And to Whom are Your Referring?

​Trump always loves to point out that he’s the first person to do something, even when others have been doing it for years.  Well, the good news is that he now actually did get a real first – the first former president in the history of the United States to have a criminal referral.

Kudos!  But then, we knew he had it in him.

Yes, the House Select Committee sending criminal referrals on Trump and others has almost no legal substance.  The DOJ is doing their own investigation and will indict him (and the others) if they determine they have enough evidence that would allow them to win in court.

But still, it was great to see.

At the very least, the criminal referrals means that Trump couldn’t dance around and shout out how that all means he was “vindicated.”

It also tarnishes, not just him (an impressive feat given how eternally-tarnished he is already), but also his sputtering presidential campaign – basically guilty by association with himself.  He can call Witch Hunt and “Partisan!!” all he wants, but there were two Republicans on the committee (one serving as co-chair), and together they all found the witch.  And presented the receipts.

(As for the others, who are lawyers, there can possibly be real-world problems for them caused directly by the referrals without having to wait and see what the DOJ would do.  I would guess that bar associations don’t like members practicing who have criminal referrals from Congress.  But even if not, the referrals show clearly that they too are all being investigated by the DOJ.  And then there are the ethics referrals for a handful of Republican members of Congress.)

But here’s the weird thing that shouldn’t be overlooked amid all the news yesterday –

This was a huge deal, without the slightest question – having a criminal referral from Congress to the Justice Department for actions promoting an Insurrection to overthrow the government and democracy.

But –

Major and critical as that is, let us not forget that Trump still also has –

An investigation into him stealing top secret classified documents, which most experts say might be the easiest case against him.

An investigation in Georgia for his efforts to illegally influence an election, which could be almost as easy a case since there’s that pesky audio tape of him asking to find 10,870 non-existent votes.

An investigation in New York State against his company which was helped significantly by the criminal conviction against it by the Manhattan D.A, and which puts his company at risk of being fined $250 million and being shut down in the state.

An investigation by the Manhattan D.A. which has previously been dropped, but only recently has been brought back to life as conditions have changed.

So, y’know, not good.

And this doesn’t even take into consideration that the worst news for Trump personally is that today the House Ways and Means Committee is deciding whether to make his tax returns public, something he’s fought from happening for six years.

What also leaps out is how utterly silent Republican members of Congress have been about the criminal referrals against their party’s leader.  Maybe some have said something and it’s slipped through my notice – but my notice is that I haven’s seen anything. 

I assume something is coming eventually. But this referral can’t have caught any of them by surprise, so you’d think they’d have something reason.  And “eventually” is a long time (even if it’s today) when an immediate response is called for before the news story takes hold.  Which it now has. 

It’s almost like they all are secretly happy that the Committee is doing their work for them and help push Trump into the depths of hell.  But even that is weird, since we know there are diehard acolytes of Trump in the House and Senate, so silence is odd.  But utterly understandable.

Except probably to Trump.  We know he craves attention and praise, and the silence of support from Republicans in Congress must be excruciating to him.

Not as excruciating as the release of his taxes, if it happens today, even just in part, but excruciating, nonetheless.

And it’s only the start for Trump, who has had perhaps the worst start of a presidential campaign as one could imagine, including My Dinner with Nazis and lunatic “Major Announcement” Trump digital playing cards, the perfect Christmas grift.  And still, there are all the others who got criminal referrals yesterday.  And everyone else already being investigated by the Justice Department.

Sometimes, the road to hell is paved with bad intentions...