Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Attorney General Merrick Garland really, really, really does not want to prosecute Donald Trump. Inevitably—he’s right about this—such a prosecution will be seen as partisan and political.[1] The trouble is that it is every bit as clear that if, as I expect, Donald Trump indeed regains the presidency in the 2024 election, we will have a white Christian nationalist regime that effectively cannot be voted out, as there will be nothing left to prevent the culmination of a longstanding Republican project to disenfranchise opposing minority and inner city voters.[2]
The most likely avenue to preventing this outcome is if Trump is physically unable to assume the presidency, perhaps because he is in prison. There are a couple ways this could happen. There was a criminal investigation of his finances that is now in doubt.[3] The other is as a consequence of investigations into his January 6 coup attempt. It looks like the January 6 committee has this evidence.[4]
But time is not on the side of a slow-moving court system that is susceptible to Trump’s sort of chronic abuse. What will happen if a Republican House of Representatives refuses any and all funding for the Department of Justice, perhaps refusing to pass any budget at all, until all investigations of Trump are ended? Do you really believe they will not be so loony as to threaten this?
Better hope Trump dies.
Jon Allsop, “The January 6 hearing and the value of spectacle,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 10, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/january_6_committee_hearing_media.php
Lisa Mascaro and Eric Tucker, “1/6 panel: Told repeatedly he lost, Trump refused to go,” Associated Press, June 10, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-riot-hearing-67ec5f32b1dd050a24c3312570fa6c67
Harold Meyerson, “All Roads Lead to Trump,” American Prospect, June 10, 2022, https://prospect.org/politics/all-roads-lead-to-trump-january-6th-hearing/
- [1]Farnoush Amiri and Michael Balsamo, “Jan. 6 panel puts Garland in ‘precarious’ spot, ups pressure,” Associated Press, April 1, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-merrick-garland-donald-trump-f70143880cb9be8a0610edcad1ed18e8↩
- [2]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, May 31, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/↩
- [3]William D. Cohan, “The Billion-Dollar Trump-Wall Street Mystery,” Puck News, April 6, 2022, https://puck.news/the-billion-dollar-trump-wall-street-mystery/; Jane Mayer, “Why Does New York’s Criminal Investigation of Donald Trump Appear All But Over?” New Yorker, February 24, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-does-new-yorks-criminal-investigation-of-donald-trump-appear-all-but-over; Corinne Ramey, “Trump Criminal Probe Continues, While New York Attorney General Seeks Contempt in Civil Case,” Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-criminal-probe-is-ongoing-top-manhattan-prosecutor-says-11649356200; Corinne Ramey and Deanna Paul, “Two Prosecutors in New York Investigation of Donald Trump Resign,” Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-prosecutors-in-new-york-investigation-of-donald-trump-resign-11645650257; Corinne Ramey and Deanna Paul, “Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor Who Resigned Said He Believed Trump Committed Numerous Felonies,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ex-manhattan-prosecutor-who-resigned-said-he-believed-trump-committed-numerous-felonies-11648087035↩
- [4]Jon Allsop, “The January 6 hearing and the value of spectacle,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 10, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/january_6_committee_hearing_media.php; Lisa Mascaro and Eric Tucker, “1/6 panel: Told repeatedly he lost, Trump refused to go,” Associated Press, June 10, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-riot-hearing-67ec5f32b1dd050a24c3312570fa6c67; Harold Meyerson, “All Roads Lead to Trump,” American Prospect, June 10, 2022, https://prospect.org/politics/all-roads-lead-to-trump-january-6th-hearing/↩