tell him he’ll pardon him if he drops out and then not pardon him.

    Biden would probably get charged with murder because that would surely cause the inevitable aneurysm.

  • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Headline is technically true but this is a non story.
    Trump is mad about the appeals court ruling that he isn’t immune from prosecution and is lashing out.

    • Imgonnatrythis
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      10 months ago

      Everything about this turd is a non story except for the fact that he incited an insurrection on the US capital for which he has not been committed to prison or executed for. Now that’s a story.

      • ferralcat@monyet.cc
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        10 months ago

        Not just the attack, but he actively tried to secretly replace electors in states as well. We literally know he tried to cheat and are like, “it’s fine”.

      • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No. I’d say his willful mishandling of a pandemic outbreak, for which he’ll never be punished, is a pretty fucking horrific story. Way worse than his little temper tantrum at the Capitol.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.socialOP
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    10 months ago

    That’s going to be really hard to do while you are rotting in custody, Donnie.

    • Philo@discuss.online
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      10 months ago

      Custody?! In prison? Nah Trumpy boy is never gonna set foot in prison. Guantanamo is never gonna close though…

      • Jaysyn@kbin.socialOP
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        10 months ago

        I said custody and not prison for a reason.

        He’ll be on house arrest in a shitty barrack on a military base somewhere, just like Nixon’s lawyer.

          • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I feel like the absolute harshest punishment I can reasonably see him ever facing is nothing more than a ban from holding public office.

            That’s it.

            Maaaaaybe a few months of house arrest at Mar a Lago. Maybe punitive fines.

            No prison time. Nothing that will affect his wealth. Nothing that will deplatform him as the grotesque figurehead of American conservatism until he dies.

            I’m confident he will play kingmaker for that half of the American political landscape until he’s dead.

            • Jaysyn@kbin.socialOP
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              10 months ago

              Nah, the feds know where those missing top-secret files ended up at by now. The DoJ doesn’t spend this amount of time, money & manpower to hand out a slap on the wrist.

              Nothing that will affect his wealth.

              New York is quite literally about to make Trump insolvent.

                • Jaysyn@kbin.socialOP
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                  10 months ago

                  Yes, literally. It would have been last week, but Judge Engorgon decided he needed to tack on more zeros since he discovered Trump’s financial controller committed perjury in his court room.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    If I threatened Biden with a dirty look, I’d have secret service at my door. But if Trump says he’ll commit a crime, no one does anything.

    This really encourages me to want to not obey laws.

    • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 months ago

      It just means you’re accepting that there are different codes of law for different social strata, which is both unjust and contrary to the propaganda you were taught in school.

    • hakunawazo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      To be fair, as an ex-president he has probably already 24/7 the secret service at his door. But I’m hoping that he someday has correctional officers at his (new) door.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Imagine if tiny d won the electoral college, but not the majority (again) and if the majority of the country threw an insurrection like the teabaggers did. How could the teabaggers complain?

  • ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Difference between most Democrats and Republicans is that if a Democrat committed a crime another Democrat would want them prosecuted, same if a Republican committed a crime. Whereas if a Republican committed a crime other Republicans want the charges dropped and if a Democrat committed a crime they’d be calling for the death penalty.

    Crimes are bad, mmm-kay. Doesn’t matter what side you’re on, mmm-kay. So, let’s not be bad, mmm-kay.

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      People give my “deep blue” state crap for corruption because so many of our politicians have been sent to prison for it.

      … Ignoring that they’re in prison because we actually investigate and charge our politicians for corruption, unlike their corrupt as hell states where those people are protected.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Not a lawyer and not sure if this applies here, but the threat of blackmail itself seems like it should constitute a crime:

    18 U.S.C. § 873 (2021)
    §873. Blackmail
    

    Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

    • bassad@jlai.lu
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      10 months ago

      Yeah that was what I was thinking : in America, land of the lawyers, can’t you sue someone who make such important threats ?

      • paddirn@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You would think so, but apparently Trump had it right when he said he could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and not get in trouble. The laws never seem to get applied to him as they would anyone else in the country.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      the threat of blackmail itself seems like it should constitute a crime

      My guy has been indicted 91 times and counting. What’s one more?