Former President Donald Trump falsely alleged that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who announced his upcoming retirement on Oct 1, committed treason against the United States and suggested that the military commander should be killed over this imagined offense.
The disgraced former president and leading contender for the 2024 GOP nomination is free on bail pending 91 counts of criminal charges in four different indictments that accuse him of attempting to overthrow the Constitution, betraying national security, engaging in a broad illegal enterprise and falsifying business records to coverup a hush money payment to a porn star with whom he had sex.
“Mark Milley, who led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, costing many lives, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, and handing over BILLIONS of dollars of the finest military equipment ever made, will be leaving the military next week,” wrote Trump on his social media platform.
“This will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate! This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” the rant continued. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”
Rep. Paul Gosar, a crazed lunatic who represents Arizona in Congress, also suggested that Milley should be “hung” for his response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol and the routine discussions with Chinese military leaders referenced by Trump.
In a House of Representatives newsletter, Gosar wrote: “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung. He had one boss: President Trump, and instead he was secretly meeting with Pelosi and coordinating with her to hurt Trump. That is, when he wasn’t also secretly coordinating and sharing intelligence with the Chinese military. How this traitor remains in office is a question we need answered.”
The Arizona madman also accused Milley, the FBI and the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of inciting people to be violent on January 6, and claimed that Attorney General Merrick Garland lied when he told a congressional committee that “he has no idea how many agents or assets were present” at the Capitol riot, which occurred 65 days before the government’s chief lawyer was sworn in on March 11, 2021.
Trump’s $200,000 bond in the Georgia election interference case contains conditions of release that include rigorous restrictions on his use of social media.
Among the agreed-upon conditions, Trump must not violate any laws in Georgia or elsewhere, he must appear in court as directed, he must not communicate about the facts of the case with fellow co-defendants – except through his legal team – and he must not intimidate co-defendants or witnesses.
The Georgia court order stipulates that such intimidation – “no direct or indirect threat of any nature” – includes posts on social media or reposts of posts made by others on social media.
The former president’s conditions related to intimidating witnesses and co-defendants are more voluminous, mentioning that Trump must not make direct or indirect threats against the 30 unindicted co-conspirators, any victim, the community, or property within the community.
The issue has come up in other cases the former president faces as well, including in the Jan. 6 case where prosecutors sought a protective order after Trump appeared to make comments related to the case in a post on social media, in what they argued was part of a pattern of the former president posting about ongoing cases – and sometimes going after judges and attorneys in the process.
Trump actually initiated the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan when he approved a surrender to the Taliban in February 2020, which released 5,000 Islamic militants from detention and agreed to withdraw from the country by May 1, 2021, so Biden had to follow through with the agreement although he pushed back the withdrawal date to Aug. 31.
John Bolton and H.R. McMaster, two former Trump national security advisers known for their hawkish views, have lambasted both Trump and Biden for the withdrawal.
Trump’s refusal to heed the admonitions of judges in his various criminal and civil cases concerning social media messages that seem like tampering with witnesses, juries and justice would have landed any other defendant behind bars but so far, Trump has not been jailed by D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding at his federal election fraud trial.
The New York Times reported that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office was investigating online threats against the grand jurors who voted this week to indict Trump and 18 others but Judge Scott McAfee has not ordered anyone detained over those threats or the calls for violence against Milley.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the stolen documents case, has already issued a number of rulings that seem oddly favorable to the defendant since the former president was indicted, so there is little expectation the Trump-appointed jurist will crack down on his threats.
Like the other judges overseeing Trump’s criminal trials, New York State Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is presiding over the criminal case against the former president charged with 34 felonies in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, has not been asked to jail the defendant.
A Colorado judge overseeing a lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot issued a protective order prohibiting threats and intimidation in the case, saying the safety of those involved — including herself and her staff — was necessary as the groundbreaking litigation moves forward.
“I 100% understand everybody’s concerns for the parties, the lawyers, and frankly myself and my staff based on what we’ve seen in other cases,” said District Judge Sarah B. Wallace as she signed the protective order that prohibits parties in the case from making threatening or intimidating statements.
The legal action in Colorado is one of dozens of lawsuits filed around the country seeking to disqualify Trump from the ballot based on the 14th Amendment clause barring anyone who swore an oath to the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from running for office.
The litigants in those cases argue that Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was a conspiracy to halt the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, which would have ended democracy by placing the fate of the White House in the House of Representatives operating under rules that would have enable Republicans to defy the voters.
Republicans have threatened to shut down the government, put the full faith and credit of the dollar in peril, openly suggested that political rivals be killed, and literally stormed the Capitol in a failed violent coup attempt, but recent polls suggest they will win if Democrats renominate President Joe Biden.
The Party of the People, meanwhile, is denying two White House aspirants any hope of getting a fair shot at the nomination as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Marianne Williamson have pointed out in light of the fact that 67% of American voters want someone else besides President Joe Biden to be the Democratic Party nominee.