Indictment puts Trump, democracy on trial

US court against anyone. “It’s not hyperbole to say that the conduct of this prosecution will greatly influence whether the US remains a thriving democracy after 2024.”

Smith, the special counsel, linked Trump’s actions following his November 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden directly to the attack two months later on the US Capitol, which he called an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.”

“It was fueled by lies,” Smith said. “Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.”

‘Darkest hours’

Historian Jon Meacham, whose biography of former president Andrew Jackson won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize, said the charges against the twiceimpeached Trump stem from what he called one of the “darkest hours” in American history.

“What we haven’t had before is a person so powerful that they can bend the Constitution to the point of breaking,” Meacham said on MSNBC.

“(Trump) put fundamentally his own appetite, his own ambition, ahead of everything else.”

The 45-page indictment brought by Smith charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to deprive Americans of a civil right -- their votes.

The “criminal scheme,” as Smith described it, meticulously outlines the various efforts taken by Trump and his unnamed co-conspirators to overturn the election results using accusations that they knew were untrue. “The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud,” the indictment says. “Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power.”

The plot allegedly included repeated attempts to pressure vice president Mike Pence into throwing out Electoral College votes at the January 6 joint session of Congress.

When Pence told Trump during a January 1 meeting he had no constitutional authority to do so, the president reportedly responded by saying “You’re too honest.” Trump and his co-conspirators are also accused of submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress in a bid to reverse the results in seven key states won by Biden.

Trump allegedly sought to enlist senior Justice Department officials in his plot, telling them at one point to “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”

The efforts culminated in a fiery speech by the president near the White House on January 6 and the subsequent attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, who were seeking to block the certification of Biden’s victory.

Trump, who has denounced the indictment as politically motivated, is expected to make his first court appearance to answer the charges before a US District Court Judge in Washington on Thursday.

Campaign coffers emptied

Meanwhile, some say Trump has been burning through millions of dollars as he faces an onslaught of legal bills from the investigations threatening his presidential election bid -- with some sources of funding drying up fast.

Trump is hardly strapped for cash, as his joint fundraising committee brought in $54 million during the first half of 2023 -- more than any of his Republican primary rivals in next year’s election.

But critics say new financial filings demonstrate how his spiraling legal woes are making a significant dent in a war chest that could be going to TV spots, rallies and other campaign events as he bids for a second term.

The Save America political action committee Trump founded disclosed this week that it was goods rather than making choices between good and bad options.

Despite not attaining the splendid military triumphs he once envisioned during his youth, Ignatius is revered as a genuine soldier for Christ.

As the patron saint of soldiers, particularly Catholic soldiers, he fulfills the role of an intermediary, seeking protection and safety in times of peril, while also serving as a constant reminder to every soldier that their ultimate mission is to serve God.

Perhaps the essence of Ignatius’ life can be best encapsulated in his renowned saying: “ad majorem Dei gloriam” — which translates to “all for the greater glory of God.”

In 1541, Ignatius was elected as the first superior general of the Jesuits, a position he held for the rest of his life, guiding the order’s path.

Throughout his leadership tenure with the Jesuits, Ignatius passionately exhorted his brothers to be brave and resolute, all for the greater glory of God.

He would encourage them to “go forth and set the world on fire.”

Nearly 500 years later, the Jesuits are still living that mission.

From a peak of around 36,000 Jesuits in the 1960s, the number of Jesuits is down to less than 15,000 globally and in the Philippines there are less than 300.

But as Fr Robert Rivera SJ, until recently president of Ateneo de Naga University and the homilist last Sunday during the Province-wide Eucharistic celebration on the Feast of Saint Ignatius last Sunday, said this was not something to fear as all of us who work with the Jesuits, and there are thousands of us, are sons and daughters of Ignatius of Loyola and this is our prayer: “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding,and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

“Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.” down to its last $4 million by the end of June— loose change in campaign finance terms—after spending more than $20 million on legal fees.

Trump has a wide berth to spend vast sums on lawyers, and there is no question of criminal wrongdoing in doing so, but Washington watchers have questioned whether campaign donors should be expected to pick up such tabs.

“If you’re sending Trump money, it’s almost exclusively going to his personal legal fees,” said attorney and conservative political writer A.G. Hamilton.

“Which also means they are going to have practically nothing left over for spending on turnout efforts to compete with Democrats in key states.”

Trump’s latest indictment over his push to overturn the 2020 election will further strain resources, with legal bills now his PAC’s largest expense as the billionaire faces indictments in Florida, New York and Washington.

78 felony counts

The Republican National Committee covered most of Trump’s legal bills until November last year but stopped when he launched his 2024 election bid.

His various political operations have around $32 million cash in the bank heading towards January’s Iowa caucus—the first nominating contest in the primary season.

Most of the money Trump raises goes directly to his presidential campaign, with just 10 percent going to Save America, which has been covering legal expenses for almost any figure in Trump’s orbit ensnared in the investigations. AFP mst.daydesk@gmail.com