We’re starting to normalize charging sitting politicians for their crimes again and I’m here for it
I wish Abscam had ushered in a whole new wave of the executive branch actively testing the corruption level of the legislative branch as part of its normal operating procedures
Yep. Democrat or Republican, doesn’t matter. Get the crooks out.
(We all know it’s mostly Republicans, of course.)
My favorite moment was when Robert Menendez was charged with fraud. First, the Republicans tried to make it into a gotcha moment. “See? The Democrats will try to protect this criminal!” Except the Democrats either called for him to resign or refused to comment. Very few stood by him against the charges.
And then the Republicans realized that “Menendez should resign due to fraud charges” would apply to Santos as well. Suddenly, the Republicans were all for Menendez staying in Congress until he had his day in court.
So you had Republicans saying “this Democrat should remain in office” and (many) Democrats saying “he should resign ASAP.”
I feel like there’s an important precedent with Hunter Biden, too. Yes you can get charged even if you’re in the royal family. It’ll make absolutely no difference to what the Republicans say, since they make no pretense of consistency, but it’ll make a difference to actual law enforcement and judicial decisions to some degree, which are a lot more impactful.
The difference of course is that Hunter Biden is being prosecuted for something that is normally not prosecuted solely because of his families political ties. The Trump family were not investigated/prosecuted for things that are normally prosecuted because of political ties.
Roe v wade was overturned. Not really
Yeah… it’s concerning. There are small signs of hope in that all the current Supreme Court has been telling Trump to go to hell any time he wants them to keep him in power regardless of the votes.
(So far)
(Also I was talking not really about the courts but a more about the prosecutors and Justice Department getting in the habit of pursuing even “important people” when they’re being clearly criminal. It’s not much but I’ll take it.)
Unfortunately, it is far too late to abort most Republican Congressmen.
I was totally not surprised Menendez committed more crimes.
I was surprised he was still a senator though. I was hoping he had already been removed.
Yeah absolutely. And if there are crooked Democrats get rid of them too.
Getting rid of the crooks, and keeping the honest people, should be something bipartisan as far as the citizenry is concerned, but people are tribal and so here we are.
Republicans are blatant with it, on a whole different level… But let’s keep it going. Let’s not stop at the obviously illegal - let’s keep pushing until all of them who are profiting from a clear conflict of interest start to sweat
Imagine the things we could accomplish if we eliminated the ability to sell out for our lawmakers
Normalize convicting them. Normalize sentences that match the crime.
Charges don’t mean shit if the rest of the legal process doesn’t do its job, and lately it hasn’t had the greatest track record.
As long as the penance is appropriate and not a slap in the wrist it all might actually mean something.
On this day in history, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in shame having been accused of “political corruption” and tax evasion!
Looks like he’s qualified to be the next Speaker now
Or a Republican presidential candidate. Hell, it sounds like he’s fit to be a supreme court justice.
It’s funny. After all, he personally developed what would come to be known as the Supreme Court.
What’s hilarious about this is the GOP needs his vote so bad that they can’t actually impeach him. And now that they are having a internal civil war with Matt Gaetz and the far right, George could literally walk around naked in the capital and not be removed 🤣 The GOP is a total joke. Literally looney toons of politics
Yeah, it’s fucking hilarious watching our country unable to function and strangled by greed and corruption.
Non-Americans experiencing schadenfreude after a hundred years of American self aggrandisement.
It’s not good, but it is what it is. Welcome to the U.S.A., best country in the world.
It’s been that way for 100 years now. But now that the consequences are affecting not just the poor and minorities everyone is just now up in arms. Malcom X, MLK, FDR, and many other people warned us this was the only outcome to putting money and power above human rights. We made this bed, and trust me when I say this is just the beginning. Except drastic upticks in prison slave labor, corporate control over resources, and war. I personally fight those things by volunteering, voting, and advocating but I have no faith in us doing what needs to be done to save ourselves or even humanity as a whole.
Unfortunately, due to our stupid system that gives the right far too much power in relation to their numbers, the butt of the joke is the American people, since all of these assholes are holding us hostage.
The solution is voting. Vote.
it only does because they rigged it that way
We might just see our first elected official serving from prison.
You might have to clarify which republican you are talking about….since there are multiple 😶
Does it really make a difference who of them ends up behind bars? I bet if they looked closely, they would find an army of skeletons in GOPs closets.
The more the merrier!
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Sort of surprised that they didn’t have Gaetz in their sight line, moons ago. It was becoming pretty obvious that he was all about pulling focus and that his " outsider brand" would make him hard to work with.
It’s because they needed his vote. It’ll be 2024 before they pick a new speaker
I believe former president George Santos is immune to the charges based on the presidential records act. Look it up libs
He’s got diplomatic immunity anyway since he’s the wife of a French diplomat
I can’t believe they would do this to an Olympic gold medalist and former astronaut
If they’ll charge the Emperor of the Moon with these crimes, are any of us really safe?
Not sure why an 3-time all-star pitcher for the Yankees needs to commit credit card fraud.
Just when you thought he couldn’t get any more cartoonishly evil
“Prosecutors describe how he used the credit card of a donor, identified only as “Contributor No. 12,” repeatedly, without the person’s awareness or approval, charging $15,800 to Mr. Santos’s campaign and associated committees. In the following months, prosecutors say, Mr. Santos charged that same donor an additional $44,800, some of which was routed through a Florida company associated with the Devolder Organization. At least $11,000 of that money was transferred directly into Mr. Santos’s bank account, prosecutors said in the indictment.”
You would think that after committing so many crimes, Santos would be at least a slightly competent criminal. Apparently not.
Most crimes are crimes of opportunity. You don’t have to be smart to be a petty criminal.
It is kind of funny that some rich Republican donor is getting scammed by the obvious scammer that they’re backing for office though
"I did not have access to my phone. I have no clue what you guys are talking about.”
— Rep. George Santos (R-NY), when asked by CNN about the new criminal charges filed against him
What does that even mean? I imagine that he would have access to professionals that could spin up a better generic non answer that this.
If he has any kind of lawyer, he’s already been told about there charges. He’s lying.
Lying? No, not the guy who single-handedly lead a small band of Spartan’s against the entire Persian empire!
No, I think you’ve been lied to. Santos donned the Spartan armor for all humanity and slew the alien Covenant for the survival of us all.
Yeah, I don’t have access to my phone either. I don’t even know what brand it is. And I don’t pay the bill. In fact, it’s not my phone.
This is preposterous, how can they do this to a national hero? This guy literally took mankind’s first steps on the Moon and single-handedly won the Vietnam War for America, WTF?
This man literally killed Hitler and Stalin with his bare hands, and then fucked a supermodel so hard she got double pregnant with triplets. He delivered all 8 babies himself after only a week gestation because George Santos’s sperm are so fast.
This man has won 118 gold medals in sports he himself invented.
I would call him a saint but that would make Jesus Christ jealous.
Chuck Norris looks at George Santos’s platonic ideal of a body and spontaneously orgasms. It’s so powerful that we mere mortals can only look upon a puppet, which is still so attractive that he has to be censored in middle Eastern countries.
This man literally killed Hitler
I think this might not be a selling point for the target audience
Hitler can’t be all bad.
The man did kill Hitler, after all.
On the other hand, he’s a gay Republican and they’re apparently cool with that. Unlike with every other LGBT+ person.
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Non American here. I actually forgot who this guy was until you said this, now I remember.
Criminals know stealing is best done in the shadows. Stupid criminals get in the public eye by taking a public office where everyone is looking at them and what they are doing or did.
Trump and Santos are stupid criminals.
I honestly don’t think Trump initially meant to win. Go watch the video in Trump Tower when they announce. Everyone is partying down, Trump is in the back, on a couch, head in hands.
We could fairly argue that he showed a typical reaction to winning the highest office in the land! I now see a man who realized he would be exposed, big time.
I agree. I think his original plan was to run, lose, and then claim that the election was rigged against him. Then, he’d have spent 4 years grifting. He’d also have been paid to appear on right wing media to talk about how President Hillary was bungling X and how he would handle X so much better. (All without giving any details on how he’d handle X.)
Basically, what he’s done since leaving office in 2021.
Of course, once he was in office, he got addicted to the power and now he wants that back. Plus, he sees it as the only way to avoid prison. So his 2024 Presidential bid is 100% serious.
Well put. The irony is he could have just straightened up his act once in office and got away with his old crimes, but he is incapable of that.
The compounding factor is he’s a pootin puppet so once in office, it was a deluge of new crimes to sow chaos and please the master.
I think you’re dead on with this
I honestly don’t think Trump initially meant to win.
My not-totally-serious-but-maybe theory is that they initially told Trump they were just shooting a mockumentary about him running for President and they only told him it was all real the night he won.
Yeah, Stone and Manafort were getting away with murder-by-proxy for decades, pretty much everyone gets away with taking totally-not-bribes, that stuff is just how the system works. Now we’re getting people too stupid to get away with it even with the table tilted in their favor to within an inch of being totally vertical.
lack of accountability draws in all the people comitting crimes. It corrupts the government the same ways it corrupts the catholic church.
craven, clinical need for attention kinda guys
This legal justification is so far outside the proper legal authority and scope for Congressmam Santos that I’m actually embarrassed for the DOJ.
Mr. Santos can only be detained, or otherwise ‘dealt’ with by an official Letter of Marque that is signed by King George III. Which is CLEARLY NOT CONTAINED in any of those documents.
Sham. Fraud.
It’s weird because when I see George Santos I can only think about a French King.
You’re confused, but I understand why. You see, when he fled Brazil, he temporarily captained a barbary pirate ship, which was based out of French Algeirs.
It’s time to clean house. Get all of the corrupt congresspersons out, Republican and Democrat. We need to start over from scratch at this point I think.
I think we outright need a second constitutional Republic with a new constitution. At least give us free healthcare.
I’ve been saying for years that we need a constitutional rewrite. But I fear the process.
I don’t really think we need to go that far
I do.
Couldn’t agree more. It’s time for a rewrite.
So we’ll wait two years and announce we gave up like we did with Matt Gaetz.
These are money crimes. Lots and lots of paper trails, way more than gaetz “$900 for school” to his pimp friend.
They have Santos campaign manager for 4yrs in a plea already. Shits getting thick.
More importantly, Gaetz’s crimes were only against a woman. These crimes are about something modern US really cares about - money.
Why can’t we hold Police and Politicians to a much higher standard than the average citizen?
It is the opposite, and that is bonkers and backwards.
Because the Police and Politicians are the boots and suits of the uber rich.
they’re not held accountable because no outside authority monitors them because they’re all in bed with each other.
Due Lemmy, I learned all sorts of new things about George Santos’ bio. And I had a good laugh this morning. Thanks, folks.
