Fraud And A Drunk Rudy Giuliani

The second January 6 hearing begins with Liz Cheney talking about how Trump listened to advice from "an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani" pic.twitter.com/u6WvTPCbHe

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2022

The standard for fraud, if I remember correctly, is "knew or should have known."  It has to be qualified that way because fraud could never be proven if the case had to be made that the alleged fraudster "knew" he was misleading the fraud victim to their detriment.  The defense would be simple:  "I thought it was true!"

Obviously the law is not that blinkered and mindless.

I'm listening to Liz Cheney discuss this in her opening remarks this morning in the second public hearing of the Jan. 6th Committee.  It's not the fraud issue that I'm particularly interested in.  That's a problem for the DOJ; they have experts in handling such criminal matters.  What I'm interested in is the story being told by the Committee.  The importance of that story is that it lays the groundwork with a narrative widely publicized and ably supported which creates an opening for the DOJ to prosecute a former president, something the U.S. has never done nor had reason to do.

That trial will inevitably be a political trial, even though it won't be a political prosecution or brought on a political basis.  The best way to blunt the charges of "weaponizing politics" (if we're still using "weaponized" by then as an adjective) is to establish a narrative of fraud that the DOJ will already be working from, rather than trying to establish afresh.  Yes, the DOJ has to assemble, point by point, a criminal case in a courtroom before a jury.  But that trial will be conducted in the context of the narrative established by these committee hearings.

Opening statement from committee member @RepZoeLofgren

"The Big Lie was also a big ripoff." The false claims of election fraud were used by campaign to raise money from the public saying using for legal representation

7/ pic.twitter.com/onUoLx8Q4Y

— Jennifer Taub 🌻 🇺🇸 (@jentaub) June 13, 2022

And yes, that opens a whole 'nother front of criminal interest. And this is what I mean about the "narrative," which is composed of a lot of smaller, but relevant, stories:

I like how Cheney is going straight after the lies about mail in voting — I’ve said this multiple times, but *everyone* knew the mail-in votes would be counted late, because the GOP demanded it in most cases.

— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) June 13, 2022