Trump did not beat the system. He became it. What you just read is count one of the restitution order — seventy-two hours before the inauguration, defendant-controlled wallets selling into retail buyers who trusted a president-elect. The forensic blockchain data exists. The legal instrument to use it exists. What has been missing is a court willing to read the number into the record.
He was convicted of thirty-four felony counts in New York and sentenced to an unconditional discharge. No prison. No fine. No probation. He was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil proceeding, paid the judgment, and won the presidency. He stole classified documents, stored them in a bathroom at a private club, and the case was dismissed by a judge he had appointed. He ran for president under four separate criminal indictments and won.
In 2024 the Supreme Court held, six to three, that presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional acts and presumptive immunity for all official acts. Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was not a legal disagreement. It was a eulogy:
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.
Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune.
Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune.”
That is the current state of American law. Those are the words of a sitting Supreme Court justice describing it.
The deepest injustice is not that Trump escaped accountability. The deepest injustice is what his escape taught. Every future authoritarian now knows the path is available. Appoint enough judges. Run out the clock. Show enough contempt for the process and the process accommodates the contempt. The lesson is in the curriculum. The next one — younger, healthier, more disciplined — is taking notes.
The enterprise does not end with sentencing. It converts accountability into threat, threat into cost, and cost into the calculation that prevents the next person from trying. Fani Willis was targeted. Letitia James was targeted. Jack Smith was targeted. Every prosecutor, every judge, every official who used the instruments of accountability against the enterprise absorbed a version of what this piece describes. The mechanism does not need to be subtle. It needs only to be expensive enough and sustained enough that the next person decides the cost is too high.
The judge in this piece does what the actual institutions failed to do. She counts. She writes it down. She keeps the ledger because the record is the one thing they never quite managed to shred.
It is not justice. It is the proof that justice was attempted. That is not nothing. In the current moment it is also not enough.
The ledger is a green notebook. One line per case. Name, statute, date, sentence. Kept because it seemed important that someone count. The ledger is the argument. Everything else is what happened to it.
This note is the frame for a piece of fiction that renders the full accountability — eight counts, the asset schedule read into the record, Mar-a-Lago transferred to the National Park Service. What happens when the mechanism is used completely. And what happens to it in the appeals. Three parts.
This is a phenomenal summary of a very significant problem in governance.
The entire wealth empire of this administration is digital. We went stupidly deep on this when we first started then realized that no one would read it. Nevertheless, some of the facts in here may be useful to your wider mission/journey, even if the Article is not the way we would have written it now.
At least in May of 2025, the 220 largest donors to the $Trump coin got a "special" dinner at the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, VA. If some of these people are not part of the pump & dump action, then they can relish the dinner and a 30 minute speech from Trump for the cost of being a suck-up. Crypto for the wealthier people, crap to buy for the little people.
That event was a real shit show. The number of people who attended and who had either charges pending against them or had already been convicted of charges, both in the United States and in other countries, was eye-opening. If that's the base or foundation for digital currency to get started and exist, then watch out because we're all in trouble.
Thank you for your stellar writing and the credibility of your decades long honorable service to the legal profession. Your status as a lawyer matters and is helping Americans understand the rot within the self-regulating attorneys who have led Americans astray. More house cleaning badly needed.
Thank you Colleen. I sincerely appreciate your kind words. It's moments like this that are the reason many of us became lawyers in the first place. In my lifetime I never expected to see or experience what we're watching on a daily basis but the solution is to stand tall, be loud, litigate, and financially support the organizations that are going into court and taking on his policies, regulations, and illegal executive orders. I have a feeling I'll be writing, sharing, and creating videos for many more years until this whole problem is fixed.
I agree this shenanigans should be held to account.
I also think the people who fell for this nonsense should know the score by now that certain persons have a track record of such shenanigans and act accordingly when they see an “opportunity” to “invest”.
Shenanigans is too soft of a word. What we're watching are crimes taking place right before our eyes. Unfortunately the judge and jury, which in this case is the Department of Justice and Congress, are turning a blind eye.
We will take back a majority in the midterms this year and then Congress will use this oversight power, the purse, and separation of powers authorities to start reining in the bad guys and start holding the wrongdoers accountable. It's going to take some time and it's a long process but I do see it happening.
I pray your assessment is right and we take back the majority during midterms and reassert our strength to right all of the abysmal failures this GOP is allowing to happen by "doing nothing" to stop the corruption. I have never seen a more spineless bunch of legislators in my entire (long) life. ALL of what's happening is an embarrassment to those of us who worked to help build up this country to the powerhouse it was for djt to (pardon my graphic language) urinate all over everything meaningful we did! And for SCOTUS to give him free reign to do that, repeatedly, without punishment?! This country's framers are literally spinning in their graves...
This great experiment isn't over. We're just getting started. We have 90 million eligible voters who sat out the election in 2024 who can and will show up in this year's midterm elections. Sure the expected turnout will be substantially less than during a presidential election year but I'm expecting an historic turnout, which will result in a majority power in Congress transferring back to Democrats. We'll then see subpoenas being issued and real oversight. We'll also see the power of the purse being utilized to rein in these rogue programs and activities. We'll see the separation of powers be used once again to hold different branches accountable to their responsibilities as dictated under the Constitution.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
No, most of us get it. But here’s the thing. Complaining is easy. Anyone can do it. If you have a solution to your take of the problem please put it into motion. My take is that right now, the challenge is to get things fixed. And right now, that “fix” starts with taking back power in Congress (oversight, purse and separation of powers). Full stop.
…i was so fucking tired to write and to post it: …we can not just live in democracy from elections to elections, we have to SUSTAIN ITS PROGRESS, you can’t just SHAME PEOPLE TO VOTE, when you have TWO OPTIONS and neither of them you agreed to - it’s system failure
…TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS ONE STEP TO AUTOCRACY - FACT !
…consumerism, political ignorance and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired people, citizens supposed to want to vote because they want to change what is wrong, and if they think it doesn’t matter what they’ll say they will not go to vote, how difficult to fucking get it ?!
It may be tribalism at its worst, but right now we have no choice but to elect the opposing party into controlling Congress if you want any hope of at least oversight, if not accountability. Republicans are either fearful sycophants or loyal lackeys to Trump and will continue to only make excuses for doing nothing.
The only option on the table is to remove MAGA Republicans from majority rule in Congress. What this means is Democrats must take back control. Full stop.
…no we not, that’s the most politically illiterate opinion pushing population in to delusion they changed something while changing nothing
…this is an essence of this country’s political impediment: this feed is full of obama, harris and biden pictures with nostalgic messages, after TEN FUCKING YEARS this country can not produce a viable young candidate with progressive exiting policies to ignite progressives… why?
…THEY DO NOT WANT PROGRESSIVE they want all this crap that brought us here BACK
…this country can possibly succeed without new revolutionary ideas, but they don’t want PROGRESS, they just WANT “THEIR COUNTRY BACK” whatever the fuck that means…
…enjoy your dictatorship it’s not going ANYWHERE with or without this orange psychopath
So if the election mechanism is insufficient currently, what is your solution? A third party featuring someone like Burnie Sanders? Move to change the Constitution to establish a parliamentary system of government? Or just marinade in nihilism?
…see, you again completely missed my point, WE DO NOT HAVE ANYONE “like Bernie” and i stated my reason, it’s not “third party” it’s totally radical reforms needed
…trump will not allow elections under the regime, people still don’t understand the gravity of the situation, but lets elaborate on the theory so many still support - elections, whoever will run for president have to build their campaign on promise to restore trust in our government, i don’t think at this point there’s too many blind people left to believe congressional democrats will come to the rescue, there’s no government agencies in this country people can really trust, government have to prove it’s trustworthy and this is impossible to do without real investigations and public trail of all who perpetrated crimes in all ten years period… i don’t know about you, but that’s the only way i will trust anyone and will not vote, now try to think about it for a minute… how far we are from that point?
EXACTLY! We cannot be duped into replacing the Republican side of the Uniparty with the Democrat side of the Uniparty. Unless and until we demonstrate the intestinal fortitude to replace all Uniparty members with truly Independent candidates who will honor our Constitution and their oath of office to take instruction from their voting constituents, we will continue to march toward the collapse of our great nation.
If that's what it takes (continuing to march towards national collapse)! I believe many of us, myself included, are willing to die on this hill, knowing a "win" for our republic will require sacrifice(s) for a course correct!
Trump did not beat the system. He became it. What you just read is count one of the restitution order — seventy-two hours before the inauguration, defendant-controlled wallets selling into retail buyers who trusted a president-elect. The forensic blockchain data exists. The legal instrument to use it exists. What has been missing is a court willing to read the number into the record.
He was convicted of thirty-four felony counts in New York and sentenced to an unconditional discharge. No prison. No fine. No probation. He was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil proceeding, paid the judgment, and won the presidency. He stole classified documents, stored them in a bathroom at a private club, and the case was dismissed by a judge he had appointed. He ran for president under four separate criminal indictments and won.
In 2024 the Supreme Court held, six to three, that presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional acts and presumptive immunity for all official acts. Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was not a legal disagreement. It was a eulogy:
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.
Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune.
Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune.”
That is the current state of American law. Those are the words of a sitting Supreme Court justice describing it.
The deepest injustice is not that Trump escaped accountability. The deepest injustice is what his escape taught. Every future authoritarian now knows the path is available. Appoint enough judges. Run out the clock. Show enough contempt for the process and the process accommodates the contempt. The lesson is in the curriculum. The next one — younger, healthier, more disciplined — is taking notes.
The enterprise does not end with sentencing. It converts accountability into threat, threat into cost, and cost into the calculation that prevents the next person from trying. Fani Willis was targeted. Letitia James was targeted. Jack Smith was targeted. Every prosecutor, every judge, every official who used the instruments of accountability against the enterprise absorbed a version of what this piece describes. The mechanism does not need to be subtle. It needs only to be expensive enough and sustained enough that the next person decides the cost is too high.
The judge in this piece does what the actual institutions failed to do. She counts. She writes it down. She keeps the ledger because the record is the one thing they never quite managed to shred.
It is not justice. It is the proof that justice was attempted. That is not nothing. In the current moment it is also not enough.
The ledger is a green notebook. One line per case. Name, statute, date, sentence. Kept because it seemed important that someone count. The ledger is the argument. Everything else is what happened to it.
This note is the frame for a piece of fiction that renders the full accountability — eight counts, the asset schedule read into the record, Mar-a-Lago transferred to the National Park Service. What happens when the mechanism is used completely. And what happens to it in the appeals. Three parts.
Full piece here:
https://rossboulton1.substack.com/p/four-hundred-and-twelve
This is a phenomenal summary of a very significant problem in governance.
The entire wealth empire of this administration is digital. We went stupidly deep on this when we first started then realized that no one would read it. Nevertheless, some of the facts in here may be useful to your wider mission/journey, even if the Article is not the way we would have written it now.
https://vesperosint.substack.com/p/a-financial-history-of-the-trump-257?r=7zme4x&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
You mean Donald Trump is a corrupt conman? Who could possibly have known??
The suckers and losers are his supporters. Fuck 'em. But prosecute him.
Ha! That's exactly what I mean.
At least in May of 2025, the 220 largest donors to the $Trump coin got a "special" dinner at the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, VA. If some of these people are not part of the pump & dump action, then they can relish the dinner and a 30 minute speech from Trump for the cost of being a suck-up. Crypto for the wealthier people, crap to buy for the little people.
That event was a real shit show. The number of people who attended and who had either charges pending against them or had already been convicted of charges, both in the United States and in other countries, was eye-opening. If that's the base or foundation for digital currency to get started and exist, then watch out because we're all in trouble.
Sickening.
Very much so.
Thank you for your stellar writing and the credibility of your decades long honorable service to the legal profession. Your status as a lawyer matters and is helping Americans understand the rot within the self-regulating attorneys who have led Americans astray. More house cleaning badly needed.
Thank you Colleen. I sincerely appreciate your kind words. It's moments like this that are the reason many of us became lawyers in the first place. In my lifetime I never expected to see or experience what we're watching on a daily basis but the solution is to stand tall, be loud, litigate, and financially support the organizations that are going into court and taking on his policies, regulations, and illegal executive orders. I have a feeling I'll be writing, sharing, and creating videos for many more years until this whole problem is fixed.
I am here to help. Veteran and lawyer with no where near the depth of experience as you. So glad you are here in the fight!
We're all in this together. Great to connect!
I agree this shenanigans should be held to account.
I also think the people who fell for this nonsense should know the score by now that certain persons have a track record of such shenanigans and act accordingly when they see an “opportunity” to “invest”.
Shenanigans is too soft of a word. What we're watching are crimes taking place right before our eyes. Unfortunately the judge and jury, which in this case is the Department of Justice and Congress, are turning a blind eye.
Infest!
Accountability will ONLY come AFTER WeThePeople #VoteThemAllOut!!
We will take back a majority in the midterms this year and then Congress will use this oversight power, the purse, and separation of powers authorities to start reining in the bad guys and start holding the wrongdoers accountable. It's going to take some time and it's a long process but I do see it happening.
I pray your assessment is right and we take back the majority during midterms and reassert our strength to right all of the abysmal failures this GOP is allowing to happen by "doing nothing" to stop the corruption. I have never seen a more spineless bunch of legislators in my entire (long) life. ALL of what's happening is an embarrassment to those of us who worked to help build up this country to the powerhouse it was for djt to (pardon my graphic language) urinate all over everything meaningful we did! And for SCOTUS to give him free reign to do that, repeatedly, without punishment?! This country's framers are literally spinning in their graves...
…arrogance leads to ignorance which breeds stupidity and brought this country down
…250 years old toddler country just bumped its head really hard and been introduced to an ancient concept of totalitarian rule
…bone voyage america and buckle up
This great experiment isn't over. We're just getting started. We have 90 million eligible voters who sat out the election in 2024 who can and will show up in this year's midterm elections. Sure the expected turnout will be substantially less than during a presidential election year but I'm expecting an historic turnout, which will result in a majority power in Congress transferring back to Democrats. We'll then see subpoenas being issued and real oversight. We'll also see the power of the purse being utilized to rein in these rogue programs and activities. We'll see the separation of powers be used once again to hold different branches accountable to their responsibilities as dictated under the Constitution.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
…we created the empire and now we have an emperor
No, most of us get it. But here’s the thing. Complaining is easy. Anyone can do it. If you have a solution to your take of the problem please put it into motion. My take is that right now, the challenge is to get things fixed. And right now, that “fix” starts with taking back power in Congress (oversight, purse and separation of powers). Full stop.
…fascism is not an ideology it’s the way to take and hold power, if you install dictator peacefully you can not peacefully remove him - FACT
…i was so fucking tired to write and to post it: …we can not just live in democracy from elections to elections, we have to SUSTAIN ITS PROGRESS, you can’t just SHAME PEOPLE TO VOTE, when you have TWO OPTIONS and neither of them you agreed to - it’s system failure
…TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS ONE STEP TO AUTOCRACY - FACT !
…consumerism, political ignorance and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired people, citizens supposed to want to vote because they want to change what is wrong, and if they think it doesn’t matter what they’ll say they will not go to vote, how difficult to fucking get it ?!
https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-cant-save-democracy-just-by-voting/
It may be tribalism at its worst, but right now we have no choice but to elect the opposing party into controlling Congress if you want any hope of at least oversight, if not accountability. Republicans are either fearful sycophants or loyal lackeys to Trump and will continue to only make excuses for doing nothing.
The only option on the table is to remove MAGA Republicans from majority rule in Congress. What this means is Democrats must take back control. Full stop.
…no we not, that’s the most politically illiterate opinion pushing population in to delusion they changed something while changing nothing
…this is an essence of this country’s political impediment: this feed is full of obama, harris and biden pictures with nostalgic messages, after TEN FUCKING YEARS this country can not produce a viable young candidate with progressive exiting policies to ignite progressives… why?
…THEY DO NOT WANT PROGRESSIVE they want all this crap that brought us here BACK
…this country can possibly succeed without new revolutionary ideas, but they don’t want PROGRESS, they just WANT “THEIR COUNTRY BACK” whatever the fuck that means…
…enjoy your dictatorship it’s not going ANYWHERE with or without this orange psychopath
So if the election mechanism is insufficient currently, what is your solution? A third party featuring someone like Burnie Sanders? Move to change the Constitution to establish a parliamentary system of government? Or just marinade in nihilism?
…see, you again completely missed my point, WE DO NOT HAVE ANYONE “like Bernie” and i stated my reason, it’s not “third party” it’s totally radical reforms needed
…trump will not allow elections under the regime, people still don’t understand the gravity of the situation, but lets elaborate on the theory so many still support - elections, whoever will run for president have to build their campaign on promise to restore trust in our government, i don’t think at this point there’s too many blind people left to believe congressional democrats will come to the rescue, there’s no government agencies in this country people can really trust, government have to prove it’s trustworthy and this is impossible to do without real investigations and public trail of all who perpetrated crimes in all ten years period… i don’t know about you, but that’s the only way i will trust anyone and will not vote, now try to think about it for a minute… how far we are from that point?
EXACTLY! We cannot be duped into replacing the Republican side of the Uniparty with the Democrat side of the Uniparty. Unless and until we demonstrate the intestinal fortitude to replace all Uniparty members with truly Independent candidates who will honor our Constitution and their oath of office to take instruction from their voting constituents, we will continue to march toward the collapse of our great nation.
If that's what it takes (continuing to march towards national collapse)! I believe many of us, myself included, are willing to die on this hill, knowing a "win" for our republic will require sacrifice(s) for a course correct!
And now it's being determined that the Trump phone website is leaking private data of customers. Watch this video. https://youtu.be/voxXDDq58Bk?si=Zk7KxoIYuh_5TBij