Al Gore grew fat from companies who used the Obama green handout, including Solyndra, who stole a half billion. Democrats howled that Republican investigations were "politically motivated." But Trump!
It's also fun to speculate what a Republican administration might be able to do to bring Solyndra to justice when it's headed by a President without a legacy of legal issues that she brings to office and the ability to NOT generate new ones while in office. If we want to discuss the waste of taxpayer dollars during the Trump administration, how many DoJ hours were spent defending Trump versus going after actors like Solyndra?
Something to keep in mind while we debate whether to spend intellectual and rhetorical capital defending a fellow who really hasn't earned it.
"But let’s cut through the gaslighting. These corporate poop-sniffing expeditions into the Trump Organization’s books are nothing but political prosecutions. They are efforts to punish the former president and anyone associated with him, for his actions since 2015 when he descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower. The prosecutions do nothing to minimize Trump’s profile. In fact, they promote him and keep him in the news, when he should be fading from memory."
Let's see what wrongdoing was committed before slapping the "gaslighting" label on it. Before 2015, Trump was already a financially-sketchy character (meaning that if I tried to do what Trump has been accused of doing, I'd be in prison or destitute already). There was a reason folks like me were beating the disclosure and divestment drum leading up to the 2016 election. Trump used his time as President to shield himself from further investigations and continues to try and do so. Let's see what James comes up with and what a jury of Trump's peers decide (should it get to that point) before jumping the gun to treat the office of the Presidency as a carte blanche to Get Out of Jail Free.
Just like in the tennis player case, either laws apply to everyone equally or they don't. I know which world I'm hoping to live in.
They don’t apply equally. They never have. It’s called prosecutorial discretion and it embodies classism, racism, political motives, and even sometimes genuine sympathy. If the law was applied equally, to everyone, we all would spend our days in court. Trump Org’s relatively puny crimes are only important to prosecutors because they involve Trump. Solyndra’s giant crime went unpunished.
There's nothing in the way our system works that prevents prosecutors from going after Solyndra if Leticia James goes after Trump in New York. (Insert "Why not both?" meme here.) It's not an either-or situation, and given that Solyndra is a California company, it's entirely unclear why what may be prosecutable at a California or Federal level should inform a New York Attorney General prosecuting a New York resident for a New York crime.
It's like arguing that Kim Foxx here in Chicago shouldn't prosecute robberies because Solyndra's larger robbery remains unpunished. You're basically arguing that Letcia James should execute proprietorial discretion ON BEHALF OF Trump because of something completely out of her sphere of influence. That way lies madness, as we're experiencing first-hand in Chicago at the moment as Foxx (aided by a collection of progressive judges) refuses prosecute criminals because of wider Woke considerations.
A stronger argument for James to drop her Trump case is that there are bigger crimes IN NEW YORK that are not being prosecuted, since her office is spending resources on Trump instead of the bigger fish to fry. Couple this with an argument that James is unlikely to prevail in a trial against the Trump family, and then you have a decent case arguing that James is wasting NY state taxpayers' dollars. However, you're not making any of those arguments, just complaining about general unfairness. Making life more fair isn't letting the Trumps off the hook, it's going after Solyndra IN ADDITION TO the Trumps.
(Ditto for all the Georgia malfeasance Trump committed. Actions must have consequences.)
Going after all criminals is certainly a noble goal but I agree with Steve. The law has never been equally applied and it's unlikely that it ever will. A prime example is that even Republican AGs say it is a waste of resources to attempt prosecution of democrat criminal politicians in the DC Circuit.
It's also fun to speculate what a Republican administration might be able to do to bring Solyndra to justice when it's headed by a President without a legacy of legal issues that she brings to office and the ability to NOT generate new ones while in office. If we want to discuss the waste of taxpayer dollars during the Trump administration, how many DoJ hours were spent defending Trump versus going after actors like Solyndra?
Something to keep in mind while we debate whether to spend intellectual and rhetorical capital defending a fellow who really hasn't earned it.
"But let’s cut through the gaslighting. These corporate poop-sniffing expeditions into the Trump Organization’s books are nothing but political prosecutions. They are efforts to punish the former president and anyone associated with him, for his actions since 2015 when he descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower. The prosecutions do nothing to minimize Trump’s profile. In fact, they promote him and keep him in the news, when he should be fading from memory."
Let's see what wrongdoing was committed before slapping the "gaslighting" label on it. Before 2015, Trump was already a financially-sketchy character (meaning that if I tried to do what Trump has been accused of doing, I'd be in prison or destitute already). There was a reason folks like me were beating the disclosure and divestment drum leading up to the 2016 election. Trump used his time as President to shield himself from further investigations and continues to try and do so. Let's see what James comes up with and what a jury of Trump's peers decide (should it get to that point) before jumping the gun to treat the office of the Presidency as a carte blanche to Get Out of Jail Free.
Just like in the tennis player case, either laws apply to everyone equally or they don't. I know which world I'm hoping to live in.
They don’t apply equally. They never have. It’s called prosecutorial discretion and it embodies classism, racism, political motives, and even sometimes genuine sympathy. If the law was applied equally, to everyone, we all would spend our days in court. Trump Org’s relatively puny crimes are only important to prosecutors because they involve Trump. Solyndra’s giant crime went unpunished.
There's nothing in the way our system works that prevents prosecutors from going after Solyndra if Leticia James goes after Trump in New York. (Insert "Why not both?" meme here.) It's not an either-or situation, and given that Solyndra is a California company, it's entirely unclear why what may be prosecutable at a California or Federal level should inform a New York Attorney General prosecuting a New York resident for a New York crime.
It's like arguing that Kim Foxx here in Chicago shouldn't prosecute robberies because Solyndra's larger robbery remains unpunished. You're basically arguing that Letcia James should execute proprietorial discretion ON BEHALF OF Trump because of something completely out of her sphere of influence. That way lies madness, as we're experiencing first-hand in Chicago at the moment as Foxx (aided by a collection of progressive judges) refuses prosecute criminals because of wider Woke considerations.
A stronger argument for James to drop her Trump case is that there are bigger crimes IN NEW YORK that are not being prosecuted, since her office is spending resources on Trump instead of the bigger fish to fry. Couple this with an argument that James is unlikely to prevail in a trial against the Trump family, and then you have a decent case arguing that James is wasting NY state taxpayers' dollars. However, you're not making any of those arguments, just complaining about general unfairness. Making life more fair isn't letting the Trumps off the hook, it's going after Solyndra IN ADDITION TO the Trumps.
(Ditto for all the Georgia malfeasance Trump committed. Actions must have consequences.)
Going after all criminals is certainly a noble goal but I agree with Steve. The law has never been equally applied and it's unlikely that it ever will. A prime example is that even Republican AGs say it is a waste of resources to attempt prosecution of democrat criminal politicians in the DC Circuit.