Former President Donald Trump Indicted By New York Grand Jury

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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31 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    Holy cow!

    Newsrooms rejoice!Report

  2. Burt Likko says:

    Welp.

    This room used to have oxygen in it.Report

  3. InMD says:

    I guess we see what happens. My understanding is of the investigations that could lead to charges this will he the hardest to prove. If any actually get him my money is still on Georgia.Report

  4. Pinky says:

    “The power to ignore him was within you the whole time.”Report

  5. Dark Matter says:

    BhahahahaReport

  6. Chip Daniels says:

    John Cole over at Balloon Juice has a good take, in saying that the funniest part is he didn’t even need to do the payoffs.
    80% of the Republican base knows he banged a porn star while married, is perfectly comfortable knowing it, and would happily gather the kids round the tee vee to watch him do it again on pay per view and will crawl over broken glass to vote for him in 2024.

    He is definitely going to be the 2024 Republican nominee.Report

    • Philip H in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      Unless he’s convicted by then.Report

    • Damon in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      60 Minutes did a story on this….iirc….Donald invited her up to his hotel room for dinner, and after dinner, he walked into the bedroom. She followed, with a certain amount of apprehension, but still slept with him.

      He assumed the sale. She went along. Of all the crappy stuff that he’s done, nailing her is kinda far down the list….but hey, it’s Trump, and we must feed the Trump haters with any red meat we can…Report

      • Philip H in reply to Damon says:

        Its not the nailing. Its the potentially using campaign funds to pay for her silence about and then perhaps trying to write it off on his business taxes.Report

        • Damon in reply to Philip H says:

          Talk to me after an audit of every single candidate for president has been done. I’m sure you can find enough “legal shenanigans” to fill an ocean. You can accuse him of being inept, but I doubt there’s much difference between him and all the rest.Report

  7. Saul Degraw says:

    Matt Gaetz blames the indictment on the Sorosification of the Criminal Justice System: https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1641634342714720259?s=20Report

  8. Philip H says:

    I have seen at least one report the indictment might be about business practices, in that he may have tried to write off the payments as a business expense. If so that will be a lot easier to prove and to convict.

    Having said that I hope the DoJ and Georgia drop their indictments soon. He will have a tough time campaigning and running three trial defenses simultaneously.Report

    • Dark Matter in reply to Philip H says:

      RE: business expense

      He did this, it wouldn’t be hard to prove it, however it’s a misdemeanor… unless it can be linked to a felony. Illegal campaign donations would be a felony.

      The problems with that are extensive and make me wonder if the DA is just trying to get his name in the paper.

      1) It’s not clear that a State DA can even charge someone with illegal federal campaign donations.
      2) No one at a federal level has been interested in doing this, probably for good reason.
      3) We already tried doing this about twenty years ago on a more clear case and it didn’t work then.
      4) Claiming Trump wouldn’t have paid the bribe without the campaign is the case that needs to be made. Trump is a serial cheater on his wife and a serial cover it up by throwing money at it.
      5) Trump can/will claim (correctly) he’s not an expert in campaign donations and had no idea this was illegal.
      6) All of that is before the (likely) political motivations of this and the chances of one member of Trump’s fan club ending up on the jury.

      This is an impossible case to make.

      With the misdemeanor only, give him a thousand dollar fine and call it a win.Report

    • Saul Degraw in reply to Philip H says:

      There are apparently 64 counts so it is not just about Stormy DanielsReport

  9. Saul Degraw says:

    Telegram calls for a bloody civil war after Trump indictment: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9p9q/trump-indictment-civil-war-the-donaldReport

    • Chip Daniels in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      As is always the case, the question isn’t how many Republicans would take up weapons, but how many Republicans would stop them.

      Hint: How many Republicans want to ban the statue of David? Very few.
      How many Republicans will stop it from being banned?

      It rounds to zero.Report