In a brief statement after the Washington, D.C. grand jury issued its indictment against former President Donald Trump for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy against Rights, Special Counsel Jack Smith urged everyone to read the indictment. Rather than listen to the inevitable hours of ensuing commentary, I followed his recommendation. I haven’t added a link here because you have a plethora of means to reach and read it. If you haven’t already done so, please do; 45 pages of double-spaced letter-size pages isn’t that daunting and the story it relates requires no legal training to decipher.
In one respect, there is little new in it. Any citizen with the capacity for critical thought who kept abreast of the debunking of Mr. Trump’s and his cohort’s claims of election fraud in the key battleground states in late 2020 is well aware that their claims of outcome-determinative fraud were baseless. There are nonetheless some striking allegations: that Mr. Trump absolutely knew his claims were false – he was repeatedly told by competent advisors and people with understanding of the facts that there was no outcome-determinative fraud in any of the states at issue – and he continued to repeat his lies anyway, ultimately culminating in the Capitol riot; of the fairly intricate planning that went into the fake elector scheme intended to replace the legally-designated Biden electors in the contested states with Trump electors – who obviously had no legal standing to cast votes in the Electoral College and were in some cases duped into participating – to provide Mr. Trump the electoral victory (thereby violating the voting rights of the contested states’ Biden voters); and of the extent to which Mr. Trump attempted to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject the contested states’ Biden elector slates and return their slates back to their respective state legislatures despite being repeatedly advised – by Mr. Pence and others – that Mr. Pence had no such legal authority. (I am mystified as to why Mr. Pence continued to meet with Mr. Trump and take his calls after the election outcome was clear. Mr. Pence, as the duly-elected Vice President, was the one member of the Trump Administration who could ignore Mr. Trump, and whom Mr. Trump couldn’t remove.)
If Mr. Smith and his team prove what they have alleged, the Stop the Steal Movement was a knowing, malign, and illiberal conspiracy to steal the presidency and overturn our democracy.
I recently suggested that it could be problematic to get Mr. Trump’s insurrection trial scheduled before the election. I have since heard reported that New York authorities may be willing to give way on Mr. Trump’s March trial date for criminally violating New York business law, and I’d assume that Mr. Smith’s team will be amenable further postponements of Mr. Trump’s Florida trial for misappropriation and mishandling of classified documents if that provides a window for the insurrection trial in D.C. (I suspect that Mr. Trump’s team will seek no further delay in the documents case. 😉 )
The indictment is also a reminder of the number of loyal Americans who stood in the breach in 2020 who are now gone. For his own purposes, the former president has driven the distrust of our institutions even deeper into the public consciousness since he left office. Our way of life is at a perilous juncture. May Mr. Smith and his team enjoy Godspeed.
McCoy's Noise 