Dear friends,
The verdict is in and it is unambiguous.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
Robert Reich highlighted how important it is to remember that a jury delivered this verdict, not a judge, not the Justice Department, and not a partisan institution.
Those jurors were not Democrats. They were not politicians. They were not people who had a bias against Trump. They were Americans.
Trump’s lawyers allowed them to become jurors because they showed no bias.
It’s this fact that will be the most damning to Trump’s narrative that he’s being hounded by the Biden administration and Democrats.
Biden should say nothing about the verdict. Democratic lawmakers should maintain a dignified silence.
Let the jury’s verdict speak for itself.
There has been undignified noise on the right, as numerous elected officials have carried on about “weaponization of our justice system.” Both the president and the former president have been fundraising on the verdict. The voters will issue our verdict on Election Day.
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams remarked that the verdict was “a moment for justice, but not celebration.” In a lengthy statement, he praised District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and commented on Trump as a perpetrator, rather than a victim:
In my role as Public Advocate, I have seen far too many wealthy and well-connected people circumvent justice while disenfranchised New Yorkers fall victim to injustice. Donald Trump is not a victim of anything but his own character and wrongdoing, and his victims are innumerable. . . .
Williams went on to talk about the undignified noise:
"There will be many who try to defend or excuse Trump – many of the same people notably silent about the five innocent Black teenagers he once condemned to death – but it is clear in this verdict . . . that he is entirely unfit to represent anyone."
For those too young to remember: Trump called for the death penalty for five young men — one of whom now serves in New York’s City Council — who were wrongfully convicted of the assault on a woman in Central Park in 1989. Those young men spent 13 years in prison before they were exonerated.
Assuming that Trump isn’t locked up prior to Election Day (and I believe that is a sound assumption), Florida law will allow him to vote even though he is a convicted felon; the law is different for those who are incarcerated.
“If a Floridian’s voting rights are restored in the state of conviction, they are restored under Florida law,” Blair Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center wrote in a post, noting that people without Trump’s legal resources are often confused by Florida’s complex rules.
I don’t think convicted felons should lose their voting rights, even if they are in prison. I do think they should be ineligible to run for president; sadly, the framers did not anticipate the need for such a qualification.
While we’re on the rule of law, let’s revisit the Supreme Court. Senate Democrats invited Chief Justice John Roberts to talk about the Court’s “ethics crisis,” but the Chief declined.
It remains our job to hold Supreme Court justices accountable to the law. Here’s the same action from yesterday. (Go back if you want the explication.) It involves phone calls AND you can leave messages, making it very quick.
Call on the US attorney for the District of Columbia and the Solicitor General to petition Supreme Court Justices to demand that Alito and Thomas recuse themselves from Jan 6 cases.
Another State Department employee, senior civil military adviser Stacy Gilbert, resigned after the Department issued what she called a “patently false” report that indicated that Israel was not responsible for blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.
Gilbert, a 20-year veteran of the state department who has worked in several war zones, said that report’s conclusion went against the overwhelming view of state department experts who were consulted on the report.
She said there was general agreement that while other factors impeded the flow of aid into Gaza at a time when famine has begun to take hold of its 2.3 million population – such as lack of security, caused by Hamas, Israeli military operations and the desperation of Palestinians to find food – it was clear that Israel was playing a role in limiting the amount of food and medical supplies crossing the border into Gaza.
Furthermore, she disagreed with the report’s conclusion that the use of US weapons was not linked to violations of international law. The US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits the US from supplying arms to nations that have blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Another US official, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAid), also resigned this week.
Alexander Smith said he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was cancelled at the last minute by USAid leadership last week.
Nine people have now resigned from the administration after publicly declaring their opposition to US policy in Gaza.
Tell the president that the US must take responsibility for our role in the war on Gaza and stop supplying the Israeli military.
Earlier this week, I was on a great call with folks from the Debt Collective. This powerful solidarity organization is working to bring us together to build a society in which all the good and necessary things — housing, education, healthcare — are available to all of us.
They share my passion for the public comment as a tool of liberation. We have until June 5 to let the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services know that our health care system is failing us because the giant corporations that run hospitals, provide insurance, and sell pharmaceuticals are permitted to operate without regard for human needs.
Let’s ask them to hold the corporations accountable. Tell a story when you submit your comment.
Please submit a comment to the FTC, DOJ, and HHS about the dangers of consolidation in health care. I made it easy!
with love,
L