After the First Indictment of the Former (MAGA) President

Accountability and good governance are unifying virtues that Americans recognize are fundamental to a well-run, well-running country. Americans know that when politicians elected to run the country turn out to be lying crooks, dangerous fascists, or both, they must face consequences to dissuade other politicians from trying the same things.

But drama sells, so TV news and pundits hopped on the Republican hype train as they often do, running waves of “breaking news” shows ruminating about how such an unprecedented indictment could tear our country apart. This didn’t happen when Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew faced pending indictments that motivated them to resign, and there’s no reason to expect anything different with Trump’s indictment now. And, since the year 2000, former leaders in 78 other countries have been jailed or prosecuted, including in democracies like France, Israel and South Korea, and those nations are stronger than before .

Our news organizations should remind their viewers that the willingness to hold a former president accountable to the law is a sign of health in the legal system of a democracy. The campaign finance violations in the first indictment may have been the only way the former MAGA president could achieve the razor-thin victories that gave him the 2016 Electoral College vote. Trump cheated his way to the presidency, and the laws that he broke to do so must be upheld. Enforcing the law protects our democracy.

But Republicans in Congress have enabled and excused many of his crimes, from campaign finance violations as "Individual-1," through high crimes such as seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, incitement to violent insurrection, and violations of the Espionage Act in taking hundreds of top secret documents with him to his retirement resort Mar a Lago.

While MAGA Republicans in Congress focus on covering up those crimes, Republican state legislatures have continued to make it harder for Democrats to vote and are looking for ways to allow them to overturn election results. In 2023, Republican state legislatures have taken aim at their courts too. In March, under the guise of promoting law and order, the Georgia legislature empowered itself to discipline and even remove what they see as “woke prosecutors.” This parallels efforts to remove prosecutors in Florida, Missouri, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

We are hoping that a series of criminal and civil indictments to come will expose the former MAGA president for the criminal that he is, and send Democratic and non-partisan voters to the polls to cast all his Republican enablers out of office in 2024.

The Manhattan Grand Jury’s indictment is only the first in a series of expected indictments. The April legal calendar for Trump and his friends will be busy; check the Resources below for details about the pending cases.

April 17: Fox News, goes on trial for promulgating the Big Lie
April 25: Defamation and sexual battery civil suit brought by E. Jean Carroll. Trump and Carroll will both testify. Under oath
Manhattan Grand Jury goes on break from April 4–28.

Resources to Follow the Litigation

Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump from the Just Security website. This public resource, a litigation tracker, compiles and provides information on all of the criminal and civil cases currently facing the former President. It is regularly updated.

Tracking Trump: The Lawsuits And Investigations Involving The Former President, Forbes, past and current litigation, regularly updated, useful graphics summarizing each case, divided into categories of business, election related, January 6th, and personal cases.

The Meidas Touch Network on YouTube (and Twitch) has frequent updates on the Trump cases from experienced criminal attorneys. One of the anchors of their “Legal AF'' show on Wednesdays and Saturdays is a 30 year veteran of the Manhattan DA’s office. The Meiselas brothers’ low-budget, subscriber-funded channel has a variety of news and commentary focused on core democratic values. It has broad appeal because they do not normalize Republican forays into fascism.
Legal Podcasts: there are many excellent weekly podcasts hosted by attorneys and veteran prosecutors that analyze the latest news. Their hour-long shows give them time to go into more depth than cable news allows.

Glenn Kirschner, has his own YouTube channel. He has been speaking out about apparent criminal behavior among the MAGA set since 2018, under the hashtag: Justice Matters. He spent 24 years at the DC USAO, prosecuting lengthy RICO trials in DC Federal Court and murder/conspiracy/obstruction of justice cases in DC Superior Court.
Stay Tuned, hosted by Preet Bharara, former SDNY prosecutor of financial crimes, fired in March of 2018.
Sisters in Law, features US Attorney Joyce Vance, former Watergate Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks, US Attorney Barb McQuade and former litigation attorney Kimberly Atkins
Talking Feds, anchored by Harry Litman, former US Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, includes other former DOJ staff too.
MSW Media is a group of podcasts organized by Dr. Allison Gill who hosted the “Mueller, She Wrote” podcast that started in 2017 to track every part of the Mueller investigation.

Daily Beans is a shorter daily roundup of Trump gang criming
Cleanup on Aisle 45: Allison Gill and Pete Strzok, former Deputy Assistant Director of FBI Counterintelligence Unit
Jack: Allison GIll and Andy McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI, focused on developments in cases Special Counsel Jack Smith is pursuing

Deep Dives into US history by Rachel Maddow

BAG MAN, a book and podcast series about “the wild crimes, audacious coverup & spectacular downfall of a brazen crook in the White House”—namely, Spiro Agnew.
ULTRA, a podcast series about “sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good,” in the 1940s