A federal grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders from the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The declination is a rebuke of the administration’s efforts to paint the six lawmakers — all of whom served in either the military or intelligence services — as dangerously undermining the president’s authority as commander in chief.
My mind was expecting the worst and missed the word “declines” and I was about to type a rage comment.
What a relief to reread the headline
Holy wow. You can indict a ham sandwich. A grand jury indictment is literally the prosecutor giving their side of the story, no representatives of the defendant present. If they refused to induct here… it’s REAL flimsy.
It was always just for headlines that dipshit MAGAts won’t follow up on.
In their fantasy land these Dems were found guilty and punished by Daddy Trump, because that’s what the one line they read about the subject implied was going to happen.
In b4 musk and trump tweet that,
A so called “grand” jury is letting a bunch of treasonous terrorists go free! This is an undermining of democracy and the will of the people! Something must be done NOW!
Remember the Sandwich Thrower? Some lawyer went out to Subway for lunch, and on the way back to the office, he sees an ICE raid happening. He gets incensed by the immorality he witnesses, and threw his sandwich at an ICE Ape, and all Hell broke loose.
They tried to indict the lawyer with a Grand Jury three times,.and they rejected it every time. So they charged him under a different statute that didn’t require a Grand Jury, and got him in a courtroom.
The ICE Ape testified about how the sandwich burst open, smearing mustard and onions across his body armor. He had to go the rest of the day smelling mustard and onions, and it caused pTSD that is triggered whenever he smells mustard or onions.
The defendant’s lawyer let the ICE Ape sell it really good on cross-examination, and then displayed a picture of the offending sandwich, in a photo taken AFTER the incident, when police had been called to process the crime scene. The photo showed that the sandwich was on the ground, STILL tightly wrapped. That Subway Sandwich Artist earned Employee of the Month with that professionally tight wrapping, which proved that the ICE Ape LIED about EVERYTHING.
The Jury found the defendant not guilty nearly immediately. The ICE Ape was not charged with perjury.
This was a case that was lost by a mere photograph. The prosecution should have anticipated that the defense would show that photo, and completely contradict their case, but they didn’t, because they are astonishingly incompetent, or at least they are being forced to prosecute cases they KNOW are incompetent. None of their retaliation lawsuits are working out for them. Judges know what’s up, and they don’t like being expected to be just a tool for MAGA’s disgusting retribution.
IF this case ever sees the inside of a courtroom, they will also be found not guilty.
So this is a case of a Grand Jury not indicting a ham sandwich?
It’s a case of a MAGA prosecutor that’s so inept, they can’t even indict a ham sandwich.
ecause they are astonishingly incompetent, or at least they are being forced to prosecute cases they KNOW are incompetent. None of their retaliation lawsuits are working out for them
Which is why there was at least one trump DOJ attorney that shrugged their shoulders and told the judge in a different case to hold then in contempt or put them in jail, cause they were sick of doing what they were doing under the DoJ.
That’s not at all why they asked the judge to hold them in contempt.
They were making a tongue in cheek remark about needing rest from having to work so hard to get ICE to comply with court orders.
If I remember their statement correctly, they said it took threats to quit just to get ICE officials to respond to questions or requests from the court. Not obey, just to acknowledge the court.
It’s rare for grand juries to decline to approve charges sought by prosecutors, but such rejections have occurred more frequently in recent months as the administration has pursued legally dubious cases.
Yes. In other words, The Trump Administration is using bullying tactics in a court of law and lying, but the world can see that. And as such, the rare phenomenon of grand juries to decline indictments becomes…
commonplace.
The morons couldn’t even get sandwich guy.
(EDIT: grammar)
Note that grand juries typically only hear the prosecution’s arguments. The prosecution has immense power in grand juries as a result. That’s why there’s a famous saying that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.
The fact that so many grand juries have declined to indict major cases brought by the DOJ is a major embarrassment. It means that even an average person off the street can immediately see through their bullshit.
Either A people are seeing through their bullshit or B people hate the admin so much they are refusing to indict on that alone.
Both are good
It is also possible the (lower level) prosecutors are not really on-board with Trumps BS and are not really trying to convince the grand juries. Just doing the bare minimum to keep their job.
The Trump Administration is not bringing their best.
Or maybe the best they have happen to be absolutely useless.
It’s sad that I was worried how this would go.
I almost feel relief, but after all the bastids from Bondi to Patel to Vance are gone… Well I’ll still feel anxious AF, but I will be less anxious
Right?! Until there is substantial, and meaningful, reform, we’re still screwed.
I really wish these articles would include how many tax payer dollars went to trying to prosecute people for literally telling people to not break the law.
If I was a gamble on everything type of person, I’d be betting money on the DOJ trying to indict them anyway.
I believe they have the option of just convening another grand jury.
An option they have been exercising a lot recently. Only to often get the case dismissed right away once they do manage to indict.
They usually give up after the second failed attempt.
Some genius had the foresight to ask…“What law has been broken and what is the evidence?”. It was all over for trumps revenge right then and there. Bring back old school common sense justice!! Also, do something with your bipartisan supreme court. They should be above the partisan bullshit but it appears some can be bought and others have very right wing “republican” ideals. That is the head of the snake right there.
Americans still believe that they live in a democratic, humane and civilized society. That the USA is the embodiment of freedom, justice, democracy. Some believe that it was so but now Trump has changed it.
The truth is that the USA has never been that, Trump simply does not pretend like his predecessors. For example, in 1941 Japan bombed a US military base and destroyed warships. What did the USA do? First they made camps and imprisoned all the Japanese (including women and children) who lived in the USA who had nothing to do with the Japanese attack. They were Japanese and that was their sin. Then without a shred of remorse they dropped two nuclear bombs on cities where civilians (children) live and killed 200,000 to 300,000 people, almost all civilians, women, children. Those crimes against humanity were not committed by Trump but by Roosevelt and Truman.
The problem in the US is much deeper than Trump/MAGA vs. Liberals/Woke and is not from now or 5-10 years ago. Those who think it can’t get any worse are wrong. There will be rigged elections, banned opposition, imprisonment of all who speak out against Trump/MAGA. The US will become Russia, a state controlled by oligarchs. Someone will think that it’s lucky that Trump is 79 years old and can’t last long, but if they manage to rig/annul the next elections this (and even worse) will last at least another 20 years regardless of whether Trump is in power or not, there is always a successor.
Every dictator came to power through elections (Mussolini, Hitler, Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chávez, …), not one of them gave up power through elections. They will do anything to stay in power, absolutely anything, there is no law/morality that would stop them.
While I get your point I feel like using the nukes as an example is bad. Mostly because it was the least bad option for dealing with Japan during WW2, since it’s almost guaranteed that leaving them be after pushing them out of the mainland would be resulted in them trying again later, and doing an invasion of the Japanese home islands would’ve been a butchery comparable to few others. Japan was unlikely to surrender at all unless total annihilation was guaranteed, that’s the promise of the nukes one to show off another to show the promise.
Fact of the matter is the war on the Pacific was a shit show. For example Japanese POWs were rather rare because they had a nasty tendency towards faking surrender, injury, or death and then trying to kill medics or GIs, so they were simply killed because it was the most likely end result regardless. Another factor is that Japanese civilians on newly occupied islands had a tendency of killing themselves or turning into guerrilla. And then finally the US military hasn’t produced purple heart metals since WW2 since they produced so many in anticipation of an invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Point is while using the imprisonment of Japanese Americans is a prime example of the feds fucking up and doing horrific shit. The nuking of Japan itself isn’t, it was a way of getting the Japanese to just stop. They probably would’ve wiped themselves out rather than surrender without the nukes or at the very least bleed themselves down pretty thoroughly. The Japanese Imperial Cult was fucking psychotic and really needs to be factored in before you talk about anything done during WW2 against the Japanese.
Good points. After reading Flyboys, my perspective on the situation in the Pacific and toward wartime Japan shifted dramatically.
Still wish there could have been a viable alternative to targeting civilians, of any nation.
Sadly not every war can be the Western front of WW1 where civilians basically didn’t factor in.
This is such a stupid take. Every time I hear someone say we HAD to drop nuclear bombs on them to make them stop. Its such horse shit. It was a show of force to show the USSR what the U.S. was capable of. Nothing more.
