The images from coverage of the January 6, 2021 Trump Insurrection and attack on the United States Capitol will be as vivid and clear in my mind for the rest of my life as the images of the planes attacking the World Trade Center on September 11. The date will also be burned into my memory, just like September 11, and like December 7, 1941 was for the older generation.
Just like September 11, and the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, the country was under a violent attack from extremists aimed at destroying our constitutional democracy. It became clear, as the attack progressed, that the members of Congress were the target of the mob that would have murdered anyone the got their hands on, and there's no doubt about that. They were following the orders of their leader, who was doing everything within his power to avoid the consequences of losing an election his fragile ego would not let him believe he had lost.
They were there to defend him and his ego against the will of the American people, its Constitution, its government and every ideal that it stands for . They were the enemy, engaged in a seditious attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected President and Congress and impose a dictatorship on the United States. In doing so, they collectively committed a crime of incredible proportions, the attempted overthrow of a government.
They didn't spontaneously gather there on January 6th with the idea in their head that attacking the Capitol and disrupting the electoral vote count would change the outcome of an election that had already been confirmed and certified. This was carefully planned in advance and those who showed up to be the foot soldiers were recruited, organized and placed under the command of terrorists already chosen and given specific orders and instructions, Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, heavily armed and already at the Capitol while the rest of the insurrectionists were at a rally at the White House, with plans laid out of which entrances to breach, and where to go.
The magnitude of evil in that crime will go down in history as one of the worst ever perpetrated against the United States government. It was as much an enemy attack as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, or the Confederacy firing upon Ft. Sumter.
Congress, which had been the primary target of the attack, got right down to the business of investigating, getting the facts, gathering the evidence and determining who was to blame and what responsibility they should bear for a seditious insurrection against the United States and its people. The committee did an excellent job, laid out the evidence and made the case that the former President conspired to disrupt the historic and constitutional peaceful transfer of power. They provided a complete blueprint and framework for the case against the former President and everyone involved in the conspiracy with him.
It was an attack on the United States that will go down in history along with Pearl Harbor and the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In a nation that values and reveres the rule of law, and in which its democratic government has stood for almost 247 years, this was a crime that should have caused an immediate investigation and the perpetrators and conspirators, including the former President, brought to justice quickly, firmly and decisively.
In Many Cases, Justice has Come Quickly
The "foot soldiers" of the insurrection have been brought to justice fairly quickly. The leaders of the extremist, terrorist groups that followed the plan for attacking the Capitol are facing prison sentences that, for the most part, send the message that the American people will not tolerate insurrection against its government or the Constitution. I hope that the sentences given to the hundreds of individuals who participated in the violence and destruction, either out of complete ignorance of how democratic government works, or because they were too selfish to care about the rights of others, sent the right message. Most of those people have also suffered consequences beyond the prison time they are serving.
But as time has passed, the questions have mounted over why it was taking the Department of Justice so long to gather evidence and build a case against the core of the conspiracy itself, including the former President of the United States. We've been told, "Cases like this take a long time to prosecute," and "Because of the difficulty in finding a jury that will be fair, the case has to be ironclad and the evidence has to be solid and irrefutable." And perhaps the most vocal defense of the delay in prosecution has been that the Department "Doesn't want this to appear 'politically motivated.'"
That didn't really make much sense to me. Congress had already investigated, and laid out some pretty damning evidence. We had months of televised hearings. It was clear that the message being sent was convincing Americans, or at least, a majority of informed Americans with the intelligence, educational background and commitment and dedication to this country, that a serious attempt had been made to overthrow the government, and steps needed to be taken to bring those involved to justice as a means of guaranteeing this never happens again.
And we were told, time was of the essence. Most Republican politicians, either because they believe the lies and conspiracy theories, or shake in fear of the former President's political base, would ignore January 6th, opening the door for some foreign enemy, or bigger insurrection, which does not value the individual freedom and equal rights of all Americans, and would leave the crimes that were committed unprosecuted. That would undermine everything on which our country and its democratic government, rest, including the integrity of elections and the peaceful transfer of power. And for what? To defend the lie told by the former President that he didn't lose the election. So this had to be prosecuted, we were told, before the Republicans and the former President, have a chance to grab the levers of power and never relenquish them.
Yesterday, stories broke in the news media, including the Washington Post and MSNBC, which indicated that the FBI was reluctant to even move forward with an investigation and the Justice Department was dragging its feet to facilitate the delay. I get that the language being used is media perspective. But I'm not the only one who has been waiting, counting the days since January 6th, wondering, as I watch the former President strut his ego out and go about preparations to run for re-election to the Presidency of a government he tried to destroy for his own selfish purposes.
In fact, what was reported yesterday was that the only reason the Department of Justice has moved to this point, especially on January 6th, is public pressure, generated by those in the news media who have been on top of what's going on and honest enough to report it, like Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace and the Washington Post. Adam Shiff is right. The DOJ waited far too long to investigate leaders of the effort to overturn the election.
How can that be justice in a nation that claims to follow the rule of law?
The Political Label Can't be Escaped so Do the Right Thing
President Biden has done exactly the right thing in this case, by letting the Justice Department and FBI handle this and not directing, controlling or otherwise interferring in their investigation. This is not a slam on his administration or leadership, but it is a wake up call. Time is running short, criminals in this particular case are still on the loose and something needs to be done. There will not be any avoiding this looking political, no matter how it is handled, and no matter the crimes which have been committed.
Jack Smith has left no doubt that he's the man to handle this job. And it appears that he is using the power of the Department, and the administration, to put Trump's trial for the classified document theft on a fast track in the court. They can do that, of course. I hope he is moving, with equal speed and dispatch, to get the January 6th matter to indictment stage and into the courts so that a verdict can be handed down that is just, and can be executed in time to keep the credibility and good name of the Biden Adminstration in tact, so that he can win a second term in office. Because that is at stake, whether anyone wants to admit it or not.
We got great news today about an August date for Trump's trial on his theft of classified documents. I hope that, with Smith now pushing the investigations regarding January 6th in the DOJ, that we get indictments and a quick trial date for that as well. Since Congress already investigated, gathered mountains of evidence and laid the whole case out, there's no excuse for the amount of time it has taken for the DOJ to get this to a grand jury, get indictments and get it on to a trial and in spite of all of the good intentions, including not wanting it to "look political," that's not going to be a factor at this point.
Wray and Garland have some explaining to do.
The kind of consideration Trump got from the Attorney General in a Democratic presidential administration goes way beyond expectations. In fact, in spite of all of the talk about no one being above the law, and equal treatment, Trump has received privilege and deference in cases where the crimes he committed were horrific, beyond what any ordinary citizen, and likely beyond what anyone else, even other former Presidents, would have ever received. I hope he is locked up for the rest of his life for being a traitor to the United States. But the way this has been handled up to this point, and the fact that he completely got away with the Mueller investigation's findings, which were just as traitorous and criminal, is a sign of his being above the law.
And that's something that we, the American people, have to fix.
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