Voting For A Mobster?

Way back in 2016, Donald Trump declared at an Ohio campaign rally that only .... 

John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi (L)
Takes The Fifth 1957

.... "The mob takes the Fifth."

At the time he was targeting Hilary Clinton, after some of her former staffers had exercised their right to silence during a congressional inquiry ... she had invoked no such right herself, and answered questions.

The Fifth Amendment is, for those of you unsure as to its content, is the right to refuse to answer questions under oath, if the answers to those questions may incriminate you in a court of law. In other words to stop you self-incriminating yourself, and which thus protects you from being compelled to be a witness against yourself in a criminal case.

However during a round of four hours of intermittent questions in August 2022, under a New York state investigation into his family's business practices (they accuse the Trump Organization of misleading authorities about the value of its assets in order to get favourable loans and tax breaks), Mr Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment to every question posed ..... Hmm, what does that infer?

Trump, as is his way, had tried to avoid giving a deposition under oath by various legal means, including suing New York Attorney General Letitia James, but a New York Supreme Court judge said the investigation had uncovered "copious evidence of possible financial fraud" and ruled against Trump and two of his children. So after refusing to answer any questions, what did he say to the press? .... "I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution."

However even this blustering man, was not so shamefaced as to ignore his earlier jibes about 'the Mob', so he indirectly addressed this as such, in his press statement "I once asked, if you're innocent why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? Now I know the answer to that question" ... no apology ('The Donald' never admits to mistakes or apologises), just an acknowledgement that its not only 'the Mob' who feel compelled to use this tactic to save their asses.

Similarly, in the federal case of his taking *classified official documents from the Oval Office when he left, and which resulted in an FBI raid on his Florida estate in August 2022, he's suggested to the world that he has no idea why, or even what the FBI took ... this despite the fact that he was in fact served a copy of both the warrant, and the full inventory of material removed from his property.

In fact in February 2022, the National Archives said it had retrieved 15 boxes of papers from his Mar-a-Lago estate which its claimed Mr Trump should have turned over when he left the White House, and which it confirmed to Congress included "items marked as classified national security information". So its fair to say that the August 2022 FBI raid was related to that little matter of a classified national security breach by the ex-President.

He of course has gone to court to try and stop the FBI from reading/reviewing the document, and claims that he 'declassified' them as he was leaving office (something that many jurists say he has no legal right to decide without consultation).

E Jean Carroll Then, And Recently

But, this is the tip of his many legal battles, there is for instance the long and almost (but not quite) forgotten sexual assault/rape claim made by columnist E Jean Carroll stemming back to an incident in a Department store in the 1990's - Trump denied it ever happened. Ms Carroll sued for his calling her a liar, and the usual Trump court battles to stop her action have now all failed .... a trial date has now been set for the 25th of April this year. But Trumps lawyers have tried to prevent depositions from at least two other sexual assault victims Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica LeedsNatasha (proving he has a history of sexual assaults), from being allowed.

Enough? Not a bit of it .... the list continues: Then there are a number of lawsuits from Capitol Hill police officers who have accused Mr Trump of inciting the 6 January attack in which they suffered injuries .... Oh, and wait, there's a lawsuit by Trump's niece, Mary Trump, who says her uncle and his siblings allegedly cheated her out of inheritance (Trump has, as usual, sought to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in a state court in New York City). 

Finally, Mr Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who alleges his old boss sent him back to prison in retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan in which he characterizes Trump as "a cheat, a mobster, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man." ... that was his ex-lawyer!

Its hard to credit that there are still around half the US population, apparently at least prepared to consider, handing this man the Presidency of the United States for another four years if he runs again (if he can) .... that they actually believe his narrative that he is being 'persecuted'.

Of course he has already influenced the US Mid-Terms last year, as most Republican candidates declared themselves as supporting his false claims that the last Presidential election was stolen .... so those that were elected Mid-term are largely in his camp.

I can think of no man in history who has brought the Office of the Presidency of the United States to such a level ..... Only in America!

*Addendum: It appears that even Vice Presidents can "inadvertently" play fast and loose with classified documents, as raids on President Bidens home also found some classified documents.