Thursday's indictment of the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg for fraud and tax crimes (they have both pleaded not guilty) is "not nothing," Quinta Jurecic, a senior editor at Lawfare and Brookings Institution fellow, writes for The Atlantic. But, she adds, it does feel "strangely unsatisfactory," akin to the infamous Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone getting charged "with, well, tax evasion," rather than more extreme crimes.
"It does the job legally, but seems, in a profound way, to miss the point," Jurecic writes. "There's something absurd about the fact that after years of baroque wrondgoing by [former President Donald] Trump, some possibly criminal and some not — flouting campaign finance laws, obstructing justice during the Mueller investigation, blackmailing the president of Ukraine, egging on an insurrection, and that's only from 2016 onward — the first criminal charge related to [Trump] or his business speaks to none of these acts, and doesn't even name Trump himself as a defendant." Read more of Jurecic's thoughts on the indictment at The Atlantic.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Starmer vs the farmers: who will win?Today's Big Question As farmers and rural groups descend on Westminster to protest at tax changes, parallels have been drawn with the miners' strike 40 years ago
-
How secure are royal palaces?The Explainer Royal family's safety is back in the spotlight after the latest security breach at Windsor
-
Magnificent Tudor castles and stately homes to visit this yearThe Week Recommends The return of 'Wolf Hall' has sparked an uptick in visits to Britain's Tudor palaces
-
Boeing machinists approve contract, end strikeSpeed Read The company's largest union approved the new contract offer, ending a seven-week strike
-
US economy still strong in final preelection reportSpeed Read It grew at a solid 2.8% annual rate from July through September
-
Boeing machinists reject deal, continue strikeSpeed Read The rejection came the same day Boeing reported a $6.2 billion quarterly loss
-
Ports reopen after dockworkers halt strikeSpeed Read The 36 ports that closed this week, from Maine to Texas, will start reopening today
-
Donald Trump's bitcoin obsessionThe Explainer Former president's crypto conversion a 'classic Trumpian transactional relationship', partly driven by ego-boosting NFTs
-
Would Trump's tariff proposals lift the US economy or break it?Talking Points Economists say fees would raise prices for American families
-
Epoch Times CFO charged with money launderingSpeed Read Weidong "Bill" Guan stands accused of laundering $67 million
-
Is Marjorie Taylor Greene finished?Talking Points Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson failed, but it still left many of her fellow Republicans furious
