When he announced he was taking over the Washington, D.C. police department and deploying hundreds of federal agents along with the National Guard, President Trump declared that street criminals are beyond redemption.
“A lot of them are homegrown criminals, and these are bad people,” he said. “They’re not going to be an asset. They will never be an asset to society. I don’t care.”
Compare that to what Trump had to say on July 28 about a convicted sex criminal who targeted undercharged girls in a scheme that claimed hundreds of victims, including two 13 year-olds who had been made more vulnerable by the recent death of a parent.
“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but I—nobody’s approached me with it,” Trump said of Ghislaine Maxwell. “Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news… but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
Also compare it to what Trump said in July of 2020, after Maxwell was indicted for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse numerous minors. Epstein was a longtime friend of Trump’s, before they had a falling out sometime after 2002. Epstein had taken his own life in a federal lock-up in 2019, having been remanded on the same sex trafficking charges that were then lodged against Maxwell.
“I haven’t been following it too much,” Trump said of Maxwell’s arrest and the possibility she might name prominent personages as being complicit. “I just wish her well, frankly.”
Trump continued, “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
Maxwell was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her only hope of not spending most of her remaining days behind bars seemed to be a long shot appeal to the Supreme Court.
But then, on July 17, the Wall Street Journal published a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.” The article reported that the 2003 book marking Epstein’s 50th birthday had been assembled by Maxwell and included a typewritten message from Trump inside a drawing of a naked woman, with a signed “Donald” in the pubic area.
Trump’s immediate response was a defamation suit claiming the newspaper had “falsely claimed that he authored, drew and signed” the letter. The suit sought damages “not to be less than $10 billion.”
A week later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, once Trump’s personal criminal lawyer, traveled to Florida to meet with Maxwell for nine hours over two days. One immediate result was that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) made a singular exception to a long-standing rule barring sex offenders from minimum security “Club Fed” style facilities— Maxwell was transferred from the low security Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee in Florida to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.
But while Trump has effectively shrugged at Maxwell’s sexual assault of girls in their early teens, he voiced outrage on Trump Social when a group of unarmed teens battered DOGE blunderkind Edward “”Big Balls” Coristine in what was described as an attempted carjacking.
“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,” Trump’s post began. “Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”
Trump then got to the case that prompted the diatribe.
“The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs. Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see. If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore. Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Trump did not mention 19-year-old Coristine even by nicknames, but lest anybody doubt who he was talking about, he posted a photo of a bloodied Big Balls after the assault.
It is worth noting that Trump does not seem to have expressed similar sympathy for the victims of Maxwell who have “had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime.”
Violent crime happens to be declining in D.C. The battering of Big Balls nonetheless prompted Trump to follow through with his threat to “FEDERALIZE” the nation’s capitol.
“I just signed some executive orders,” Trump said at the press conference on Monday. “I’d like to have Will please come up and we’ll let the people know what we signed.”
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, approached with two blue binders containing the latest of the many executive orders issued in recent months as part of Trump’s efforts to consolidate his power.
“A short while ago in the Oval Office, President Trump signed two crucial executive actions to deal with the emergency crime conditions we currently face in the District of Columbia,” Scharf announced. “The first of these was an executive order, as President Trump said before, invoking his powers under section 40 of the Home Rule Act, to take federal control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.”
Scharf continued, “Along with that executive order, President Trump signed the statutorily required notification letters to Mayor Bowser and to the relevant House and Senate committee leaders. The second major executive action that President Trump signed was a presidential memorandum directing the secretary of defense to utilize the National Guard to address the conditions we see on our streets here in D.C. It also authorized the secretary of defense to work with state governors to utilize their National Guard units if necessary as well.”
Trump opened the two binders and displayed his distinctive Sharpie signature on each of the orders inside.
On January 20, Trump had waited until he was in front of the news cameras to actually sign the very first executive order of his second term.
“First you have a list of pardons and commutations for events that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021,” Scharf said then as he presented the newly-inaugurated president with a first blue binder.
“OK, and how many people is this?” Trump asked.
“I think this order will apply to approximately 1500 people, sir,” Scharf said.
“So, this is Jan. 6,” Trump said. “These are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon.”
‘Yes,” the Scharf said.
Trump added that there were six commutations that would require further examination.
“The commutations will either stay that way or, it’ll go to a full pardon,” he said.
Trump proceeded to affix his signature.
“So this is a big one,” he said.
The pardons and commutations for people Trump has called heroes and patriots included 169 people who had been convicted of assaulting police officers—some 140 officers were injured. But that did not stop Trump from now trying to pass himself off as a defender of the thin blue line in the fight for law and order.
He said he had seen footage from the night before in D.C. of people resisting the cops who had been deployed on his orders.
”They fought back against law enforcement last night and they’re not going to be fighting back long because I’ve instructed them and told them whatever happens—you know, they love to spit in the face of the police as the police are standing up there in uniform,” Trump continued. “They’re standing and they’re screaming at them, an inch away from their face, and then they start spitting in their face. I said, you tell them, you spit and we hit.”
He added, “It’s a disgusting thing. I’ve watched that for years, for three or four years.”
He was apparently not including what he has called “a love fest,” the Jan. 6 riot where his followers made spitting seem mild as they battered cops with everything from their own batons to a flagpole bearing the American flag. One cop, who is still on the job and therefore under Trump’s direct command as of this week, recalled to the Daily Beast that a now-pardoned Trump supporter had tried to gouge out one of his eyes at the Capitol.
Trump spoke as if none of that ever happened. The likely holder of the all-time record for freeing cop bashers continued his pose as the president behind the badge.
“You can see (cops) want to get at it and they’re standing there and the people are spitting in their face and they’re not allowed to do anything,” Trump said. “But now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”
As Trump told it, an improving situation he calls a crisis is the fault of the local elected officials.
“This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city’s local leadership,” he claimed.
The D.C. takeover provide Trump with a handy distraction from Epstein and Maxwell. A lawyer who had had close dealings with many of the victims told the Daily Beast that they have harder feelings about Maxwell than they do about Epstein because she is a woman and used that to win their trust with the intent of then violating it. The lawyer says victims are outraged that the number two in the DOJ spent nine hours talking to Maxwell—that being nine hours more than a senior official should have been talking to a convicted sex offender who preyed on underaged girls.
The lawyer says the victims fear the special treatment will culminate in Maxwell walking free.
Meanwhile, the president who pardoned supporters who assaulted cops at the capitol is using some of those same cops for an exercise in diversion called “take back our capital.” He is also establishing a “quick reaction force” ready to be deployed within an hour to address civil disturbances anywhere in America. You have to wonder if the nation’s capital is only the latest city that will see troops in the streets to address a non-existent crisis.
Whatever Trump decides to do, numerous Republican leaders who surely know better are almost certain to say nothing for fear of suffering Trump’s wrath. They will again prove they merit a nickname of their own.
No Balls.
The post Opinion: Why Trump’s Maxwell Hypocrisy Is Laid Bare by D.C. Power Grab appeared first on The Daily Beast.
