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10 May 2023

Accountability Works

Donald Trump was held liable yesterday for $5 million for a instance of sexual battery in a department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, and for lying about it after he left office giving rise to a defamation action. Trump has been indicted for falsifying business records related to campaign finance laws in connection with paying hush money for an affair. Trump is facing a criminal investigation for attempting to tamper with the 2020 election results in Georgia. Trump is facing a criminal investigation for maintaining possession of national security secrets after he left office and then lying in the course of covering it up. Trump's business organization was held criminally liable for state tax fraud and many of his business and political associates have been convicted of crimes. Trump was forced to pay for fraud committed by his Trump University. A civil lawsuit against Trump seeking to hold him liable for injuries a law enforcement officer suffered in the January 6, 2021 capitol riot is continuing to go forward. the myriad Trump related civil and criminal cases are found here.

Via Axios (from the Mueller investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 election only).

Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to 15 felonies in connection with his role as CFO of the Trump Organization. More Trump associates who've faced criminal charges can be found here.

The court system has done far more to hold Trump accountable than the fact that Trump was impeached twice, although the Senate refused to remove him from office on a largely party line vote each time following Senate trials of the impeachments. 

Republican Congressman George Santos, a pathological liar who was elected based upon his frauds to a Long Island seat in Congress, has been arrested for federal fraud related charges.

Former Republican California Congressman Duncan Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison and three years of parole after admitting he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to enrich himself.

More than a thousand people have been prosecuted in the January 6, 2021 capitol riot attempting to prevent the electoral vote from being counted by Congress, with convictions on offenses as serious as sedition for some of its leaders, and sentences so far as long as 14 years in prison. At least 541 people have pleaded guilty, 66 have been convicted of crimes following trials, and just 1 has been acquitted (another 13 cases were dismissed prior to trial). See also Wikipedia.

A New Mexico court has barred Couy Griffin, a county commissioner who participated in the Capital Riot, from holding public office because he participated in an insurrection in violation of the 14th Amendment. 

A Republican Colorado county clerk, Tina Peters, who engaged in actions attempting to overthrow the election is facing a criminal prosecution for her actions and has already been convicted and sentenced of collateral charges involving contempt of court and obstructing government operations. 

Many, perhaps most, of the lawyers who brought groundless lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results have faced serious professional discipline.

Election deniers in Congress have faced fewer consequences, but did underperform their peers relative to the party make up of their districts in the 2022 election.

Fox News, the largest conservative leaning news network in the nation which also has the least regard for the truth, settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion, which sells voting machines, for $800 million. Another defamation lawsuit with heavily overlapping evidence by another voting machine maker is waiting in the wings. Information revealed in the lawsuit led Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson, one of the nation's most widely followed racist demagogues who was pivotal in supporting this conspiracy theory. Far earlier, Fox divested itself of almost all of its non-news, non-sports assets, mostly to Disney, diminishing its economic clout.

A far right talk show host, Alex Jones, who knowingly lied about the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was successfully sued for defamation in the amount of $965 million.

Far right militia members who plotted against Michigan's Democratic Governor have been convicted of crimes.

A Kentucky clerk who refused to enforce same sex marriage laws was held in contempt of court.

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore was removed from office for defying U.S. Supreme Court orders related to the separation of church and state.

Prosecutors are starting to press criminal charges against law enforcement officers who engaged in acts of excessive force. Sheriffs and police chiefs are starting to fire law enforcement officers who engage in misconduct. Civil suits routinely hold bad cops and the agencies that employ them liable for law enforcement misconduct.

In my view, holding bad actors in the political sphere liable criminally and civilly has been one of the most effective tools to discredit and weaken their movements, because most members of the public recognize that court rulings aren't simply partisan posturing.

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