Crime and Punishment

People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump

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On May 30, 2024, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsified business records that allegedly abetted crime(s) unstated in the March 30, 2023 indictment. The jury was instructed to choose between three candidates for the other crime; their choices were not disclosed in the conviction. During the course of the trial, legal experts have struggled to deduce the nature of the underlying crime. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg played his cards close to the vest; as CNN analyst and Bragg’s former colleague Elie Honig stated:

Inexcusably, the DA refused to specify what those unlawful means actually were — and the judge declined to force them to pony up — until right before closing arguments. So much for the constitutional obligation to provide notice to the defendant of the accusations against him in advance of trial. (This, folks, is what indictments are for.)

Pieces to this puzzle are scattered about the Internet address in bits and pieces. This is my attempt to pull those sources together to adequately outline the main issues of the case.

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New Year’s in San Salvador

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This was an amazing thing to see. Salvadorans seem happy and optimistic. A few years ago it was like: Don’t go to this place; don’t go to that place; you can go to this tourist place, it’s safe. Everything was either off-limits or a walled garden. Someone I know was robbed at gunpoint of her cellphone while sitting in her car with the window down and having a conversation. Everyone says she was lucky.

Now it’s a different country. There is still crime but you can go almost anywhere. The murder rate, once sky-high, is low by US standards. The downtown was dilapidated and dangerous. Now it’s being renovated, bustling, a nice place to walk around.

It’s all because, almost by chance, Salvadorans elected a president who was serious about stopping the gangs that were responsible for most of the crime, and politically skilled and lucky enough (very) to pull it off.

National turnarounds can happen. El Salvador, maybe Argentina, maybe the USA. Europe looks in a bad way, reminiscent of the late 1970s before Reagan and Thatcher. Of course this time is different, it’s worse this time, etc. But this time is always different, and thus rarely different at all: trends, including bad trends, don’t go on forever. Here’s hoping.

January 6th and the Dog That Didn’t Bark

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I would like to add another dimension to Alan’s post regarding January 6th by focusing on the intelligence analysis and decision-making by various government agencies prior to that day.

There has been a lot of ink spilled by the old legacy press regarding the DOJ Inspector General’s (IG) report that the FBI had 26 informants on the ground during Jan. 6. Some commentators have seized upon a particular finding in the report, that there were no FBI agents physically present within the crowd that day, as definitive proof against broader theories of FBI involvement.

Let’s leave aside whether the scope of the report could adequately cover all of the FBI’s activities or even how a single data point (lack of FBI agents on the ground) is used to dismiss a complex web of questions in order to reach simplistic conclusions.

Instead let’s focus on something more nuanced concerning potential intelligence gathering, informants, and other forms of involvement that preceded the events of that day.

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Investigations To-Do List

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Regarding my previous post, I want J6 investigations to determine the numbers that engaged in the following:

  1. Attacked the defensive perimeter between the Capitol grounds and the area of the permitted Capitol protest
  2. Of those cited above, those who did and did not enter the Capitol grounds, and those who did and did not enter the Capitol building
  3. Engaged in assault to gain access to the Capitol building itself, or to areas within
  4. Other assaults by civilians
  5. Engaged in vandalism to gain access to the Capitol building or to areas within
  6. Other vandalism
  7. Entered the Capitol through unattended doorway (e.g. Chansley and his entourage)
  8. Entered the capitol through attended doorway with permission
  9. Accessed the Capitol grounds by climbing the west wall
  10. Of those cited above, those who did and did not enter the Capitol building (my own impression is that most were content to stay outside)
  11. Attempted to approach lawmakers while inside Capitol
  12. Did not attempt to approach lawmakers while inside Capitol
  13. All convictions of nonviolent persons who were never on Capitol grounds
  14. Capitol defenders lobbing tear gas canisters into the area of the permitted Capitol protest
  15. Capitol defenders lobbing tear gas elsewhere
  16. Assaults by non-civilians not involving tear gas

And now, on to other investigations the Trump administration or other parties should undertake.

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The FBI, Politics, and the Administrative State

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Timothy Carney writes:

”While President-elect Donald Trump drives out FBI Director Christopher Wray, Trump’s critics have taken to the airwaves, suggesting that the federal law enforcement agency should be beyond the reach of politicians. They posit a fourth branch of government outside of the executive branch and lean on the idea of a 10-year term for the director to suggest the bureau has always and should be run immune to the demands of elected officials.”

Reading this, two things come to mind.

In regard to politics…

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