Willful blindness
Seeking pre-emptive pardons may turn out to be a mistake.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed at its inaugural hearing that Donald Trump’s top Republican allies in Congress sought pardons after the January 6 insurrection, a major disclosure that bolstered the claim that the event amounted to a coup and is likely to cause serious scrutiny for those implicated.
Why? Because “Pardons for what, Senator?”
The news that multiple House Republicans asked the Trump White House for pardons – an apparent consciousness of guilt – was one of three revelations portending potentially perilous legal and political moments to come for Trump and his allies.
Note to journalists: don’t ever write a sentence with “portending potentially perilous” in it. Come on now.
“It’s hard to find a more explicit statement of consciousness of guilt than looking for a pardon for actions you’ve just taken, assisting in a plan to overthrow the results of a presidential election,” Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, told reporters.
Also, Trump can’t claim not to have known.
The disclosure about the pardons came during the opening hour of the hearing where the panel made the case that Trump could not credibly believe he had won the 2020 election after some of his most senior advisors told him repeatedly that he had lost to Joe Biden.
As a matter of law he can’t. As a matter of personal psychology, I don’t know – he’s so stupid and so self-focused and so hardened that maybe there is a sense in which he didn’t “know” it. He could know he’d been told that but also be very sure in his own calcified brain that everyone who isn’t Donald Trump is wrong about everything until proven otherwise (by him). But legally speaking that shouldn’t count.
At the heart of the case the panel appears to be trying to make is the legal doctrine of “willful blindness”, as former US attorney Joyce Vance wrote for MSNBC, which says a defendant cannot say they weren’t aware of something if they were credibly notified of the truth.
Even if they’re Trump. Even if they’re the most narcissistic human being ever to stomp on the earth.
“portending potentially perilous” — I’m a big fan of alliteration, I love it when it’s done well. I have to say this one, while not good, is pretty funny. It probably wasn’t meant to be, which only adds to it’s humor. :D
I think that the truth would have a hard time penetrating that mental armour, even if it came wrapped in a 30mm depleted uranium round.
“Oh, no, see, it was all a misunderstanding. I was trying to get his attention, see? Like, ‘Pardon me, Mr. President.’ And he said ‘OK’. And I must have looked mortified, because then he said ‘Just kidding!’, and we all had a good laugh about it.
“So nothing to see there.”
twiliter, I am also a fan of alliteration, and I think it’s sort of fun. I have a character in one of my books that would say that. The character is generally a pompous pretentious pontificator.
Good one ikn! I resoundingly resemble that character at times… :D
At least he didn’t say a “portending potentially perilous political period,” which obviously, he should have. :D
@5 QED. :P
Oh yeah? How about:
“A potentially perilous political period portending a public perception of precipitously plummeting probity”.
Anyone claiming Trump didn’t know is inadvertently claiming he has delusive beliefs.
I rather expect the counterclaim to be something along the lines of, “Well, of course we weren’t guilty, but we knew those dirty Democrats would try to smear us, so we sought the pardon as a way of stopping them from clogging the courts with partisan accusations.” Total BS, of course, and won’t fool anyone with half a brain, but it’ll play to the Trumpkins quite well, sadly.
@7 I see we have a specialist. ;)
Joe Arpaio was under the impression that a pardon was as good as an acquittal. When the old fool ran for the Senate a reporter pointed out that accepting Trump’s pardon was an admission of guilt. The expression on his face, stunned silence, was great. Dude was lost in his own head for a few seconds trying to figure it out.