Accepting foreign assistance and the legal future of the stupidity defense

As you may recall, my favorite part of Robert Mueller's report was the observation that he couldn't prosecute Donald Trump Jr. for criminal conspiracy based on the Trump Tower meeting because part of the criminal conspiracy law is that the violation must be willful, meaning that the person committing the act must know that what he is doing violates the law.  Don Jr., blithering moron that he is, could viably claim not to have known that accepting a foreign government's assistance in a campaign is illegal because he is, well, a blithering moron.  Hence, he is too stupid to act in willful violation of the law, so no criminal conspiracy, and since no information was exchanged, there was no violation of the campaign finance laws.  Had he known that it is illegal to accept foreign donations, the fact that he got bupkis wouldn't have saved him on criminal conspiracy because he would have willfully conspired to violate campaign finance laws, even if he failed, but since he may very well be too bloody stupid to know that it's illegal...

Mueller couldn't prosecute.  If he brought an indictment against that dipshit with the IQ of a ham sandwich, the dead pig meat between two slices of white bread would have had his lawyers say to the jury, "now I ask you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, does this ham sandwich look like a sentient being, capable of knowing what a 'law' is, much less that it is illegal to accept a foreign government's assistance?  Or, is he so clearly an inanimate object that it is impossible for it to possess this thing we call, 'knowledge,' and if so, it cannot willfully do anything!  Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you must acquit Fredo Trump because Fredo is not a person, but a thing too stupid to act willfully."

And seriously!  How do you argue with that?  Hell, by the law, you'd have to acquit, wouldn't you?  I mean, seriously, Don Jr. is really, really stupid.

Now, this won't get you out of a murder conviction, or hell, even really a speeding ticket.  Officer?!  I didn't know killing was against the law!  Try that some time!  Or, no.  Don't.  This is about the way conspiracy laws are written.

Anyway, so Donny Senior says publicly that he'd take information offered by foreign governments.  After two years of "NO COLLUSION!!!," Mueller lets him off the hook, and our boy admits that he would do exactly what he just spent two years insisting that he never did.

Is anybody having flashbacks of OJ and If I Did It?

Or maybe this is like Michael Jackson spending years denying that he ever molested a kid, only to say, "of course I would molest a kid!"

Regardless, I pose the following question.  Could Trump Senior still claim the stupidity defense in 2020?  You know Russia (and maybe others) will pull something again.

OK, here's the thing.  Don Jr. got away with it based on his plausible ignorance of the law.  With Mueller's report, and two years of public discussion, there is no way that any sentient being could claim ignorance of the law at this point, right?

And yet, Trump Senior is now claiming that of course he'd do it, and it'd be totally legal.  Despite being told by the Special Counsel, the FBI Director, and, basically, everybody who isn't completely up his ass that it's a crime.

How does the stupidity defense factor into that?  Could Trump walk into a court room and have his lawyers tell a jury that he sincerely believed it was legal for him to do whatever the fuck he wanted, even after having the FBI Director directly say, no, that ain't legal?

Anybody other than Trump couldn't get away with that.  Trump, though?  Yeah, he probably could.  And just by saying it, he could have a lawyer point to that statement as evidence of his belief in the legality of taking dirt from a foreign government, in which case, you don't have "willful" violations, so no conspiracy charges.

That statement?  It wasn't an admission of guilt.  It inoculated him against charges of "willfulness" by showing just how stupid and arrogant he is.  It showed that he is too stupid to engage in a willful violation of the law because nobody can ever educate him about the law.  You can't engage in criminal conspiracy if you are too stupid to know that it's against the law.  See:  Mueller, Robert.

Campaign finance violations?  Another matter.  That depends on assessing the value of the information, and that's actually kind of hard, so the bigger problem is the conspiracy charge, but Trump actually still can get away with it simply by saying that he can.

The magic powers of stupidity and arrogance in a system in which accountability has broken down completely.

Democracy?  What's that?

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