Trump’s Terrorists on Trial: What Will Justice Look Like?

Mark the day. Tuesday, July 27, 2021 is the day the real trial for the offenses of the Capitol insurrection began. 

Unlike virtually all the congressional investigations in recent years, there is the possibility that the American people --the ultimate jury-- will get to see and hear the evidence. 

• “The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”Rep. Kevin McCarthy January 13, 2021

• “The mob was fed lies…They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” Senator Mitch McConnell January 19, 2021

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reject panelists with a history of obstruction combined with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal of all his party’s nominees provides the select committee with the prospect of having the most impact on American politics since Watergate.

In her opening statement Tuesday, Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney made her expectations clear. “We must … know what happened every minute of that day in the White House,” she said. “Every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack.”

The opening day’s testimony by four law enforcement officers who came under physical and psychological attack that day was combined with raw video footage of rioters shouting epithets and using physical force against law enforcement. 

https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1420152925851095042?s=20

It was carried live by all the major networks, including Fox News. If you weren’t moved by what was portrayed on the screen, then you weren’t watching, which is what I suspect is the case with the right wing pundits who sought to ridicule the testimony.

McCarthy’s decision to not allow any of his members to join the select committee left Republicans with no option but to go with a ridiculous press conference where GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik accused Speaker Pelosi of being responsible for the security failures on January 6.  

Forget for a moment that the Speaker doesn’t dictate security measures, and follow that logic down the rabbit hole of who this line of attack would logically also implicate. The Senate Majority Leader on Jan. 6 was Republican Mitch McConnell. If the speaker of the House was responsible for security failures at the Capitol, it stands to reason that the leader of the Senate was also.

Outside the Justice Department building, the four G’s of the disinformation apocalypse held a press conference to advocate for the rioters, arguing that they have been mistreated. 

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert and Paul Gosar were just getting started with some counterfactual counter-programming to the hearing down the road at the Capitol when a whistle blowing protestor made their noise unsuitable for broadcast. 

Via Yahoo News:

• But the lawmakers were met by a large group of protesters. One toted a large, inflatable particular ex-president holding a signed that read “Pedophiles for Trump,” a reference to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into whether Gaetz sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl (Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing). Another held a board that read “Traitors + Rapists Sit Down.” Another would not stop blowing a whistle through his Covid mask. “First of all, to the guy who’s blowing the whistle, we are not deterred,” Greene said upon taking the podium.

• Thirty seconds later, protesters crowded behind the podium and the press conference was called off. The whistle did not stop blowing.

The only strategy left for Trump’s defenders (and potential co-defendants) is to make a lot of noise via contradictory, and false, explanations for Jan 6. It's to create doubt that the truth is knowable. It's like Russia's "flood of lies" technique.

The nearly 600 people arrested in the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol will have their days in court over the next year, subject on legal motions, plea bargains, and the government’s ability to wade through evidence produced by 6,000 grand jury subpoenas, hundred of thousands hours of video and millions of social media posts, along with other data.

Fewer than 2% of federal criminal cases actually go to trial.  Most defendants will get off with probation, with those accused of the most documented acts of violence getting some jail time. As the nation with the most incarcerated people in the world, we really don’t need to add to the prison population, especially since locking people up is unlikely to prevent future crime.

While it is important to prosecute these defendants, --at least in the sense that they’re out of commission for a while-- the part of the follow up to January 6 that will be remembered in history books will be the hearings of the select committee.

Whether or not any of the ringleaders of this insurrection get formally prosecuted, justice will be served when their names are added to the list of people who have betrayed their oath to uphold the constitution.  

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1420028541090074643?s=20

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Also...Republicans in Congress got some bad news yesterday. The Department of Justice announced they won’t be defending Rep Mo Brooks in a lawsuit alleging he conspired to instigate the Jan. 6 riot.

The department said in the court filing it determined Brooks' appearance at the Jan. 6 rally - in which Trump exhorted his supporters to stop the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory - was a campaign activity and not part of his job as a congressman.

"Inciting or conspiring to foment a violent attack on the United States Congress is not within the scope of employment of a Representative - or any federal employee - and thus is not the sort of conduct for which the United States is properly substituted as a defendant under the Westfall Act," it said.

“The Justice Department also notified former Trump administration officials” that witnesses “can give ‘unrestricted testimony’ to the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. This means Trump’s team will not be able to hide behind executive privilege when called to testify.

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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com