Donald Trump accused of committing "massive crime" with reported phone call

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 849 points – Donald Trump accused of committing "massive crime" with reported phone call
newsweek.com

Donald Trump has been accused of violating federal law by allegedly calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ceasefire deal the U.S. is helping negotiate between Israel and Hamas.

The former president allegedly made the call on August 14, according to Axios, which cited two unnamed "U.S. sources who were briefed on the call."

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If Trump did make the call, he would potentially be breaking the law as the Logan Act, enacted in 1799, prohibits unauthorized private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the U.S.

American Muckrakers, an organization that states it seeks to hold politicians and officials accountable, has filed a request with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State.

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Republicans and ratfucking peace talks during an inhumane war of territorial expansion to make their political opponent look bad. Name a more iconic duo.

That's completely unfair, you couldn't name one two seven...let's go with seven other examples of that!

/s

I'm pretty sure Bush junior could fulfill your list all by himself.

Until I see a picture of Trump behind bars I will continue to assume he will continue to get away with everything forever.

The only truthful thing he has ever said was "I could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose supporters."

Implied is that he also wouldn't get arrested for it.

Tie his bullshit with the recent articles about the pathetic FBI being afraid to go after Republican domestic terrorists and it's just beyond absurd. "Home of the brave" my ass.

Worth pointing out how much this is also a republican thing. Nixon did it. Reagan pretty much did the same to sour Carter.

H.W. Bush agreed.(?) The world shrugged…

People said he wouldn't be prosecuted, and he was.

People said he wouldn't get indicted, and he was.

People said he wouldn't get convicted, and he was.

Now we're waiting on sentencing and carrying out that sentence, and people say that won't happen, either.

The justice system is slow, especially at the federal level. Some of that is due to deliberation, some of that is due to federal judges having too high of a case load, and some of that is due to the fact that Trump is a former President, and prosecutors and judges have to handle that very carefully. If acquitted, that's it, prosecutors rarely have grounds for appeal. They need to walk into the court room with an airtight case.

If you follow other federal cases, this kind of timeline is completely expected.

Except for Judge Cannon. She's just blatantly pulling things in Trump's favor. The rest are doing their job. Edit: oh, and the Supreme Court, of course. They just fucked a lot of things.

Except for Judge Cannon (...) Edit: oh, and the Supreme Court, of course.

So what I'm hearing is... he's getting away with everything forever?

Look on a more serious note, I do think if he fails to become president again his luck probably has run out. The bad news is, between winning legitimately and stealing the election through House vote, Trump still is probably odds even to become president again - if not better.

I know there is a chance sentencing and carrying out of it happens before the election, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Dude he's always going to get away with it, he eats like shit and he'll be dead soon anyway. The important thing is to implicate his conspirators that will be around for decades longer doing more fucked up shit in the background.

I believed for a couple of months that the us justice system wasn't completely compromised, but I was stupid to do so.

Yeah convicted, sentance, and in prison are very different states of things.

Nah, that could be AI generated. I won't know it's real until his first instinct is to immediately say that it should have been Hillary behind bars in a video clip, then I'll know it's really him

I'm wondering what we'll see first. Him passing of old age or him facing any consequence for his illegal actions.

If the USA had the balls to enforce the laws as they have in the past this idiot would be executed for treason. Turns out fascism is a great tool you can use to avoid consequences as the State shudders at the terrorist following you've gathered and refuses to take action.

Dear right-wing dipshits who like to use the name Genocide Joe. Your orange turd wanna be emperor is actively sabotaging ceasefires and potential peace of said-genocide just to make current administration look bad. Donnie Death

Right wingers don't call him Genocide Joe, they LOVE the Palestinian deaths. It's the "he's not far enough left" people like .ml folks who use the name Genocide Joe

Of course a mask off MAGA will say not enough people are being killed. But what's the difference between what a farthest left .ml leftist would write and what a MAGA cosplaying as a leftist would write? Genuinely curious how to tell them apart.

They actually want to put MAGA against the wall. I think that's the most salient difference in regards to revolutionary vanguard communists.

they call him Genocide Joe if they think it will bother the liberal they're speaking to. if they think it will hurt their enemy, they do not require something they say to align with their principles.

The man literally stood three feet away from Putin, and bent the knee. Live, on television.

The man invited Russian operatives into the White house months into his term, and kicked out his entire staff so the meeting would not be recorded, and has admitted to giving them all sorts of information.

He received exactly zero punishment for that. He was never even investigated for that. And then there's the Ukraine situation, which again.....he received exactly zero punishment for.

There's no reason to believe this will go anywhere either. Multiple levels of the US court system, up to and including the Supreme Court, have not only shown that Donald Trump gets a different system of justice than most people, but they have no appetite for holding Trump to account at all.

We need to pass a law that says that a judge must recuse himself if the case involves the person who appointed them, or someone with a relationship to that person. And this includes everything from the 3 stooges at the Supreme Court that constantly interfere on Trump's behalf every time he's in legal jeopardy to Kentaji Brown Jackson recusing herself if the Supreme Court hears a case about something that Biden signed into law. This is 2024. It would take me about 5 minutes to come up with some code that would randomly assign a judge to a case while also ensuring that someone involved in the case isn't the person who appointed them. And my coding skills are about 20 years out of date.

FTFY Donald Trump Accused of Commitedting commited 'Massive Crime' With Reported Phone Call

Donald Trump Accused of Commitedting commited 'Massive Crime' With Reported Phone Call Again.

I look forward to him receiving absolutely zero consequences because why would anything he did ever result in the slightest inconvenience for him?

I don't believe in god, but Trump makes me think that crossroads demons could be real.

You don't need to cross off phone for that one. There have been a couple high profile crimes on the phone and who knows how many others.

And it isn't just Israel, also Poland and Hungary at least.

Still waiting for tokenboomer, linkerbaan, return2ozma et al to say anything about this. I'll just hold my breath for a second...

"Well, the nickname is Genocide Joe, not Genocide Don, so obviously it's Biden's fault that Trump is sabotaging the ceasefire deals!"

I think one of them went with "it's an unconfirmed report, not a transcript of the call" or some other weasel-y bullshit like that.

See, this is 4th dimensional chess. Trump knows that Bidens deal would be bad for Palestine and only Trump can get a better one. So akshually this is a good thing. /s

Wouldn't it be nice if the self-proclaimed party of law and order would see that Trump ends up in prison where he belongs - and not in the white house?

what infuriates me is that eventually if he ends up in prison one way or another, they will all negate even knowing the guy, and act all ignorant of all the atrocities. the same happended here in chile with our dictator and people to this day defend him. one of the biggest defender of the dictator is going to run for president next year and to this day hasn't recognized her role in the civil - military dictatorship that killed and imprisoned thousands of Chileans.. really they act as if it never happened. it will be the same after good ol don is dead or in prison

And nothing happens in 3…2…1…

Congress pretended the leahy law doesn't exist, so I presume treason is handled much the same as genocide.

Add it to the pile of crimes that he will likely never be punished for or the Justice system will bend over backwards to give him every available courtesy, while any “normal” person would be rotting in a prison cell already.

Don't worry merric garland will issue a strongly worded letter of condemnation and then do fuck-all about it.

Reagan did the same thing with Iran. Nobody blinked.

And Nixon did the same with Vietnam.

Being an opportunistic, amoral psycho who works to undermine the safety of Americans is practically a Republican presidential tradition at this point.

Facilitated by Kissinger just for some extra crime on the cake

He did, but I think it only came to light after his brain was soup. Unless I am wrong and carter was aware earlier.

New bits of evidence have been popping up over the decades, seemingly last in 2020. Much of the physical evidence has been long destroyed, and most of the people involved are now dead and gone and I wouldn't call many of the people with supposed first-hand accounts reliable people to begin with. I just read through this article to refresh myself on the details and to see the latest updates.

The personal accounts and evidence we do have doesn't leave much room for the truth to be anything but that the Reagan/Bush campaign was involved, and that Daddy Bush likely had enough evidence he should have turned over to prove it, but today we would still likely not have enough to convict anyone, especially in the current political scene. There wasn't much there about if Reagan himself was involved, the story made it sound as if he didn't, but everyone around him certainly did. I don't feel that negates him from responsibility for his people's actions, but I do feel that is a difference worth mentioning.

Well at least they got Ollie North on that one. Unless some Republican pardons him....OH WAIT.

People also used to rape their slaves. Times change. Maybe we start holding our ruling class to a higher standard. Perhaps being a shitstain on humanity should be met with disapproval.

Israel is already denying it so unless phones are bugged (they won't admit this) there won't be any physical evidence unfortunately

Logan act has never been prosecuted. Could have gotten Reagan on it.

It was prosecuted twice. Both times before the Civil War. But nobody has ever actually been convicted.

Things are different today. Prosecutors realize that a law criminalizing the act of negotiating is probably going to run into First Amendment issues.

Of all the stuff Trump is accused and/or convicted of, this is the most not happening. More not happening than the Cannon case, because there's at least a good possibility she gets removed.

The Logan Act was passed by the first Adams Administration, it has only been prosecuted twice, and both were acquitted. Even a normal Supreme Court would probably strike down the law on First Amendment grounds. The slobbering wingnut Supreme Court we have now certainly would when Trump is involved.

That all said, should voters put up with the idea that Trump is trying to fuck with the election by having Bibi continue a genocide? No, they absolutely should not.

The first amendment has some pretty solid limitations. Someone could argue they don't apply here, but I don't think that would hold. Any constitutional lawyers have a take on this?

That said, the likelihood that he's convicted of it, sentenced, without a stay, where he sits a day in jail is sooooo slim that it's practically two dimensional. As you said, there are barriers and interference everywhere, and he's the king of stalling lawsuits.

Call it a national security concern and gitmo his ass as an official presidential act he couldn't ever be prosecuted for.

Yes, he's been meeting with the leaders across the world. There's no way they weren't discussing the conflicts with which they are involved. I felt particularly betrayed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with Trump. If that wasn't a sting to catch Trump in the act that was in trade for more arms and supplies, I'm angry.

Nixon and Reagan did it, this is normal for a GOP presidential candidate.

Trump is a walking hate crime so no surprise here.

Sounds like good enough reason for Biden to execute the official act clause, and have Dementia DonOLD the weird racist rapist with 34 felonies hanged.

See now there is something. Maybe not hanged, but detained and cut off so he can't subverting the government seems pretty reasonable as an official act. Just have him acquired and sent to a black site without telling the public. I am sure the patriot act covers that somehow. And when it eventually gets out, it was an official act to protect the cease fire negotiations.

If laws applied to Trump, he'd have been put into jail a long time ago. Alas, he is still a free man, free to commit crimes as he wishes.

I wonder what the Supreme Court has to say about this. Presumably some of the totally incorruptible supreme justices don't see any problem here either.

They'll wait till he's president again and then just say it's covered by Presidential immunity. Somehow..

Ah man. I can only wish that the Orange Idiot and Netanyahu somehow, eventually, reap what they've been sowing for decades now. Not holding my breath of course, but the amount of schadenfreude I'd feel would probably verge on orgasmic.

A criminal commiting crimes, not suprised. He won't get punished for it, and I'll not be surprised about that either

They'll probably say this is not a violation of the Logan act since trump is just "discussing about the ceasefire", not negotiating.

But this is clearly a violation because this conversation could greatly change the war and US-Israel relationships

When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

will he get MASSIVE nothing as a consequence this time?!

Someone helped arrange that call or was present, and are guilty of hiding a crime unless they come forward. They can be prosecuted: loyalty only goes one way in that camp, so it’s not like Le Gran Cheetoh would protect them.

As usual, barely any mention of it in the news. Standard procedure for Republicans, just like Nixon and Reagan.

perfect call, it was perfect... everybody says so. it's actually way, way better than perfect, way higher than 100 percent perfection...

Mr. Netanyahu sir, if your support gets a Republican majority in the 2 houses and me back into the Presidency I promise we will give you so much bombs. The best bombs. Bigly. Nobody would get as many bombs as you.

You could just as easily hear him say:

Netanyahu, or should I say, Netanboohoo. Used to be a great guy. Loved his country. Talked to him alot. Great guy. Not anymore. Total loser. "Criminal guy Netanyahu" they call him now. Everybody calls him that. Criminal...guy...Netanyahu. Nut N' Honey. Great cereal from the 80s. Best commercials. Lot of commercials. Very funny commercials. Not anymore. You don't see Nut N' Honey anymore. Wonder why? Is Netanbabu involved? I don't know. He's ruining suburbia though.

No idea why anyone would pledge loyalty to him.

Good

This means hell run the whole, "Only I had the balls to blah blah blah"

And if the democrats want to continue their strong run, they'll have to be on top of action toward it as well. He's a useful idiot sometimes.

Lol...no was was that call to accept the ceasefire deal. It was...wait until after the election, then take the deal.

The former president allegedly made the call on August 14, according to Axios, which cited two unnamed "U.S. sources who were briefed on the call."

The next day, however, Netanyahu's office denied that the call took place.

This is his entry fee to the white house ... in Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Great? It's not like Democrats are interested in putting him in jail. They have a living, breathing bogeyman to threaten people with so they can dismiss scrutiny for damned near anything with a "Do you want trump again?"

i thought we all collectively realized that reporting on trump actions reported by "unnamed sources" doesn't do anything to harm his campaign?

He would be "potentially" breaking the law? What a waste of time. Either it is or isn't against the law. Which is it?

Lots of laws are very fact dependent. For example, if a patient dies during surgery then the doctor potentially committed malpractice.

Generally the courts, not journalists, get to tell you if something is or isn't against the law.

If I understand the actual text of the law, it only refers to disputes that directly involve the U.S. This dispute does not. (Sure, the U.S. is indirectly involved, but we're at least indirectly involved with everything.)

Yes, it would be stupid for him to involve himself, but Trump has done enough illegal shit that we don't need to go looking for more.