Who Among Trump’s Helpers Will Buckle to Avoid Jail?

By Donald A. Collins | 10 August 2023
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

As the charges mount and the possible effect on Trump’s electability increases what scenarios will present themselves? I can only suggest a few in this flurry of indictments and lawyers’ opinions.

First the likelihood that 3rd party might surface such as the No Label party to which Senator Manchin might join.

This likely bodes poorly for Biden as most argue that such an event might take the most votes from Biden who you recall, with our flawed Electoral College system in place, only won in 2020 by 44,000 votes.

We can anticipate that the same kind of dark money that Leonard Leo provided to laud Justice Clarence Thomas could come to the No Labels and others who could achieve the goal of reelecting Trump. He further helped Thomas’ wife, Ginni, who actively participated in forwarding Trump’s fraud claims.

That Trump’s victory of course would give us the unimaginable scenario of an indicted or convicted felon being elected President of the US after masterminding the January 6th coup attempt to keep Biden from assuming the Presidency.

Read here the payments made by Leo to lionize Justice Clarence Thomas.

Leo has proved that nearly anyone can be bought as he has poured huge money into influencing elections.

Here are a few examples:

At least six groups funded by Leo’s network have filed briefs supporting the suit, which seeks to overturn Colorado’s anti-discrimination law. The Ethics and Public Policy Center, which records show received $1.9 million from Leo’s network, submitted a brief supporting the web designer. So did Concerned Women for America, which has received at least $565,000 over the past two years from the Leo network, as well as an organization called the Becket Fund, which got $550,000 from a Leo group.

Leo’s network has also been the top funder of the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, which spends money to elect GOP attorneys general and serves as a policy hub for the state officials. Twenty Republican attorneys general have also filed a brief in support of the case. One Leo group donated $6.5 million to RAGA during the 2022 election cycle, according to the association’s federal filings.

The largest donation by Leo’s network was $71 million given to DonorsTrust, a so-called donor-advised fund that pools money from numerous funders and gives it out to largely conservative and libertarian groups. Past reports have described Donors Trust as a “dark-money ATM” of the conservative movement.

Read this full sordid account here.

What law will keep such dark money going to a 3rd party effort to undermine Biden’ slim margin? Nothing. What a humungous price our democracy continues to pay for the 2010 Citizens United law that gave corporations the right to give candidates unlimited money.

My second and main conjecture involves Trump’s trials which may or may not occur before the 2024 election. Will there be damaging testimony from Trump helpers who would seek to tell the truth to avoid jail time? These won’t necessarily be any of the unindicted 6 mentioned in Jack Smith’s indictment case about Trump’s attempted coup. Of course, the felony six are likely going to get their turn in the docket if a Trump conviction ensues.

These who may expose Trump’s lies are likely little folks who heard or saw firsthand experiences that showed Trump knew all along the election was not fraudulent and may have seen him masterminding the building of an extensive network of criminals who sought to overthrow our democracy.

How about someone like Trump’s property manager, Carlos De Oliveira at Mar-a-Lago giving key information? While Trump is paying De Oliveira’s legal fees that may not keep him quiet if enough other incriminating evidence is found.

Read his story here.

Don’t forget that Trump was claiming fraud could occur in the 2020 election even before the election and then he claimed fraud had occurred even before votes were counted on election night.

Defections from Trump’s frightened employees or helpers would be equivalent to John Dean’s determinative testimony at the Nixon Watergate crisis when Dean correctly surmised that Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman were ready to make him the fall guy for the Watergate break in. Dean, a competent lawyer prepared 250 page document which he presented to the 1973 investigating Senate Watergate hearings, was convicted and served a brief time in jail but now is something of a hero, left the GOP and now helps lead the charge against Trump, appearing often on TV.

Recall Dean’s story here.

The uncertainty of the Trump legal resolutions may get partially cleared up as we move into 2024 but we can only hope voters of all persuasions see that all the GOP candidates back the same anti-democratic the goals: they are against women’s rights, racist to the core, often attacking people of color, immigrants and protecting LBGTQ rights. Neither party has attempted to fix the immigration mess for decades, but the GOP will doubtless be using this out of control issue as a political bludgeon.

Some voters may sell out to Leo and his zealots who seek power over principle, despite lauding their fealty to principle. They may learn just as the GOP may learn that the majority of Americans find their goals repulsive.

Ohio voters strongly rejected a proposed change in the State Constitution intended to thwart an Abortion amendment. As many including me, the Dobbs abortion decision will have intense political impact nationally in November 2024.

Read about the Ohio vote here.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us” and “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”.

‘Captured court’: Hayes on Leonard Leo’s two-fold plan to form this Supreme Court

The Scheme 18: Leonard Leo’s $1.6 Billion Payday

Multiple cases against Trump set to begin in court

Ohio voters defeat Republican proposal seen as obstacle to codifying abortion rights: AP

Charlie Sykes: Trump 2.0 would be exponentially worse than Trump 1.0

Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here