Screaming Foul
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a “Special Counsel” yesterday. Jack Smith is coming home from prosecuting war crimes at the International Court at the Hague, to take on the biggest issue in the United States, the “elephant in the room” of American politics. Jack Smith will determine whether the twice impeached former President of the United States, running for the office again, will be charged with crimes.
There’s an old political saying: if both sides are screaming foul, you must be doing something right. The right-wing media is howling – how dare the Justice Department even think of prosecuting the former President. The left-wing media is screaming too – why isn’t Trump already in handcuffs, “perp-walked” through a Federal Court.
Undodgeable Bullet
And there are those who say that “Old Granny” Merrick Garland is trying to “dodge the bullet”. By appointing a Special Counsel, he is somehow trying to avoid making the decision of whether a former President of the United States will be tried for crimes. But, as we learned so clearly in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, in the end, it is the Attorney General, the head of the Justice Department, who makes the final decision. As Harry Truman would say, “The buck stops there”. This is an undodgeable missile. Charge or “no bill”, it will ultimately be Garland’s decision.
Disingenuous
I think both right and left are being disingenuous. Even the most “right” of commentators, the diehard Trump supporters, cannot be “OK” with all of those classified documents scattered around Mar-A-Lago like leaves in the wind. These are the same people who wanted the death penalty for Edward Snowden, and cried treason when President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence. Trump had compartmentalized intelligence files, more secret than “Top Secret”, stuffed in the desk drawers at his private supper club next to his will and testament. Everyone, even his most ardent supporters, deep down must be shocked.
The left-wing commentators, my guys, are smugly saying that the Department of Justice prosecutes politicians all the time. They cite the case of Senator Bob Menendez and Congressmen Chris Collins, William Jefferson and Rick Renzi, all of whom were indicted while in office. “Justice didn’t need a ‘special counsel’ for them,” they say – “why should Trump be treated any differently”.
But that’s just foolish. Donald Trump is not just some Congressman with money in his freezer from New Orleans, or even a Senator with a rich dentist friend in New Jersey. The United States has been prosecuting politicians since the nation began. Even a former Vice President, Aaron Burr, was charged with treason in 1807 for trying to break off the Midwest from the United States and form a separate nation. But today’s situation is, like it or not, different.
A President
The disgraced former President, who received 74 million votes in the last election, the second most ever in US history, is running for the office again. To somehow think he’s like Menendez, or Collins, or even Aaron Burr, is just stupid. Much as “my guys” would like to see an orange man in an orange jump suit, there are other considerations. In fact the only real precedent was established in 1974 by President Gerald Ford. Richard Nixon, Ford’s predecessor, resigned to avoid impeachment, but faced a myriad of criminal charges. Ford pardoned him for everything, ending the Watergate Era and “…our long national nightmare”. So the fact the Garland is even proceeding with criminal investigations against Trump is new ground.
Don’t get me wrong. Nixon was charged with a lot of “personal” crimes: tax evasion, covering up a felony, bribing other government officials to lie. Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski had the charges all lined up. Looking back with fifty years of hindsight, maybe he should have been tried. “All citizens are equal before the law”, was what I cried then. Maybe, if Nixon was put “in the dock”, it might have set a better precedent.
But Nixon was already disgraced. We didn’t really need a trial or Nixon in handcuffs to know what he did. So moving the nation on, past Watergate, was at least a legitimate goal.
Core of Democracy
The issue with Donald Trump is that he struck at the very core of our Constitutional Democracy. He not only used the Presidency to enrich himself, but he attempted to overthrow the legitimate voice of the people. He led an insurrection. What happened on January 6th is unparalleled in American history, and more important even than the hubris of keeping classified documents on a desktop in a supper club. Nixon was a crook. Trump was, and is, a threat to our Democracy.
And for that reason, Americans need to have a “full airing” of what took place. The only way to achieve that airing, is to have Donald J. Trump on trial. Let the prosecution lay out its case to the jury, and the American people. Let the defense make their best effort to show that it wasn’t Trump’s fault, nor his responsibility. Every effort should be made to ensure due process, and the whole case must be made to the jury, judge and America.
Screaming-frustrated or screaming-resentful: every step must follow “the form” of fairness – due process. And that’s why Merrick Garland is right to appoint a Special Counsel to determine whether to bring charges. Then let the courts determine whether a former President of the United States broke the law. And if he’s found guilty, then let the current President of the United States determine whether we want the spectacle of that former President in jail.
