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submitted 6 months ago by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone.

But protecting a former president in prison? The prospect is unprecedented. That would be the challenge if Donald J. Trump — whom the agency is required by law to protect around the clock — is convicted at his criminal trial in Manhattan and sentenced to serve time.

Even before the trial’s opening statements, the Secret Service was in some measure planning for the extraordinary possibility of a former president behind bars. Prosecutors had asked the judge in the case to remind Mr. Trump that attacks on witnesses and jurors could land him in jail even before a verdict is rendered.

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[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 120 points 6 months ago

I would hope that being found guilty of treason would revoke any duty to protect them by the secret service...

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 78 points 6 months ago

Unfortunately, of all the charges he's facing, treason is not one of them.

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 32 points 6 months ago
[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 33 points 6 months ago

Yet. The electors scheme that dumps directly participated in to conspire with election officials to forge and mail in false elector documents is still undergoing investigation and, with new updates every month from Republicans giving information to the authorities.

This is the one that I thought would be the most likely of causing him serious legal trouble, but this happened across seven states with an unknown number but around a dozen election officials that agreed to forge documents at Trump's and his team's request and then send in the documents to trick the national archives and pence into falsely certifying Trump as the president-elect in the 2020 election.

It's batshit insane, and he was directly involved, and multiple people can corroborate that. The doj the FBI, some of those Republican collaborators are already working with them, I check in every couple weeks just to see what the latest news is.

The investigations and prosecutions by individual states and government agencies are ongoing, so prosecution of trump is still very much on the table, but only when all of the circumstances and information available has been organized and arrayed, and all of the smaller fish have been targeted and dealt with first.

As of March 2024, the Arizona AG is said that they're nearing the end of their investigation.

But that's one state of seven. And there's also the FBI and the doj investigating this, so there's a lot going on.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_fake_electors_plot

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

If he was going to face treason charges, they would have brought it as part of the January 6 trial.

Those charges are:

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191493880/trump-january-6-charges-indictment-counts

one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States applies to Trump's repeated and widespread efforts to spread false claims about the November 2020 election while knowing they were not true and for allegedly attempting to illegally discount legitimate votes all with the goal of overturning the 2020 election, prosecutors claim in the indictment.

one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding was brought due to the alleged organized planning by Trump and his allies to disrupt the electoral vote's certification in January 2021.

one count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding is tied to Trump and his co-conspirators' alleged efforts after the November 2020 election until Jan. 7, 2021, to block the official certification proceeding in Congress.

one count of conspiracy against rights refers to Trump and his co-conspirators alleged attempts to "oppress, threaten and intimidate" people in their right to vote in an election.

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I’m surprised they didn’t consider selling classified submarine plans to be treason, as part of the classified documents case.

At one point in his interviews, Butler says he told investigators that Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt repeated classified submarine secrets following a conversation with Trump in spring 2021.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/politics/trump-employee-5-classified-documents-mar-a-lago/index.html

[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 9 points 6 months ago

Semantically, according to US Legal Code you can't commit treason without being at war, and war has not been properly defined by the federal government.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

https://apnews.com/article/arizona-fake-electors-charges-2020-election-9da5a7e58814ed55ceea1ca55401af85

And Arizona has begun active prosecutions.

Woop wooop.

Not against Trump himself, unfortunately, but as I mentioned everything's still moving forward so just got to wait and see how everything is prosecuted.

[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 33 points 6 months ago

Is it only about protecting him or also avoiding him discussing unwanted topics with other inmates in that case? He’s still the recipient of privileged information…

[-] Windex007@lemmy.world 25 points 6 months ago

It's exactly this. It's protection for him is a side effect of protecting the country. While these two things will generally overlap, if they ever diverge...

[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

Yeah you guys still execute traitors right ? That would be quite the signal xD

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 7 points 6 months ago

Apparently only if they are brown or Jewish.

[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

With adequate lighting he certainly looks orange enough verging on brownish ;-)

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Nope, white people can keep him.

[-] wahming 6 points 6 months ago

Would you believe trump still has any important secrets he hasn't blabbed yet?

[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago
[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

From what I remember the secret service can opt to stop protecting him.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 16 points 6 months ago

Nope.

Under current United States federal law, all former presidents are entitled to lifetime protection from the Secret Service. Barring an act of Congress or a presidential executive order, the Secret Service is bound by law to protect former presidents for life. There aren't any exceptions listed in the statute governing the protection of former presidents. Source

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

Barring an act of Congress or a presidential executive order

Could definitely imagine Congress and/or Biden doing that to make sure that Secret Service agents aren't sent to prison for crimes they didn't commit..

[-] ours@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

They wouldn't be condemned to prison, they would work in a prison. The logistics would have to be worked out but I guess they would work alongside the prison guards and have agents constantly around prisoner Orange. It would suck for them but they would be normal rotations/breaks and such.

[-] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 months ago

They can't opt out, but HE can.

We just need to convince him that they're spying for the libs or some shit.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 0 points 6 months ago

Surely they will build him his own prison or convert his house into a prison.

Like I get it if he needs to go to jail than so be it. But let's be real, he can't actually go to prison.

this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
351 points (96.6% liked)

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