Donald Trump has been indicted on four felony counts that accuse him of working to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S.
What’s truly inconceivable here is that we cannot dismiss the prospect of him pardoning himself because the SCOTUS is laughably partisan as well. Even Nixon didn’t enjoy the benefit of unprincipled staff and jurists like this garbage fire has. The GOP is a true cesspool of partisan hacks. It’s stunning to see how utterly unpatriotic they openly are, whilst wrapping themselves in a flag whose ideals they disdain (and simultaneously flying flags of vanquished foes).
It’s a cult. Literally a cult faithful to a cheap con man.
It means that he has been formally accused of these crimes and there will be trials in court to determine his guilt. There has to be sufficient evidence of a crime before they (a group of people called a grand jury) will allow a case to move to trial. This limits the government from making false charges and tying people up in court on bogus charges.
An indictment means that they find that the Department of Justice (DoJ) do have sufficient evidence for a trial. It is not a determination of guilt per se, but a determination that there is sufficient evidence that a trial (or trials) must be set to determine whether he is guilty.
Furthermore, it’s my understanding that the DoJ will not indict someone unless they are absolutely sure they have an ironclad case against them that will result in the person being found guilty.
There are a bunch of charges against him, many (all?) of which are felonies. Which means he could go to prison for who knows how long. Possibly the rest of his life. The penalties are determined separately after someone is found guilty. Though, of course, there are guidelines on what the penalties should be (i.e. how long they spend in prison for each crime, restitution they may have to pay, etc.).
TL;DR
It means that Trump has been formally accused of these crimes, there is sufficient evidence for them to take him to trial, and if he is found guilty he will probably go to prison, maybe for a long time.
Non American here, can anyone eli5 what this all means, and what may come of it?
If justice prevails he will serve time in prison. But this has never happened before so anything can happen.
Including him winning the upcoming elections, pardoning himself and everyone else.
What’s truly inconceivable here is that we cannot dismiss the prospect of him pardoning himself because the SCOTUS is laughably partisan as well. Even Nixon didn’t enjoy the benefit of unprincipled staff and jurists like this garbage fire has. The GOP is a true cesspool of partisan hacks. It’s stunning to see how utterly unpatriotic they openly are, whilst wrapping themselves in a flag whose ideals they disdain (and simultaneously flying flags of vanquished foes).
It’s a cult. Literally a cult faithful to a cheap con man.
This timeline sucks.
It means that he has been formally accused of these crimes and there will be trials in court to determine his guilt. There has to be sufficient evidence of a crime before they (a group of people called a grand jury) will allow a case to move to trial. This limits the government from making false charges and tying people up in court on bogus charges.
An indictment means that they find that the Department of Justice (DoJ) do have sufficient evidence for a trial. It is not a determination of guilt per se, but a determination that there is sufficient evidence that a trial (or trials) must be set to determine whether he is guilty.
Furthermore, it’s my understanding that the DoJ will not indict someone unless they are absolutely sure they have an ironclad case against them that will result in the person being found guilty.
There are a bunch of charges against him, many (all?) of which are felonies. Which means he could go to prison for who knows how long. Possibly the rest of his life. The penalties are determined separately after someone is found guilty. Though, of course, there are guidelines on what the penalties should be (i.e. how long they spend in prison for each crime, restitution they may have to pay, etc.).
TL;DR It means that Trump has been formally accused of these crimes, there is sufficient evidence for them to take him to trial, and if he is found guilty he will probably go to prison, maybe for a long time.
He should go to prison. He’ll probably be elected president again.