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This is a useful story by @AaronBlake about how Trump's accusations vs President Obama follow a familiar pattern of Trump falsehood. http://washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/ … Yet there's another pattern they follow: the Trump/Bannon idea of "flooding the zone with shit." 1/x
Trump's own people regard him as a raving loonie whose words mean nothing. He can accuse Joe Scarborough of murder in Florida - or tell the world in the midst of a virulent pandemic that he doesn't believe in vaccination - and pro- Trump people shrug. Only words! 2/x
Responsible media feel they lack this option. So when Trump floods the zone with shit, they grab a net, pull on their wading boots, step ito the flood of sewage, and begin fishing out fecal segments for minute examination. 3/x
Here's another way. If today we must change the subject from Trump's brutally incompetent management of a deadly public health crisis - if today we are to talk about crime in high places - then let's talk about crime in high places. 4/x
In October 2019, @propublica painstakingly documented that the Trump Organization is almost certainly guilty of bank fraud, tax fraud, or very possibly both. Here's the story in case you have forgotten it. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-never-before-seen-trump-tax-documents-show-major-inconsistencies 5/x
In October 2018, a vast investigation by @nytimes accused the president and his family of a decades-long pattern of tax fraud and other crimes. Here's *that* story in case you have forgotten it. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html 6/x
As part of a settlement of New York State charges of charity fraud, the Trump family foundation went out of business at the end of 2018 - with Trump family members barred for extended periods from ever again serving on charitable boards. 7/x https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/nyregion/ny-ag-underwood-trump-foundation.html
Trump's last-minute $130,000 payoff to a porn actress almost certainly violated election laws. 8/x https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/09/new-evidence-the-stormy-daniels-payment-may-have-violated-election-law/
Fortunately for Trump, the penalty for the $130,000 payoff -and other crimes too - fell instead on Trumps long-time personal attorney. Michael Cohen pled guilty to what a federal judge called a "smorgasbord" of crimes for Trump's benefit. 9/x https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/michael-cohen-scheduled-to-be-sentenced-for-crimes-committed-while-working-for-trump/2018/12/11/57226ff2-fcbf-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html
We still don't know exactly why Trump's presidential campaign manager shared polling information with Russian intelligence. False statements and destruction of evidence defeated the Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign's Russia connection. 10/x
Still, the Trump campaign for president sent more its alumni to prison than any campaign since Richard Nixon's in 1972. Trump pal Roger Stone was convicted of lying to FBI to conceal his efforts to act as a conduit for the hack of Democratic emails. 11/x https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/trump-friend-roger-stone-sentenced-to-prison-for-wikileaks-lies.html
Did I mention yet Trump's decades-long practice of flouting labor laws by hiring illegal immigrants, almost certainly knowingly? 12/x https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/5-questions-about-president-trumps-use-of-undocumented-workers/2019/12/04/29439928-16a2-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html
Sexual assault is also a crime. https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12 13/x
Amazingly enough, it is *not* a crime for a president to direct millions of dollars of federal payments to his own business. But Trump did that too, plus even more in GOP party funds and 2016 inaugural committee funds. Just one story among dozens https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12 14/x
It is theoretically illegal for a president to accept emoluments from foreign governments, but that clause of the constitution is not self-executing. The US lacks laws to police Trump's global buckraking. 15/x
People do remember that Donald Trump was impeached, right? The high crime in that case was attempted extortion of a foreign government to pervert a US election. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/06/politics/ukraine-impeachment-unanswered-questions/index.html 16/x
We know about the high crimes that led to the impeachment because of one brave whistleblower inside the government. Trump illegally retaliated against the whistleblower, then for good measure tried to incite murder. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-26/trump-at-private-breakfast-who-gave-the-whistle-blower-the-information-because-thats-almost-a-spy 17/x
Since the impeachment, Trump has further retaliated against all those who truthfully testified to Congress about his high crimes - and threatened them with forms of retaliation that would be illegal if attempted. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/11/trump-military-disciplinary-action-vindman-114161 18/x
Trump began his presidency by settling one lawsuit for fraud. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/10/trump-university-settlement-judge-finalized/502387002/ 19/x
Trump looks likely to end his presidency settling another lawsuit for fraud, this involving a multilevel marketing scheme that bilked small investors during the financial crisis a decade ago. 20/x https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/07/25/judge-rules-trump-can-be-sued-for-marketing-scheme-fraud/#7f9e0f1e6395
In between, it's been (in somebody else's phrase) almost a-Watergate-a-day, almost every day, for closing now on 4 years. In the end, Trump distracted the country from his scandals only by crashing the economy into the worst disaster since 1932. 21/x
The question for all of us who write about this presidency, comment on it, report on it: Can we remember to keep the main thing, the main thing? Or will we be duped again as Trump once more floods the zone with shit, into acting as Trump's turd-catchers? - END -
