Selective prosecution is this ⤵️ The discrimination must be against a protected category.
"Rich people who cheat" is not a protected category.
Here's the kicker: Raising this defense is basically an admission of guilt. "I'm guilty but was selectively prosecuted."
4/
What happened was the opposite of selective prosecution.
Under the circumstances, NOT prosecuting would have been PREFERENTIAL treatment.
This isn't like a random car pulled over.
It's like a car speeding recklessly for years but was untouchable because of who was driving.
5/
Given what has been coming out, not investigating would have been preferential treatment.
@MichaelCohen212 testified before Congress in 2018 about a litany of crimes that he did on behalf of Trump.
The NYTimes reported massive tax cheating for years.
6/
And @SWinstonWolkoff enraged that the Trump family tried to turn her into a scapegoat for their alleged crimes — went public with shocking details about how she was set up by the Trumps as a scapegoat to take the blame for a missing $27 million from the inauguration funds.
7/
Given the family's well-known history of shady business practices, questionable real estate deals, cheating of charities, for a prosecutor to ignore the evidence would be to offer preferential treatment.
8/
I'm also hearing versions of this: "They've scrutinized everything for years but never came up with anything until now."
Really, that statement is this: "We've received preferential treatment for years, so it's totally unfair that we're not receiving it now."
9/
The article that Jr. quoted (which repeated all the Trump talking points) says⤵️
First, it isn't true. Most people don't cheat like that, and the pattern of cheating was shocking.
Most of us don't cheat in order to live a lavish lifetyle.
Second, it's not a denial.
10/
The argument is "They're guilty but so what it isn't a big deal and everyone does things like that so why are you picking on them."
They think cheating is okay, for them.
Make America Great Again means go back to the time [white] men could grab whatever they wanted.
11/
Before the New Deal and regulatory agencies, they could cheat, manipulate markets, and fix prices.
Before modern rape and sexual harassment laws, they could grab women.
On the frontier, they could grab land.
It's hard to give up all that "liberty."
12/
I think Jr. and Eric are melting down because they know they've done everything Weisselberg was accused of.
And they can't deny it because it's all documented.
"We're the company leaders, but we had no idea the company was cheating left and right" is problematic.
13/
If I had an edit button, I'd change "rich people who cheat" to "people who get rich by cheating."
I wondered that as well, too. Remember when his home office was searched? He had Trump Org files in his home and they were seized. By the time they were returned to him, he had turned against Trump.
Witnesses don't always tell the truth.
Juries don't always believe the witness.
Witnesses who "flip" were usually involved in the criminal scheme, so their testimony can also be suspect.
Documentary evidence is harder to discredit. Witnesses can help connect the dots.
Weisselberg was "one of the largest individual beneficiaries" of the criminal scheme.
So there were others.
He wasn't even necessarily the largest beneficiary.
Today, those others are probably having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
I should do this as a thread.
This is important: The scheme is systematic and ongoing. In other words, we're not talking about a few isolated incidents, but pervasive over a period of years.
This is my surprised face. [sarcasm]
The defendants "and others."
The scheme was to compensate Weisselberg "and other Trump organization executives. . . " off the books.
It's hard to believe those others get to skate free. There's just too much noise in here about them.
I think you could use a refresher on the history of the parties. I can recommend a few books, including @HC_Richardson's To Make Men Free (I'll put the covers in the next tweet.)
1/
How Lincoln’s anti-slavery, strong federal government pro-industry party morphed into the party of the Proud Boys is a little complicated, but I'll break it down.
Unless otherwise indicated, all facts taken from these books ⤵️
I wonder what would happen if, across the nation, people started holding signs in front of Toyota dealerships and handing out leaflets about why money spent on Toyota funds insurrections.
The book is detailed and complete and there’s no way to do it justice in a Twitter thread, but (after I fill my ☕️) I'll try to hit a few main points.
Ben-Ghiat, a historian, tells the stories of an impressive list of strongmen👇 Patterns emerge.
🔹They all use their public office to enrich themselves.
🔹Most come to power with a history of lawbreaking.
🔹They act like gangsters.
🔹They encourage violence.
One way to see the evolution of the Republican Party is that what was once the right wing fringe has now taken over the party, and moderates are leaving.
Another way to see this is what @dziblatt calls the conservative dilemma, which is this:
Conservatives tend to represent the wealth and powerful corporations, therefore the policies they advocate are not appealing to the majority of people.