Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a \u201cSpecial Counsel\u201d yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0Jack 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 \u201celephant in the room\u201d of American politics.\u00a0\u00a0Jack Smith will determine whether the twice impeached former President of the United States, running for the office again, will be charged with crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s an old political saying: if both sides are screaming foul, you must be doing something right. The right-wing media is howling \u2013 how dare the Justice Department even think of prosecuting the former President. The left-wing media is screaming too \u2013 why isn\u2019t Trump already in handcuffs, \u201cperp-walked\u201d through a Federal Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there are those who say that \u201cOld Granny\u201d Merrick Garland is trying to \u201cdodge the bullet\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0By 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.\u00a0\u00a0But, 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.\u00a0\u00a0As Harry Truman would say, \u201cThe buck stops there\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0This is an undodgeable missile.\u00a0\u00a0Charge or \u201cno bill\u201d, it will ultimately be Garland\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think both right and left are being disingenuous.\u00a0\u00a0Even the most \u201cright\u201d of commentators, the diehard Trump supporters, cannot be \u201cOK\u201d with all of those classified documents scattered around Mar-A-Lago like leaves in the wind.\u00a0\u00a0These are the same people who wanted the death penalty for Edward Snowden, and cried treason when President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning\u2019s sentence.\u00a0\u00a0Trump had compartmentalized intelligence files, more secret than \u201cTop Secret\u201d, stuffed in the desk drawers at his private supper club next to his will and testament.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone, even his most ardent supporters, deep down must be shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u201cJustice didn\u2019t need a \u2018special counsel\u2019 for them,\u201d they say \u2013 \u201cwhy should Trump be treated any differently\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s just foolish.\u00a0\u00a0Donald 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.\u00a0\u00a0The United States has been prosecuting politicians since the nation began.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even 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.\u00a0\u00a0But today\u2019s situation is, like it or not, different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0To somehow think he\u2019s like Menendez, or Collins, or even Aaron Burr, is just stupid.\u00a0\u00a0Much as \u201cmy guys\u201d would like to see an orange man in an orange jump suit, there are other considerations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact the only real precedent was established in 1974 by President Gerald Ford.\u00a0\u00a0Richard Nixon, Ford\u2019s predecessor, resigned to avoid impeachment, but faced a myriad of criminal charges.\u00a0\u00a0Ford pardoned him for everything, ending the Watergate Era and \u201c\u2026our long national nightmare\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0So the fact the Garland is even proceeding with criminal investigations against Trump is new ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0\u00a0Nixon was charged with a lot of \u201cpersonal\u201d crimes:\u00a0\u00a0tax evasion, covering up a felony, bribing other government officials to lie. Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski had the charges all lined up.\u00a0\u00a0Looking back with fifty years of hindsight, maybe he should have been tried.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAll citizens are equal before the law\u201d, was what I cried then.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe, if Nixon was put “in the dock”, it might have set a better precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Nixon was already disgraced. We didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for that reason, Americans need to have a \u201cfull airing\u201d of what took place.\u00a0\u00a0The only way to achieve that airing, is to have Donald J. Trump on trial.\u00a0\u00a0Let the prosecution lay out its case to the jury, and the American people.\u00a0\u00a0Let the defense make their best effort to show that it wasn\u2019t Trump\u2019s fault, nor his responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0Every effort should be made to ensure due process, and the whole case must be made to the jury, judge and America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Screaming-frustrated or screaming-resentful:\u00a0\u00a0every step must follow \u201cthe form\u201d of fairness – due process.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s why Merrick Garland is right to appoint a Special Counsel to determine whether to bring charges. Then\u00a0let the courts determine whether a former President of the United States broke the law.\u00a0\u00a0And if he\u2019s found guilty, then let the current President of the United States determine whether we want the spectacle of that former President in jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"