HIGHER AND DEEPER — The Weekly Opine

Trump’s legal troubles are piled as high and deep as his 92-story namesake tower in Chicago. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

No justice, no country

After every January 6 Committee hearing, it becomes unpainfully obvious. Trump is guilty of crimes ranging from conspiring to obstruct a government proceeding to sedition to witness tampering to – gulp – murder. Yes, one of the definitions of homicide, as described by the late Vincent Bugliosi, is that if you knowingly tell a lie, and your lie causes the death of another person, you’ve committed murder.

Famous for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson, Bugliosi credibly argued that former president George W. Bush could be charged with murder because his lie about weapons of mass destruction directly caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands of American troops in Iraq.

By now, everybody knows Trump’s stolen election claim is a big, fat lie. As a result of Trump’s insistence on profoundly lying about the 2020 presidential election, falsely claiming the election was stolen, people literally died. A young Trump supporter was shot to death as she tried to penetrate further into the Capitol Building. A police officer succumbed to his injuries, dying hours after engaging in hand-to-hand combat with armed Trump supporters. By Bugliosi’s definition, Trump is guilty of murder.

Setting aside murder, the January 6 Committee has proven, far beyond a reasonable doubt, that Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, John Clark and many others are guilty of conspiracy to defraud the government and We the People. They are guilty of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding. They are guilty of seditious conspiracy. At least one of them is guilty of witness tampering.

Last week’s testimony by former Trump Justice Department officials, coupled with Tuesday’s shocking testimony by former Trump insider Cassidy Hutchinson, sealed the deal. Even conservative legal analysts at Fox Lies and conservative media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and the National Review acknowledge Hutchinson’s testimony was “devastating” to Trump and his minions.

Sure, there will be more hearings and more damning testimony. But this party is over. No longer can anyone who is mentally stable opine that Trump, and his co-conspirators, somehow did not commit crimes. All of them should be bound for prison.

Rather than clean up an imaginary swamp he falsely attributed to former President Obama, Trump’s White House was engulfed in a self-inflicted swamp by the time he left office. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Indeed, the Department of Justice is out of options to deflect or delay. There is no escape hatch here. Several progressive cable news analysts – some with stellar legal credentials – still cling to the notion that Attorney General Merrick Garland and DOJ may not prosecute Trump. Why? Because he’s a former president (so?) and we have never prosecuted a former president (there’s a first time for everything).

Some legal scholars dispense a theory that Garland is weighing consequences of how it will impact our fractured nation if Trump is held accountable. I interpret this to mean Garland is fearful of what MAGAs may resort to if their boy Trump goes to prison.

If I was Garland, I’d be more wary about what will happen if DOJ allows Trump to evade prosecution. For example, what if millions of tax-paying Americans decided to skip paying taxes if Trump is not criminally prosecuted? What if half of all federal workers – including, for example, many air traffic controllers - resigned? If significant numbers of our military quit in protest, well, good luck staving off Russia in Europe.

The DOJ has no choice. I do not need my eyeglasses to see what is readily apparent. We all see it. With each hearing, the evidence against Trump stacks higher and deeper.

The Trump-led conspiracy included trying to influence state election officials to change the outcome of the presidential election. When that failed, Trump tried to install fake electors. When that failed, Trump pressured his VP, Mike Pence, to not count legally chosen electors. When that failed, a desperate Trump attempted to use violence to stop Pence and Congress from certifying fair and free election results. Now, Trump employs Al Capone, gangster-style tactics trying to influence and intimidate witnesses.

Enough already. Bring this thing to a close so we can get on with repairing our fragile nation before American democracy dies.

The Supreme Court is now a political tool of the Republican Party. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Supreme mess

The once vaunted, highly respected Supreme Court of the United States has largely been reduced to an extension of the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican political party. It’s a stunning turn of events that, in hindsight, was foreshadowed by the swearing-in of Clarence Thomas in 1991.

The recent 5-4 vote to overturn 50 years of Roe v. Wade, therefore eliminating a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion, was like a gut punch. (Chief Justice John Roberts concurred with the majority judgment only insofar as it upheld a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Roberts claims he was not on board with removing constitutional abortion protections.)

Even with the leaked memo in early May, it is nonetheless jarring that a woman’s right to make a private, deeply personal decision about her own body has taken a 50-year step backwards. And rest assured that Republicans, and their Supreme Court, will not agree to legislation that improves the chances for low income and minority babies to have an equal opportunity to pursue a happy, successful life.

The five obviously out of touch Supreme Court associate justices, ruling as they did last week, are as dangerous to America as is Trump. Most of them were disingenuous (or flat out lied) about their Roe v. Wade intentions, while testifying under oath during Senate hearings, as they sought confirmation to the Supreme Court.

A byproduct of the High Court’s ruling is the angry mobs that roam America will rachet up their self-righteous justification for violence. If this ruling, and its long-term implications (re: voting rights, same-sex marriage, interracial marriage), does not motivate the rest of us to show up in droves at the polls in November then we deserve whatever leftover scraps we get.

In a hopeful signal the pendulum may begin swinging back towards normalcy, Republicans in Colorado, in three state-wide primary races, voted for three centrist Republicans over three right-wing, election denying Republicans who subscribe to culture wars.

Colorado’s sane Republican voters delivered a positive, albeit small step. Convicting and imprisoning Trump and his co-conspirators will be a giant leap.