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Sanctions and accountability are necessary

It takes time for deliberative processes to play out, but signs point to judges cracking down on Trump lawyers who filed baseless lawsuits and lied to courts (read story here), and that’s a good and necessary thing. Rudy Guiliani, Sidney Powell, and Lin Wood, among others, should not come out of this with their licenses to practice law intact. Lawyers are officers of the court, and their ethical obligations must be enforced, if rule of law is to be maintained.

Likewise, the Capitol rioters (as opposed to Capitol protesters) should be prosecuted and, if convicted, punished commensurate with their crimes. That’s necessary if our country is not to be ruled by a lawless mob.

As a side note, of the 15,000-plus Trump supporters who flocked to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the vast majority were just protesting Biden’s election victory. What I say here is not directed at them. They had a right to peacefully protest the election outcome, even if their cause is far less constructive or admirable than Black Lives Matters protesters’ efforts to end gratuitous violence against black people by racist white cops. But nobody is going after them. FBI investigators and federal prosecutors have quite properly distinguished between Capitol protesters and Capitol rioters.

Given the violence, property damage, injuries to over 100 police officers, and threats against Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, and members of Congress, it’s clear that serious crimes were committed. Those who committed them, or organized and facilitated their commission, should be ferreted out, and if convicted, at least some will deserve lengthy prison terms.

There needs to be accountability. This was an attack on every single one of the  81,268,924 American citizens who voted for the Biden-Harris ticket in the 2020 election, in the same way that Pearl Harbor and 9/11/2001 were attacks against every American. President Biden is right in calling it the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. It would be a grave mistake to look the other way and let the perpetrators get away with it.

Accountability is being pursued on multiple tracks. It’s the job of courts and lawyer licensing authorities to sanction the lawyers who abused the court system to perpetrate this assault on our democracy. It’s the responsibility of the FBI, federal prosecutors, and the courts to identify and punish the rioters. It’s the responsibility of voters to vote against politicians who defend the insurrection, pass laws infringing our right to vote, and promote lies undermining public confidence in our elections.

Most of us aren’t judges, bar examiners, FBI agents, or prosecutors. But as voters, like them, we have a job to do. The mission is to protect America’s democracy from its domestic enemies. And that’s what those who attack voting rights, seek to overthrow legitimate elections, brandish guns in public buildings, threaten public officials for simply doing their jobs, and speak of coups and overthrowing the government are.

It will take time. But time we have. It must be done, properly, however long it takes.

Update (8/25/2021): A federal judge has ordered “Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and several other lawyers who worked on Trump-aligned lawsuits seeking to challenge the results of the 2020 election” to reimburse the City of Detroit and State of Michigan for their costs of defending the “abusive” lawsuits, and has referred them to their bar associations for disciplinary action. Read story here. Wood responded to the sanctions by calling the judge a “communist.” Read that story here. That might not sit well with the Georgia Bar Association’s disciplinary board even though the conduct occurred in Michigan.

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