Photo credit: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley
Here’s something that shouldn’t really be news to anyone in America. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors are presenting evidence to a federal grand jury about Donald Trump’s criminal attempt to violently overthrow our democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Of course, they are. It happened in broad daylight. We all watched the scenes of death and destruction by the armed mob Trump sent to attack Congress to stop certification of President Biden’s election so Trump could remain as president despite his defeat by the largest vote in American history.
Testimony starting before a grand jury should finally end months of unwarranted criticism of Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland for refusing to publicly discuss the federal investigation into Trump’s direct involvement in the assault.
After four years of Trump’s presidency, many Americans seem to have forgotten how a legitimate U.S. Justice Department ethically conducts criminal investigations. Prosecutors never publicly discuss their investigations until they’re ready to issue criminal charges. Prosecutors don’t want to be accused of damaging the reputations of innocent people before they have all the facts.
Trump’s Absurd Charge
Ironically, many election experts believe FBI director James Comey’s violation of that legal principle in 2016 was responsible for Trump’s lawless presidency. Comey opened an investigation into Trump’s absurd campaign charge that Hillary Clinton should be locked up because of the email server she used as secretary of state.
That investigation cleared Clinton of violating any laws in early July, but that didn’t stop Comey from irresponsibly reopening the investigation into Clinton’s emails 10 days before the presidential election. That investigation also cleared Clinton, but only after Trump’s election had shocked the nation.
Here’s an alternative history to consider about Comey’s possible effect on that election that should infuriate many Americans. Imagine the U.S. Supreme Court we would have today protecting our constitutional rights instead of destroying them if President Clinton had appointed three new justices instead of Trump.
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Garland has repeatedly vowed his department will follow the evidence about the violent attack on democracy wherever it leads. “No person is above the law in this country. I can’t say it any more clearly than that … We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election.”
Where the Evidence Leads
We already know much more about where that evidence leads thanks to the televised public hearings of the House January 6 Committee. That’s why there is growing legal momentum for Garland to make history by doing exactly what nonpartisan Justice Departments are supposed to do whether the President is Republican or Democrat.
No former president has ever been prosecuted before for crimes he committed in office. But the media is wrong to claim that puts Garland in a tough spot politically in deciding whether to prosecute Trump. No president has ever committed such an unprecedented crime against democracy before.
The January 6 Committee has already produced solid evidence from Republican witnesses about Trump’s orchestration of the armed attack on Congress to stop the certification of the presidential vote of the American people.
Compel Testimony
The Justice Department has far more power than a congressional committee to compel testimony under oath from administration officials who were in every meeting with the president. That includes Trump’s vice president Mike Pence whose top aides were among the first known to testify before the federal grand jury.
Unlike Richard Nixon’s vice president Gerald Ford who granted Nixon a full pardon for his Watergate crimes in 1974 after the president resigned to avoid impeachment, Pence refused to participate in Trump’s illegal scheme to overturn the election by throwing out electoral votes Biden won in seven states including Wisconsin. Republican officials in those states had submitted fraudulent documents to the Senate and National Archives falsely claiming to be state electors casting their electoral votes for Trump.
Pence prevented Trump from stealing the election. He has no reason to lie for Trump who endangered his life and his family by inflaming the murderous mob chasing them through the Capitol. Federal prosecutors also can flip co-conspirators to testify against higher ups like Trump by offering them reduced sentences.
The justice system moves slowly, but it’s coming for Trump. Trump can legally slow it down more, but he can’t stop it. In the meantime, it’s up to the rest of us to vote against Republicans in November determined to continue Trump’s destruction of American democracy.
Republicans used to wrap themselves in the flag on July 4 to proclaim their love for American democracy. That will be a sick joke until they expel Trump and all the others within their party who are destroying voting rights.
Conservative Republicans from the past wouldn’t recognize their anti-democracy party today with Trump praising Vladimir Putin as “a genius” for invading Ukraine and Putin himself broadcasting Tucker Carlson’s rightwing Fox News commentaries on Russian state television with Russian subtitles.
