[Alive-in-2025]

Good point, criminal trial process is not obviously corrupted like the pre-trial. Every day recently there's a story about trump trying to get his political enemies prosecuted, and then he fired people who investigated him from his last term.

But I should mention the bad guys are trying to get grand jury assembled that would prosecute James Comey. Does that count as 'criminal trial process'? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/us/politics/james-comey-i...

I'm not a lawyer, but this corruption will be getting worse. That distinct is relevant still but for how long?

[otterley]

An indictment is pre-trial. To get a criminal indictment, all you need to show to a grand jury is "probable cause," which is a very low standard--the same standard needed to justify an arrest. That's the reason for the old joke about being able to indict a ham sandwich.

Now that Comey's been indicted, the trial process will begin, assuming he doesn't plea out (and I don't think he will). The uphill battle for the prosecution now begins.