By Kenneth Tiven
The saga of former president Donald Trump is far from over, but this week he became the first U.S. President ever indicted, with four counts of violating federal laws. He is charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding and obstruct a congressional proceeding. The fourth charge rests on a post civil war law, charging he conspired against the voters’ rights in his role planning to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Six co-conspirators are also charged. While their names do not appear, five of the six descriptions match Attorneys Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Cheseboro and Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The sixth is described as a political consultant.
Conspiracy to defraud the US government is a catchall crime covering any scheme between two or more people to break federal law or defraud the federal government. Conspiracies don’t need to be successful to be criminal, and perpetrators can be held responsible if they join the conspiracy at any stage.
Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith says he wants a speedy trial in federal court in Washington. Combined with the other state and federal legal cases, this logically will hamper
Trump’s re-election campaign. Or maybe not, as his hard-core supporters insist it’s an unfair prosecution, despite evidence that supports the charges.
Trump was, uncharacteristically, not quick on his social network platform to condemn Smith and repeat his claim this is just a witch-hunt by the Justice Department. However, Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman characterized the indictment as an attempt to interfere in the next presidential election, saying, “Why did they wait 2½ years to bring these fake charges, right in the middle of President Trump’s winning campaign for 2024?”
Trump supporters will continue to rage. Will the opposition get out of hand? No one has a firm idea, but perhaps the severe sentences handed down to people convicted for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol may be a deterrent to mass street violence.
Arguments that President Biden or Attorney General Garland pushed for this prosecution of Trump is a serious distortion of the public record. The two seemed reluctant for most of the first two years of the administration to investigate Trump. The reality appears to be that the January 6 House Select Committee’s work earlier this year produced a substantial amount of credible evidence.
Public perceptions shifted, and this material was given to the Justice Department to consider. Pushed to act, the Department of Justice appointed Smith, a veteran prosecutor. He appears to have justified his reputation for fast thorough work.
Court cases will be quite different from the two Congressional impeachment trials that failed to convict Trump for malfeasance as president. “For a former chief executive to be charged with a violation of not just a federal law, but a federal law about the exercise of federal rights, is astonishing,” said Frederick M. Lawrence. He is a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the author of “ Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law .”
He added that, “we can’t lose the ability to be shocked by this case.” For voters who found his rhetoric crude, there is ‘Tump Fatigue.’ In contrast, his most avid supporters are emboldened as Trump increases his lies, divisiveness, and dystopian rhetoric. His antics may drive the Republican faithful to euphoria, but what will the courts or the election say in the future?
Journalist Dan Rather, who covered President Nixon’s 1974 resignation in the Watergate Burglary scandal, said this about Trump’s situation: “It is also part of a more sweeping historic and political indictment of our times. For Trump couldn’t have done this alone. Today represents an indictment of all who validated his vile indulgences, whitewashed his wantonness, disguised his depravity, legitimised his lawlessness, and acquiesced to his autocracy”.
IndiaLegal’s coverage of Trump’s election in 2016 pointed out the danger of a man who had absolutely no experience with consensus management working in a leadership position in government, noting that his entire adult life was as the Bully Boss.
Rather adds that, “Trump is not the only one facing trial. We all are. What kind of country will we have? How much are we willing to fight for our ideals? Our future?
Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur and one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal defenders in the 2024 field, called the indictment “un-American.” He sought to absolve Mr. Trump of any responsibility for the January 6 attack on the Capitol and reiterated his previous promise that, if elected, he would pardon Mr. Trump.
“The corrupt federal police just won’t stop until they’ve achieved their mission: eliminate Trump. Trump isn’t responsible for what happened on January 6. The real cause was systematic and pervasive censorship of citizens in the year leading up to it,” he said.