On the outrage of the Comey indictment…I see many saying, well, he won’t be found guilty. And I share that hope.
But that’s missing the point.
Remember Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky.
Trump simply wanted one thing—the announcement of a public investigation against Biden. (He did the same thing when he called Georgia Secretary of State Raffensberger about the 2020 election—he wanted him to announce an investigation into the votes…a “re-examination”).
For him, the public investigation and the media chaos that he and others stir up in its wake are the big victory.
As I wrote in “2025”: “the president’s top priority is publicly announced investigations. Right-wing TV repeating the words ‘treason and ‘abuse of power’ in every segment. That’s the victory. Everything that follows is the gravy.”
Folks, this is a show trial.
A public smear.
Which is why they are tossing out the window the traditional DOJ notion that you only bring cases you’re sure to win. (And fired the prosecutor who tried to adhere to that policy). That standard is too high for him to achieve his aim.
Instead, investigations, charges, political allies piling on, and leaked tidbits of evidence dominate the airwaves of friendly media, sullying the enemy before the trial ever starts. And the trial itself becomes a national spectacle as well.
What Trump wants are public investigations and, ultimately, show trials that destroy and bankrupt. That forever taint someone even if a jury eventually acquits them. And for the target, regardless of that outcome, millions of Americans will decide they are guilty of whatever Trump and his DOJ accuse them of.
Trump believes he wins these regardless of the trial’s outcome.
And he knows that even if someone is acquitted, the spectacle of a drawn-out show trial is more than enough to convince other potential critics to remain quiet going forward.
It’s all right out of Putin’s playbook.
Lincoln Square: Ohio’s Corrupt Districting Process
Once again, Ohio’s redistricting process is a masterclass in corruption disguised as procedure. Watch my above conversation with Lisa Senecal to understand the details of what’s going on:
Deadlines pile up, citizens submit maps, and public hearings go through the motions, but the real map lives in hiding until the last possible second. As I told Lisa: “It’s in some secret hiding place somewhere.” That secrecy isn’t accident — it’s the strategy, stripping meaning from every safeguard the state constitution lays out.
I walked through the process from 2011 to explain what they are doing at the moment:
Back then, Republicans literally ran the operation out of a room they themselves nicknamed “the bunker.” Staff were reclassified to dodge sunshine laws, lawyers cloaked the process in privilege, and all of it was presented as public ritual.
Same thing happened again in 2021.
They’ve become experts at turning the process that shapes Ohio’s democracy into theater, staged to make the illegitimacy of it all look okay.
They are clearly repeating this right now, with four days before the deadline and no map to speak of. As I explained: “This is literally how Victor Orbán would draw districts.”
Which is why the best way to confront this is not to go along with the kabuki theater of it, but to call it out:
When maps are rigged, elections stop being contests and start being coronations. Politicians who’ve never faced a real race lose any connection to democracy — they don’t knock on doors, don’t listen to constituents, don’t reflect much but what special interests tell them to do. They legislate in a vacuum, accountable only to those interests and the party that guarantees their seat, and delivering terrible results.
So what’s our answer? As I wrote yesterday:
Make us much noise as possible so Ohioans see how ugly their behavior is. (Remember, Ohioans hate gerrymandering).
Go to the ballot to reform it (or repeal it) whenever the timing makes sense.
And since they insist that politicians should be the ones drawing the lines, run like hell in 2026 to win the seats that draw the lines…remembering that ’26 is our best opportunity since 2006! (Which means it’s long past time to unite around a ticket).
In the meantime, know that they will do exactly what they’ve done before: the map is drawn, they’ll wait as long as possible to introduce it, then they’ll ram it through.
It’s what we do during and after that certainty that matters most.
