Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax spent the days after Donald Trump's third indictment preparing for his fourth indictment, this one out of Georgia. The foreshadowing began as early as Aug. 9:
- Atlanta Braces for Potential New Trump Indictment (wire article)
- Donald Trump to Newsmax: Georgia Won't 'Stand' for 4th Indictment
- Fulton County DA Warns Staff Not to Respond to Trump Ad
- Trump to Georgia DA: Focus on Atlanta Murders
- Ga. Official: Trump Rhetoric May Lead to Violence
But when a draft indictment document was posted on the Georgia court's website (then quickly taken down), that opened up the floodgates for complaining. Eric Mack parroted the Trump camp's whining in an Aug. 14 article:
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump fired back at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office for leaking the charges being put before the grand jury targeting Trump this week.
"The Fulton County District Attorney's Office has once again shown that they have no respect for the integrity of the grand jury process," attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little wrote in a statement to Newsmax.
The statement came just hours after reporters picked up a grand jury court docket outlining the case and charges against Trump. The document was on the court's website briefly – apparently mistakenly – before it was deleted.
[...]
"This was not a simple administrative mistake," the Trump attorneys' statement continued. "A proposed indictment should only be in the hands of the District Attorney's Office, yet it somehow made its way to the clerk's office and was assigned a case number and a judge before the grand jury even deliberated.
"This is emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception."
Newsmax's focus on the Georgia happenings intensified after that:
- Georgia Doc Leak Shows Trump Charges Sought: RICO, Conspiracy
- David Schoen to Newsmax: Trump Might Seek to Move Ga. Case
- Trump Urges Georgia's Ex-Lt. Gov. Not to Testify
- Ga. Judge to Allow Cameras in Courtroom if Trump Indicted
When Trump's indictment was made official later on Aug. 14, Newsmax began with a wire article on the charges, then quickly moved to its usual defend-and-attack mode throughout the rest of the day:
- Sen. Cruz: Timing of Trump Indictment 'Nakedly Political'
- Kari Lake: 'Georgia Just Sealed Deal' on Trump Presidency
- Napolitano to Newsmax: Georgia Call Alone Doesn't Justify Charges Against Trump
- Ramaswamy: 'Another Disastrous Trump Indictment'
- Sen. Graham to Dems: 'Careful What You Wish For' on Indictment
- Trump Campaign: 'Radical Partisan DA' Interfering in '24 Election
- Trump: 'Justice, Rule of Law Officially Dead' in US
Just a single article of non-Trump rah-rah appeared in that time: "Hillary Clinton: Ga. Indictments 'Terrible Moment' for US."
Unsurprisngly, Newsmax ramped things up the next day, Aug. 15:
- Trump's Lawyers Respond to Georgia Indictment
- Giuliani: Georgia Charges 'Affront to Democracy'
- Trump: The Witch Hunt Continues
- Trump Leverages Indictments to Fund CampaignTrump: Exonerating Report Coming After Ga. Indictment
- Sen. Rubio: Trump Indictment a 'Third-World Spectacle'
- Sen. Johnson to Newsmax: Trump Indictments Travesty of Justice
- Ken Paxton to Newsmax: Trump's Georgia Indictment a 'Witch Hunt'
- Lara Trump to Newsmax: Georgia Indictment a 'Clown Show,' 'Preposterous'
- Hakes to Newsmax: Trump Ga. Trial 'Likely' Televised
- Attorney Bobb to Newsmax: Ga. DA's Indictment Wouldn't Hold in Law School
- Meadows: Shift Georgia Charges to Federal Court
- Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax: Ridiculous Application of RICO Statute
- Rep. Hinson to Newsmax: Trump Indictments 'Politicized'
- Sen. Tim Scott: Nation's Legal System 'Weaponized'
- MTG to Newsmax: Americans Want Cheap Gas, Trump Left Alone
- Alina Habba to Newsmax: Criminalizing One Side 'Un-American'
- Joe DiGenova to Newsmax: DA Willis 'Terrorist in Prosecutor's Uniform'
As usual, there was only a small smattering of articles that told a fuller story:
- Georgia DA Indicts 18 Trump Attorneys and Allies
- Gov. Kemp: '2020 Election in Georgia Was Not Stolen'
- Ga. Court Admits Flub: We Released Trump Doc on Web (wire article)
- Ga. Case Has Problems From the Start, From Seating Jurors to Finding a Mammoth Courtroom
- Rep. Buck Says Trump Troubles Distraction for GOP
In the midst of all this apparent criminality, an Aug. 14 column by Larry Bell argued that it was somehoe worth it for people to donate money to Trump:
Democrats are bound and determined to bury their leading political adversary, Donald Trump, in debt through publicly funded lawsuits to redirect money, media attention, and surging momentum away from his 2024 election campaign.
John Lauro, a Trump attorney, said on Fox News within minutes of a third indictment being made public, that the former president is "being forced to spend money on legal defense, which should be spent on the discussion of critical ideas and critical issues."
Recent financial reports gleefully released by a gloating New York Times analysis of federal records show that about 30 cents of every dollar raised by Trump’s various political committees and super PAC this year have been spent on legal-related costs.
[...]
Any good news in this it is that the strategy to bleed Donald Trump’s campaign and personal finances dry with transparently political legal charges energizes his online donor support at a rate that dwarfs all rivals: nearly $46 million in the first half of the year, with an average donation of under $35.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung accused President Biden and the Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith, of using the government’s "unlimited resources" to try "to force the Trump campaign to spend, spend, spend to defend innocent Americans who have been targeted."
Nevertheless, Cheung added, "As President Trump has said, he will spend whatever it takes to defeat the Deep State and Crooked Joe Biden."
I’ll add that whatever this cost, it will be money well spent.
Bell did not raise the question of why a self-proclaimed billionaire is not spending his own money to defend himself but instead begging for money from others.
