If the state of Georgia wants to send former President Donald Trump to prison for, in part, telling his adherents to watch a television program, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham warned that former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff could spend a millennium behind bars.
Certainly hyperbole, but for those who recall the California Democrat’s relentless self-promotion while pushing the Trump-Russia fabrication, it highlights the utter absurdity of the Trump charges.
At issue is the fact that the indictment handed down this week did not simply accuse Trump of a crime based on allegations that he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” sufficient election fraud to close the narrow lead opponent Joe Biden enjoyed after the initial vote count in November 2020.
Instead, the former president and 18 others are charged on broader grounds for having the audacity to contest the election results in the first place, and some of the conduct that prosecutors claim is unlawful borders on the ludicrous.
The prosecution is using Trump’s remarks as evidence that he is culpable of racketeering, as reported by The Washington Post.
“I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia,” read one such tweet, written on Jan. 3, 2021. “He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
In another supposedly damning tweet, Trump encouraged people to watch TV.
“Some of the tweets were less aggressive. The indictment pointed to a Dec. 3, 2020, tweet in which Trump wrote ‘Georgia hearings now on @OANN. Amazing!’ which was described as ‘an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy,’” the Post reported.
Georgia hearings now on @OANN. Amazing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2020
That is some conspiratorial behavior for sure.
If this qualifies for inclusion in an indictment, tweeted Graham, Schiff is in serious peril.
“Remember the Russian hoax and the Mueller investigation?” the South Carolina Republican tweeted Wednesday.
“Donald Trump is being charged with a criminal act for telling people to watch a network show about the election,” Graham said. “If that becomes a crime Adam Schiff will be in jail for 1,000 years!”
“How many times did Schiff go on MSNBC and CNN and tell us Donald Trump was a Russian agent?” he added.
“This is very dangerous what they are doing to our country,” the senator said. “It’s a terrible double standard.”
Remember the Russian hoax and the Mueller investigation?
Donald Trump is being charged with a criminal act for telling people to watch a network show about the election. If that becomes a crime Adam Schiff will be in jail for 1,000 years❗️
How many times did Schiff go on…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 17, 2023
In a subsequent tweet, he noted that the duplicity extended to another election “denier,” Stacey Abrams, a chronic Georgia gubernatorial loser (though not in her mind).
“President Trump is being prosecuted in a way to make challenging an election a crime. Democrat Stacey Abrams said it best – it’s hard to concede an election when you think you were cheated,” Graham tweeted.
“Well, here’s the current standard: If you are a Democrat and you claim you were cheated, nothing happens. If a Republican does it, they try to put you in jail!”
President Trump is being prosecuted in a way to make challenging an election a crime. Democrat Stacey Abrams said it best – it's hard to concede an election when you think you were cheated.
Well, here's the current standard: If you are a Democrat and you claim you were…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 17, 2023
Well, Schiff has been divested of his House Intelligence Committee membership in the 118th Congress, albeit with much whining and a slew of television appearances where the establishment media gave him ample opportunity to complain about the injustice of it all.
Abrams, meanwhile, is under scrutiny for how she spent campaign funds, including significant tax discrepancies at the organization she founded.
However, neither will be charged for the flagrant falsehoods that were amplified by multiple television networks.
Schiff appeared everywhere he could to assert that then-President Trump was a Kremlin agent, despite knowing full well that Trump was not.
Abrams, meanwhile, continued to promote the falsehood that she won the 2018 Georgia governor’s race until she became the Democratic nominee for the 2022 Georgia governor’s race. (In that contest, she lost so decisively that she did not even attempt to promote the notion that she was the actual winner.)
Now, of course, neither of these individuals should be charged for their falsehoods, which are protected under our penal statutes despite being harmful and stupid.
Nonetheless, when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis attempts to link a Donald Trump tweet urging viewers to watch the Georgia election integrity hearings to a racketeering conspiracy, it’s reasonable to assume that every lie Adam Schiff has been peddling on television since Trump’s election should earn him a thousand years in prison.