Dems determined to pressure Biden to investigate Trump
WASHINGTON >> Twelve years ago, when the last Democratic president took office, he did not seek broad inquiries into officials from the previous administration for its use of torture practices, or for domestic eavesdropping. Nor did he pursue prosecutions of Wall Street executives for crimes that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Aside from some grumbling, Barack Obama’s party went along in the name of national unity.
This time, Democrats who have chafed at President Donald Trump’s behavior for four years are not willing to be so accommodating: They want to hold him, his family and his enablers accountable for acts they believe didn’t just break norms but broke the law.
Whether or not the House pursues impeachment charges against Trump for his role in inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, many Democrats say that impeachment is not enough.
Once President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20, wide segments of his party are eager to see investigations and prosecutions of an array of Trump aides and allies — an effort, they say, that would bolster the rule of law after a presidency that weakened it and serve as a warning to future presidents that there will be consequences for illegal actions taken while in office.
The rioting at the Capitol has only intensified that desire. More than a dozen Democrats interviewed in recent days said the president’s role in inspiring the mob violence had prompted them to change their positions: They now want the Biden Justice Department to investigate the president and his aides.
“I was not on the investigateand-prosecute train before yesterday,” Kathleen Sullivan, a former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said Thursday. “However, undermining the very foundations of democracy and the Constitution is a crime that can’t be ignored.”
So far, Biden has not taken a position on impeachment, let alone the broader agenda of launching criminal investigations. He has said he would leave any decisions about it to his Justice Department, which he has promised will return to the pre-trump norm of maintaining independence from the White House. His choice of Merrick Garland, a centrist judge, as his nominee for attorney general is another indication of his more measured approach to pursuing investigations and indictments.
His stance reflects not only his politics but a natural inclination not to settle scores — much like Obama, whom Biden served for eight years as vice president. Obama said shortly before his own inauguration that he believed the nation needed “to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
But interviews with more than 50 current and former Democratic elected officials, Democratic National Committee members and party activists found an overwhelming consensus across the party’s ideological spectrum toward holding Trump personally accountable and launching congressional and Justice Department investigations into him, his family and his top aides — not only for inciting last week’s violent mob at the Capitol but for a host of other actions during his presidency.
The transgressions they cite include collusion with Russia, tax fraud, illegal pressure on state elections officials, using federal offices for political activity and violation of the constitutional provision that prohibits a president from profiting from
foreign governments.
A Georgia elections official Saturday confirmed a third call that Trump made to officials in the state trying to reverse Biden’s victory.
Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, said Trump, former Attorney General William Barr and others need to be investigated by Biden’s Justice Department, though he warned that Biden himself should keep his distance from any prosecutions to avoid the appearance of politicizing them.
“There’s a desire from me to never hear from Trump again, but I don’t think the issue should be ignored,” Reid said during an interview Friday.
The push for accountability for Trump and his allies is starkest in the party’s liberal wing, especially among progressive people of color who have watched the Trump administration direct the use of tear gas against demonstrators for racial justice, and threaten them with long prison terms.
“Absolutely Trump should do jail time,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York. A Justice De
partment investigation, Bowman said, “needs to happen on Jan. 20, as soon as possible.”
The desire to investigate and potentially prosecute Trump and his aides is not universal among Democrats.
“Martyring Donald Trump is a very bad idea and it could tear the country apart,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank. “It’s just not worth it.”
The push for accountability from Trump reflects more than just outrage over his actions. Many on the left remain frustrated by their party’s failure in the past to investigate people who may have violated the law.
“I think back to the financial crisis of 2008,” said Jay Jacobs, the New York State Democratic chair. “We chose not to prosecute the banks, lenders, insurance and mortgage company executives who created the crisis and personally profited greatly. How did that work out for us politically? We can’t make everyone happy. So, instead, let’s just do the right thing.”