Congress Finds that Donald Trump Tried to Overthrow the Government

[mcar]

Congress Finds that Donald Trump Tried to Overthrow the Government
Conspiracy, obstruction, and false statements—oh my!

By Charles P. Pierce

This is something that happened in the House of Representatives today. From Reuters:

The panel asked the Justice Department to charge Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements and aiding or inciting and insurrection.

That last word should toll like an undertaker's bell through the rest of American history, the way it tolled for Aaron Burr and for Jefferson Davis. It should toll the way it tolled for Benedict Arnold and John Wilkes Booth. It should toll deeply and profoundly, and it should echo forever.

A president of the United States has been more than credibly accused by a bipartisan select committee of the Congress of inciting an insurrection against the United States—which is to say, against you and me and every one of our fellow citizens. It should toll loudly enough to drown out any talk of polls and elections, and god knows it should drown out any attempt to minimize its significance or, worse, any attempt to equate what the former president* did with anything that may or may not have been done by a Democratic politician. The committee's criminal referrals are unprecedented in our history because the former president's actions on January 6 were unprecedented in our history. That should be the deepest tolling of the bell through the years.

Those of us with long memories are particularly impressed by the way the select committee avoided hanging the Department of Justice out to dry while handing it a road map with which to do its job. In 1987, a select committee to examine the Reagan administration's complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal was so profligate in its grants of immunity that a lot of the subsequent criminal convictions of figures like Oliver North were overturned because courts determined that the prosecutors had improperly relied upon testimony granted under immunity. This did not happen with the Thompson committee (and yes, I am calling this “the Thompson committee” because its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, handled its proceedings with a master's hand). He has fed the DOJ, if not a layup, then a very makeable 10-foot jumper.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a42288111/donald-trump-criminal-referral-january-6/

[Dan]

1. Now, if they can get their Steph Curry to make the shot....