Southern Progressives

Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, the Republicans in Congress had his back. Trump's mounting legal jeopardy has quickly become a political rallying cry as they rush to stand by the indicted former president. Many Republicans say they haven't fully read the 49-page indictment against Trump. But they are adopting his grievances against the federal justice system as their own. It’s an example of how Trump has transformed the Republican Party that was once the party of “law and order,” but is now attacking the very justice system at the foundation of U.S. democracy.

Because of family obligations (my son's graduation was Friday) I plan to do today's blog post in two sections. Between now and Tuesday, I will post Part II: what we can expect next. As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Trump and his valet Walt Nauta have been indicted. If you are keeping score, this is Trump's

In Part I (which you can read here), I offered a summary and annotations of Trump's federal indictment. No surprise, this weekend, Trump vowed to stay in the race, even if convicted. "I'll never leave," he told Politico. I have said that Trump’s political needs are at odds with his needs as a criminal defendant:

How do prosecutors try a case when the charges are based on top secret and other classified documents? By definition, top secret means that releasing the information publicly could do grave damage to national security. That harsh truth can be a stumbling block in prosecutions. If documents are declassified so they can be shared with a jury, that may cause the jury to conclude the information in them wasn’t as serious as the government claims and be hesitant to convict. But in many cases, declassification isn’t an option. The prospect of damage is too great to contemplate, as with nuclear secrets, information obtained from allies, or assessments that, if revealed, could compromise our national defense. In cases like that, there’s a real risk of defendants engaging in graymail, the practice of threatening to expose critical information in open court if the government insists on taking them to trial.

On Friday, while the political world was focused on the federal indictment of a former president, the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee released their new tax plan. Not two weeks after threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling because of their stated concerns over the nation’s mounting debt, Republicans are calling for tax cuts. The nonprofit public policy organization the Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates that over a decade those cuts will cost $80 billion as written and more than $1.1 trillion if made permanent. The frontloading in the measure, they estimate, will make it cost $320 billion by the end of 2025.

Is the GOP Plan to Be Content With a "Red States" Fascist Empire?

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