Crime and (No) Punishment

During what has often been a full-out assault on American democracy by the extreme right—which has become a disturbingly large segment of the population—the judiciary has actually held up pretty well.  Donald Trump failed miserably in his legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election, with even judges he appointed consistently ruling against him.  (How dare they!)  Those accused of participating in, planning, or provoking the January 6, 2021 insurrection have been convicted and many given lengthy terms in prison.  Efforts in the courts to derail the investigations into the roles that Trump and his minions played in both these events and the plot to nullify the election results have been rebuffed.

Even the Supreme Court has refused to come to Trump’s aid.  Liberals have lamented, with good reason, what appears to be the substitution of religious dogma for law in the Dobbs decision and what could be an invitation to wholesale slaughter in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.  But here, even a Court packed with three Trump appointees has ignored his entreaties to intervene, although Justices Alito and Thomas, who may well pine for the good old days when judges could order heretics burned at the stake, have indicated they might have looked favorably on some of the bizarre arguments made by Trump’s legal team.

Most conservatives, whose mantra used to be “law and order” and who intend to use crime—at least by Black people—as a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign, have up until now been forced to sit on the sidelines, limited to grousing about the “weaponization” of the Justice Department by Dictator Joe Biden.

Now, however, with the legal process closing in on Trump and his key henchmen, including John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Mark Meadows, among others, House Republicans have been roused to action.  Determined to seek retribution against a Democratic controlled House that investigated actual criminals, Republicans, with no such option, have chosen to investigate those who are prosecuting the criminals.

 Ignoring that each of the indictments against Trump and his allies was brought by a grand jury composed of ordinary citizens, many of whom were undoubtedly Republicans who placed themselves in actual physical peril by doing so, House conservatives have pretended that Biden personally made up these charges and then ordered the indictments to silence a political enemy who was about to take his job.

In other words, they will fight the nonexistent weaponization of the Justice Department with actual weaponization of House oversight committees.

Jim Jordan, a serious contender for the coveted title of most detestable human being in the United States, is hardly unique in this sneering hypocrisy but he is notable for his pugnacious manner in defending it.  Described by Adam Schiff as “short and muscular with a habit of not wearing a jacket and rolling up his sleeves to make it appear like he was hard at work,” Jordan “was willing to do anything, say anything, if it drew attention to himself and pleased [Trump].”

Schiff left off that as a wrestling coach, Jordan was accused by multiple witnesses of looking the other way during a sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State and then trying to silence one of the victims, accusations his office has denied, but which have never been refuted.  

Whatever the truth there, Jordan has clearly taken looking the other way to heart.  January 6 insurrection?  What January 6 insurrection?  Those were just democracy-loving tourists who didn’t want to wait on line to see the Capitol and who are now being persecuted for their love of country.  The real threat to our system of government, the man who should receive the maximum sentence, is that fiendish arch-criminal, Hunter Biden, who among other misdeeds, lied on his application for a gun permit, a crime no self-respecting conservative would ever think to commit.

Jordan’s most recent gambit was to launch an investigation of Fulton County DA Fani Willis, after expressing outrage over the indictments her office handed down. He sent her an official letter in which he stated the “indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated.”

His actions, of course, are not.

But Willis is no pushover.  She wrote back to Jordan, calling his actions “offensive,” accusing him of being “misinformed,” and telling him it was “clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law, its practice, and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically.”

That to defend the indefensible, Republicans have descended into self-parody may be priceless fodder for late night comedians (if the writers’ strike is ever settled), but their attacks on the judicial process are in no way amusing.  With Congress at best sclerotic and the presidency a good deal more up for grabs than it should be, only the courts remain a reliable option to protect America’s fundamental institutions—although conservative Republicans have done their best to stack that deck as well. 

These attacks by Jordan and his ilk can do more than simply thwart the prosecution of those who would eradicate democratic government and leave the Duma…uh, Congress…as a mere rubber stamp for an autocratic leader.

They can help make that scenario come to pass.

For the moment, however, threatened though it may be, our democracy is holding firm.  Only an aroused citizenry can make sure it stays that way.