Indicting Trump?
It seems to me that if Trump is to be indicted, it should be for trying to overthrow the government, overturn his election loss and keep him in power. That is his great crime -- threatening our democracy, our constitutional values, our peaceful transitions of power, and it is still resonating throughout his base.
It had many elements; some were legal; others were not. Trump was well within his rights to seek judicial review in a series of unsuccessful lawsuits. He lied to the American people, claiming he had won when in fact he lost by a lot of votes — over 7 million. His steady stream of lies to the American people are likely protected from criminal prosecution by the First Amendment. He crossed the line when he tried to persuade Georgia state officials to overthrow his loss there by changing 12,000 votes. He also sought to persuade Republican state officials in other states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona to illegally overturn their voters’ election results. He again crossed the line with the fake elector’s schemes in multiple states to try to overturn his electoral loss. Finally, he summoned an armed mob to DC, exhorted them, and sent them off to the Capitol to intimidate VP Mike Pence and enough pliant Congresspersons to overturn the Presidential election results. He had a lot of help from his enablers inside and outside government in doing all of this. He sat before his TV and marveled at his handiwork while the DC and Capitol police forces battled for their lives to protect Congress from the Trump mob, and could not be bothered to call in federal assistance to protect Congress, his own VP and the brave men and women of the DC and Capitol Police.
On his way out of town afterwards for whatever his reasons, Trump took a lot of top secret and classified and other randomized documents and then refused to return them until the courts, the Justice Department and the FBI intervened. His motives for taking them, and the contents of what he took is still unknown to the rest of us. They may relate to January 6 or to other episodes of his Presidency that he would prefer to hide from public scrutiny.
The January 6 Committee will release its reports detailing the evidence it has gathered, making its recommendations in September, and then continue its hearings and investigations this fall. The House GOP leadership is committed to shutting down all the federal investigations of the January 6 insurrection if it takes power in the aftermath of the mid term election. It is up to American people in November to decide as to whether they want to put Kevin McCarthy in a position of power to shelve the investigations and bury our nation’s chances of understanding the events leading up to January 6 and the aftermath. Personally, I’d like to know much much more about the Trumpian networks’ linkages, if any, with the right-wing militia movements and white nationalist terrorists. The insurrectionists apparently had heavy arms and reinforcements stashed in motel rooms across the Potomac in Virginia; I’d like to know more about that.
As for indicting and trying Trump, it will need to be a slam dunk case that convinces 12 impartial jurors and the vast bulk of the American people. The attraction of the purloined top-secret documents is that it is quite a bit easier to try and convict Trump on this offense; the information is readily available, readily understood and not easily controverted; however, it is a diversion from the real Trump crimes of trying to overthrow a democratic election and a peaceful transition of power. Several Trump lawyers may be implicated for lying to the FBI in the June search and others may have assisted him as well in taking and concealing Top Secret documents.
Trying Trump for his efforts to overthrow the election results is a vast sprawling undertaking with thousands of moving parts and many actors for whom Trump is the pivot point, accelerant, and linchpin; there is little doubt that he led and directed all the elements, and no one would have acted without his approval. If the actors closest to Trump like Mark Meadows and Pat Cippolone and Mike Pence and others are willing to step forward and describe what happened on behalf of our American democracy, the case against Trump becomes ever easier to make and understand. The best things for the moment are to make sure that his most ardent acolytes who acted illegally are tried and convicted and then move up the chain of command towards the top decision maker.
The election results in November 2022 may either empower Trump’s fellow adherents to the “Big Lie” or begin the process of cleansing the GOP of its leaders closest to the lies and violent bullying of Trump. It is ultimately up to the American people to decide the direction of our nation; they will need to do it once again in overwhelming and unmistakable fashion. Politicians will ultimately get the message from losing elections as voters purge their ranks of the most vile, racist and authoritarian elements although it may take a while and several election cycles.