ACCOUNTABILITY ISN'T COMING

Haven't I told you for years that Donald Trump will never spend a night in prison?

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has indicated he does not currently plan to charge the Trump Organization with crimes related to allegations of "hush money" payments and real estate value manipulations, according to a personal lawyer for Donald Trump.

Ronald Fischetti, a New York attorney who represents the former president, said on Monday that in a meeting last week, he asked Vance’s team for details on charges they were considering.

According to Fischetti, members of Vance’s team said they were considering bringing charges against the Trump Organization and its individual employees related to alleged failures to pay taxes on corporate benefits and perks....

“We asked, ‘Is there anything else?’” Fischetti told POLITICO. “They said, ‘No.’”

“It’s crazy that that’s all they had,” he added.

When asked if the meeting touched on allegations made by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and by adult film star and director Stormy Daniels, Fischetti replied, “Nothing. Not a word on that.”

Fischetti also said that Vance’s team told him they will not bring charges against Trump himself when the first indictment comes down.

“They just said, ‘When this indictment comes down, he won’t be charged. Our investigation is ongoing,’” he said.

This is coming from Trump's lawyers, so it might be spin. But if it's accurate, then we have a long way to go before this touches Trump himself, and it seems increasingly likely that it never will.

At the same time, Republicans appear to be working hard to ensure that the House select committee on the January 6 Capitol riots will be a big nothing.

Trump allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are already preparing for the Jan. 6 committee to turn into a partisan cage match. McCarthy has yet to indicate whether he plans to name Republicans to the panel, saying Monday night that he wants to hear more details before deciding.

McCarthy gets a say in picking five of the thirteen members of the committee...

Interesting phrasing: the House resolution setting up the January 6th committee says 5 of the 13 members "shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader" not "on the recommendation of the minority leader."

— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) June 28, 2021

... but it appears that he's weighing the option of not naming any Republicans at all. Then he and every other Republican in America can say "partisan witch hunt" multiple times a day until much of America shares that opinion of the committee.

Or McCarthy might name the worst blowhards.

Privately, lawmakers predict that McCarthy — if he opts to appoint members — will gravitate towards controllable Trump acolytes who can work to snarl the select committee's progress. Already some of the GOP's biggest firebrands are asking McCarthy to join the panel, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia publicly pushing to be seated on the panel. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is also openly expressing his interest. And Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado is also seeking to land a spot, according to GOP conference sources.

If there are McCarthy appointees on the committee at all, they'll be there to inject short, punchy, aggressive GOP talking points into the debate, as Democrats pursue the facts in their usual earnest but tedious way. It'll be futile, a third impeachment, and will change no minds. (I might feel differently about all this if I thought there'd be any Democrat on the committee with charisma and great communication skills. But we'll probably get the usual dullards.)

Yes, there might be a turncoat Republican on the committee.

... two of Trump's most active critics in the party, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), have declined to pull their names from consideration as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's potential GOP appointee to the committee.

But Cheney and Kinginger have become so vehemently opposed to the GOP as it's currently constituted that they won't read as Republicans.

And if you're hoping for a Perry Mason moment involving testimony from McCarthy, don't get your hopes up.

The vast majority of House Republicans who are wary of the select committee have their reasons: They claim it will be a partisan effort to attack Trump and warn that McCarthy could be called as a witness as Democrats seek further details from a profanity-laced phone call he had with the former president during the attack. McCarthy has said he's willing to testify and repeated that sentiment Friday, responding that "I have no problem talking about Trump."

He's just going to lie. Isn't that obvious? And no one will threaten to punish McCarthy for any dishonesty, even under oath. He'll lie and he'll get away with it.

If I'm wrong about any of this, I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I expect no accountability, and no new flashes of insight. Much of the public already understands that Trump is a crook and that January 6 was a violent act of sedition. I don't see how it benefits us to have proceedings in which the former president and his mob seem to get away with their crimes once again.

Let's concentrate on the future -- specifically, on preventing these creeps from returning to power in 2022 and 2024. Accountability for past crimes isn't coming.