#2020election

eccodrum@diasp.org

What Julian Assange and Donald Trump Have in Common
They share enemies—and they use similarly nihilistic tactics toward similarly antidemocratic ends.
By George Packer

If it were just dumb luck that landed WikiLeaks in the Trump camp, then the only question would be how Republicans became so unprincipled that they would welcome the political help of avowed enemies of American democracy. But it’s always a mistake to explain Trump’s motives as sheer opportunism. In fact, the lift from WikiLeaks wasn’t dumb luck, and more than self-interest led to the embrace between Trump and Assange. For years, WikiLeaks was considered politically on the left, the darling of Western progressives. Then why did it organize its releases to inflict the greatest damage on Hillary Clinton? Why not go after Trump instead? Or, at least, Trump too? What made WikiLeaks a hero to Fox News and the American right?

also: Documents Reveal New Details in WikiLeaks’ Exchanges with Guccifer 2.0

posting this old article, because as more damning information is uncovered by the J6 Commission, Assange's extradition appears imminent, and the US continues to support Ukraine against Putin's brutal war, I wouldn't be shocked to see some new WL "revelations" about Hunter's Laptop™ as an attempted distraction.

#Atlantic #Assange #WikiLeaks #trump #J6 #January6Committee #Russia #Putin #DOJ #journalism #Guccifer #RogerStone #DonJr #ButHerEmails #Hillary #2020Election #TheBigLie #EmmaBest

eccodrum@diasp.org

What's Really Stopping a Trump Prosecution?
Hurdles, Real and Imagined

Luppe B. Luppen
Jun 20

On Saturday, in an apparent effort to prick the momentum generated by the January 6th Committee’s recent public hearings, the New York Times published a story headlined “Despite Growing Evidence, a Prosecution of Trump Would Face Challenges.”

The headline, of course, is substantially true. Any prosecution of a powerful, well-resourced person for a serious crime faces challenges, no matter the strength of the evidence arrayed against them, and those challenges grow geometrically when the person in question is a former president who sits at the top of a fanatical mass movement that’s willing to pursue its goals without ethical or legal restraints and that elevates personal fealty to him over adherence to factual reality or a set of pre-agreed rules. Nevertheless, the story is misbegotten, and I think it’s important to understand why.

[...]

[T]he paper is asserting that any conceivable offense the federal government might charge Trump with would include a particular knowledge element... This is, not to put too fine a point on it, horseshit.

#NYCSouthpaw #trump #J6 #DOJ #January6Committee #2020Election #politics #democracy #insurrection #NYT #journalism #law

eccodrum@diasp.org