Trump indictment lays out an attack on democracy itself
For months, speculation around the prosecution of Donald J. Trump has focused on one key question: How would special counsel Jack Smith establish that Trump’s words and actions led to the violent upheaval of Jan. 6, 2021, when a maddened mob of his supporters crashed through barriers, beat Capitol police officers, broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and threatened the life of Vice President Mike Pence?
A grand jury’s conclusion, unveiled in a four-count indictment released late Tuesday, was devastating in its simplicity. While the Jan. 6 riots were clearly criminal, they are not the crimes Trump stands charged with.
They are the evidence.
As represented in the 45-page indictment, the attacks on the Capitol were merely the last step in a long chain of conspiracy toward far greater crimes. They included outrageous claims that Trump and his cadre of co-conspirators knew were false. Efforts to intimidate elections officials in seven states and Congress into decertifying election results they knew to be accurate. A calculated attack on the integrity of the Electoral College. The attempted disenfranchisement of millions of voters. The theft of a legitimate national election.
This new indictment is the Big One, eclipsing bookkeeping fraud charges in New York and the federal indictment in Florida over classified documents he took from the White House. A fourth indictment on state charges is expected in Georgia — and Smith certainly retains the ability to extend Tuesday’s charges to include the allegation that Trump’s inciting words directly led to the attack on the Capitol. More than 150 of the individual rioters convicted thus far have said they attacked because Trump called on them to do so.
Saying this is historic is barely adequate. It’s nearly impossible to believe that Trump is running for president again — and has a good chance of winning the GOP nomination.
What it says
By focusing on the elements of the conspiracy, Smith does not have to prove that Trump caused the riot. And he doesn’t have to prove the desperate, scrambling attempts to attack the election results ever had a chance of succeeding. In fact, the indictment makes it pretty clear that Trump never had a legitimate shot at remaining in office.
That does not reduce the criminality of the actions Trump is charged with masterminding. The indictment accuses Trump of repeatedly abusing the power of the presidency to promote lies, intimidate federal and state officials and incite his followers.
Many of the events cited in the indictment were observable to any American who was paying attention: Trump would make an outrageous claim about a particular state’s elections. Then the relevant officials would come on-screen and patiently document that what he was saying was untrue.
The other steps alleged in the indictment are also drawn on events that are fairly well established to have taken place. The attempts by Trump and his yet-tobe-indicted co-conspirators to build illegal slates of fake electors. The efforts to arm-twist Pence and members of Congress to flout the law of the land. The repeated exhortations to “stop the steal” and conduct sham investigations into claimed election crimes.
Dismiss and deflect
Dismissing an indictment this carefully and meticulously crafted will be a challenge for any Trump supporter, which is why so many are deflecting attention into attacks on President Biden rather than directly addressing the substance of the charges.
Sen. Marco Rubio was one of the few who tried. “Apparently it is now a crime to make statements challenging election results if a prosecutor decides those statements aren’t true,” he tweeted Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott claimed that the Justice Department indicted Trump to cover up the “shady business dealings” of the president’s son.
Scott and 12 Republican House members were among those voting in support of at least one attempt to supplant legal electors. They bore as much malice to the Constitution that day as Trump did. It was even more shameful to watch Florida officials and candidates maintain support for Trump’s fictitious efforts to delegitimize the election throughout the 2022 campaign cycle.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response was particularly lame. He attacked the indictment for where it was returned: in Washington, a heavily Democratic city whose population is 45% Black.
The greatest challenge
Nearly all of the substance was revealed last year by the House Select Committee on the insurrection, and it does not compromise Trump’s right to a fair trial to discuss it. The issue at trial is whether his actions were criminal. On that, he deserves the presumption of innocence like anyone, unless and until he’s proven guilty. If he’s convicted, he will be entitled to an appeal, just like anyone else.
It is certainly foreseeable that he avoids a resolution of this case — as well as his prior charges — until after the 2024 elections.
That leaves the challenge of accountability in voters’ hands. They will likely have the first say on Trump’s true culpability. They will decide how, and if, Trump’s supporters will be punished for their willingness to back this shameful fraud.
Before they decide, we would urge them to read the indictment for themselves. They will find it linked to the online version of this editorial at www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion.
Voters must recognize the gravity of this moment. That means looking beyond the political fortunes of one man, or one party, or one set of ideology. In the courts, and at the ballot box, American democracy itself is on trial. The people of the United States are both the victims in this case, and its ultimate jurors. How much they value justice will be the final determiner of Trump’s fate — and the nation’s.