No surprise here
Slate magazine, among others, believes that evidence exists of Donald Trump’s criminal intent regarding January 6, and it’s in the White House phone logs. Specifically, according to a report from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa published by Washington Post, seven hours are missing from the phone log. What in the world could Trump have been doing for seven hours that day? Slate believes that the cards are steadily stacking against Trump. The author said: ” . . . A failure to prosecute becomes tantamount to a negation of the rule of law’s first principle-that no person ‘stand[s] above the law.'” So far, Trump has done just that.
Slate looked at different analyses of Trump’s behavior. One such opinion is that because he is so “detached from the factual world” that he believed the lie he started, making it difficult to prove that he acted inappropriately. Bullshit. He never believed his lie. He was merely trying to explain away his loss while not having to admit to being a loser. Slate agrees. Because Trump has hidden so much about what happened that day, he obviously understands what he did was wrong. Otherwise, he would not have attempted to cover up anything. Innocent people don’t do that. To prove their point, Slate looked at Trump’s missing seven hours on January 6, which ran from 11:17 a.m. To 6:54 p.m.
For one, Slate points to Trump’s call to Tommy Tuberville, which went to Mike Lee, who handed his phone to Tuberville. It was during that time that Capitol Police asked everyone to evacuate because the insurrectionists had gained access to the Capitol. Slate also points to phone conversations Trump had with Kevin McCarthy and with Vice President Mike Pence, both during the missing time. So, if these records are not part of the official White House logs, how did Trump make the calls? Did he borrow someone else’s phone? Word has it that Trump had “burner” phones that he used for certain calls. Trump has, of course, denied it, but John Bolton has cried “bullshit” according to the Hill.
According to reports, Trump said: “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.” Bolton says Trump is lying. He said he has heard Trump use the term “a number of times” and that “it’s hardly like it’s some obscure, highly classified set of words.” Bolton is right about that. Virtually everyone has heard of “burner” phones, and Trump is a proven liar, so there’s that. We will have to wait to see what comes of all this, but the author of the Slate piece, Dennis Aftergut,” is a former prosecutor. He talked about “consciousness of guilt,” which he said was one of his favorite jury instructions. In the case of Donald Trump, Aftergut said that Trump’s willful, repeated use of phones outside of White House control points to direct knowledge by Trump of his own guilt. Trump is guilty as hell. Whether he will ever be prosecuted for it is the burning question.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years