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Barbara McQuade: Charge Trump With Manslaughter In 5 Capitol Riot Deaths. [1]

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Date: 2022-07-14

Barbara McQuade, a legal analyst on MSNBC, floated the idea that Donald Trump could be charged with five counts of manslaughter for his actions on Jan 6th.

U-M Law Professor McQuade's Bold Idea: Charge Trump With Manslaughter In 5 Capitol Riot Deaths

And her is some of what she says:

Under District of Columbia law, manslaughter occurs when a person recklessly causes an unintentional death. Under the federal Assimilative Crimes Act, state (or D.C.) law can be charged federally when it occurs on federal property. For manslaughter, it's not necessary to show that the defendant intended the deaths to occur. That’s what makes it different from murder. As president, Trump has a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. His failure to call up the National Guard or even to call off the mob could be described as "causing" the five unintentional deaths at the Capitol.

McQuade argues it would actually be easier to charge Trump with manslaughter in D.C. Here is McQuade’s Twitter feed:

x Under DC law, manslaughter occurs when a person recklessly causes an unintentional death. Under the federal Assimilative Crimes Act, state (or DC) law can be charged federally when it occurs on federal property. — Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) July 13, 2022

x To prove Trump acted recklessly, prosecutors would need to show he was aware of a risk and chose to ignore it. Here, he knew the crowd was armed and angry. And he could see on TV that they were engaging in violence. Death of an officer or member of the mob was a very real risk. — Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) July 13, 2022

x Cipollone said they would have blood on their hands if they didn’t act to call off the mob. And yet Trump watched the violence for 3 hours — Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) July 13, 2022

x Manslaughter should not displace the wider charges of attacking our democracy by engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding or commit sedition, but should supplement those crimes to address the harms he caused with those deaths. — Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) July 13, 2022

As I always say, I am not a lawyer. I’ve never had a law class. The closest I have come to legal knowledge is watching episodes of “Law And Order.”

But given the threat posed by Donald Trump to our democracy, I like her thinking “outside of the box.” There is this idea that Trump will never be indicted for anything. And most of what we here comes down to two things. The political and legal establishment in D.C. acts as if presidents have the divine right of kings.

Look at what has been done in the past with regards to presidents breaking the law since the time of Nixon. There has been no accountability. None. And even Democrats fall into his thinking. Look at what all the establishment Democrats did after the lawlessness of George W. Bush. Even Obama wanted to “look forward and not at the past.”

And this is how we got Trump.

The next up is that indicting Trump will divide the nation, and we should all be against that. We should? Last time I looked, the nation is already divided. We have intimidation, threats, and actual political violence being done by right wing extremists. Doing nothing against Trump will only worsen the situation. There will be more political violence, and it will happen if Trump is indicted or not.

So why not indict him?

Would manslaughter indictments be easier to prove in court? I don’t know. But look at how high the bar has to be to even consider indicting Trump. If I have paid correct attention to what the legal establishment keeps telling us peasants, we literally have to be inside Trump’s head to prove he had criminal intent when it comes to obstruction of a legal proceeding or — God forbid — seditious conspiracy.

Vulcan mind melding.

I’m all for what is easy to prosecute Trump for. If it is witness tampering, hurrah. If it is easier to go for manslaughter, why not?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/14/2110465/-Barbara-McQuade-Charge-Trump-With-Manslaughter-In-5-Capitol-Riot-Deaths

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